Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 195 posts

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#171

Post by Vespasian »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #169
Vespasian wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are required to respond to questions from them and verbally verify a) what you're are applying for b) read out the data written on the ID (passport or national ID) and c) move and wiggle the card around and occlude it with your finger so the agent can verify certain security features (holograms, picture, "shiny stripes" on the card). In my opinion, it would be quite hard to prerecord the whole process and/or reus…

Well, not yet, maybe? Given the state of the art in real-time video manipulation, including based in motion capture, I am not so sure that's gonna stay that way for long. Also, please don't use terms like "steal an identity", that is how banks frame things in order to make it appear that they are not responsible. Banks don't employ reliable authentication, thus they get defrauded by imposters--nothing is ever stolen…

You make some valid points here. I'm "excited" to see the influence of real-time machine learning.

For now, it remains somewhat secure in practice and will hopefully bye augmented by use of cryptography already available in many IDs (though, as other comments note, not widely used in some countries)

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#172

Post by kuschku »

freeflight wrote: post #151
tscs37 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, I haven't seen many websites that offer eID functionality, so I haven't bothered setting it up.

It's certainly a weird process to witness in Germany. A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2". He ended up in a video chat with a lady who asked him to show his face/ID and swivel the ID in the light so she could see the reflections of the security feature…

> A couple of weeks ago I had a friend over who used my WLAN to eID for some service (i think it was pre-paid CC? Neither of us can't remember at this point) over his android phone using some "AusweisApp2".

Ah, that’s the system you use when you don’t have any of the new eIDs, but one of the old ones.

That should be phased out by 2021

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#173

Post by uiri »

chimeracoder wrote: post #153
djsumdog wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you get that ID card using an SSN card. Other countries have a photo attached to your nation ID card and citizen identification number (and sometimes fingerprints too). But think about America right now. Do you honestly think we could get national ID numbers? Could you imagine people being asked for a DNA swab or fingerprint to establish their identity? The blow black would be monstrous, and I don't think it'd be…

> But you get that ID card using an SSN card. Not necessarily. Not all states require an SSN in order to issue an ID. > But think about America right now. Do you honestly think we could get national ID numbers? Unfortunately (for all the reasons you mentioned and more), we're pretty close, as the REAL ID system is about to take effect. That's going to be a huge problem for people living in the states that don't issue…

Not all states require an SSN in order to issue an ID.

I was under the impression that every single state requires an SSN to issue a driver's license or id card in order to track and enforce child support order across state lines.

Which states don't require an SSN to issue an ID?

Legal immigrants have passports, and ID cards/driver's licenses from their home country. I'm not sure what will require two forms of REAL ID compliant identification.

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#174

Post by stefs »

jakobegger wrote: post #104

Why is this only a problem in the US? I think that one of the reasons is that the US does not have a central government registry of all the people. In Austria, we have the „Melderegister“. Every person that stays in Austria is required to register the address of their current residence. Your name and address is always in this registry, from the day you are born until you die (foreigners residing in Austria are also r…

why does the US not have a central registry? is it for historical/cultural reasons, i.e. the dislike of "(big) government" by certain groups?

also, how would one get around the problem for homeless people or people without a permanent residency?

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#175

Post by chimeracoder »

uiri wrote: post #173
chimeracoder wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But you get that ID card using an SSN card. Not necessarily. Not all states require an SSN in order to issue an ID. > But think about America right now. Do you honestly think we could get national ID numbers? Unfortunately (for all the reasons you mentioned and more), we're pretty close, as the REAL ID system is about to take effect. That's going to be a huge problem for people living in the states that don't issue…

Not all states require an SSN in order to issue an ID. I was under the impression that every single state requires an SSN to issue a driver's license or id card in order to track and enforce child support order across state lines. Which states don't require an SSN to issue an ID? Legal immigrants have passports, and ID cards/driver's licenses from their home country. I'm not sure what will require two forms of REAL I…

> I was under the impression that every single state requires an SSN to issue a driver's license or id card in order to track and enforce child support order across state lines.

Nope. If they did, the impetus behind the REAL ID act wouldn't even be relevant, because illegal immigrants wouldn't be able to obtain a drivers' license or state ID.

> Which states don't require an SSN to issue an ID?

California is the biggest one, and in fact, California makes it illegal to discriminate against anyone who has a driver's license but cannot show legal residency.

Some states mark licenses as "not valid for identification" if they don't show legal residency, but it's usually subtle and easily overlooked or ignored. And the SSN isn't the only way to show legal residency, either.

> Legal immigrants have passports, and ID cards/driver's licenses from their home country.

For foreigners, passports are the only acceptable form of identification from foreign governments. Driver's licenses and other government IDs are not allowed, with the exception of driver's licenses from Canada.

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#176

Post by needsilence »

md_ wrote: post #170
djsumdog wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My old flatmate was the victim of identity theft around 2010. After tons of paperwork, calling banks, closing accounts, working with the police .. he still lost about $3k that he didn't feel it was worth to try to recover. You just got lucky and caught it early.

How did he lose $3k? I've been curious about the real-world impacts of identity theft for quite some time. In the article linked, the author's only obvious losses were a) on the home mortgage (couldn't cosign; worse rate) and b) at the airport, with TSA (which I don't get; how did his credit rating have an impact on the secondary security screening?). It's unclear to me why I should care that much about identity thef…

You've never lived in a state where your car insurance premium depends on your credit score, have you. I think you understand perfectly well the problems identity theft can cause, but you're just being intentionally obtuse.

> It's unclear to me... what a thief can do.

Um... well... how about anything you can do with your identity, except it's someone else? Do you really not understand why that's a bad thing?

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#177

Post by needsilence »

tomhoward wrote: post #107
sus_007 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No worries man, m just sayin

It might be worth reading Dang's comment history discussing reposts: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=dang%20porous&sort=byPopularit... It feels shitty when someone else gets the points for something you submitted earlier, but life isn't always fair, and as long as you keep submitting good content and making good comments, things even out in the end.

Paul Graham, is that you?

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#178

Post by peteretep » 

    > In an economic system where U.S.
    > consumers carry $12.73 trillion in
    > household debt, you shouldn’t be able
    > to just call up, say “it wasn't me,”
    > and leave thousands of dollars in
    > obligations by the wayside.
Yes, you should, and the banks should be the ones left holding the bag. The author did nothing wrong, and was victimized by the banks' incompetence at adequate fraud checks.

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#179

Post by criddell »

Tomte wrote: post #130
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #3

Counterintuitively, this is evidence that the Equifax breach isn't necessarily going to cause massive harm. If someone wanted to impersonate you, they could already. I remain hopeful that the full list of 140M SSNs will be posted in full. It's a rare opportunity: if that happens, the US will have no choice but to finally switch to a new system. One that doesn't rely on SSNs being private. That's the absurdity. It is…

> if that happens, the US will have no choice but to finally switch to a new system. Impossible. A large part of the American people is obsessed with "the government is going to oppress us all". National IDs or anything similarly working are therefore a big no-go. If you could solve this problem, you could presumably also solve the gun debate to a large degree.

There's also a lot of people that object to a national ID number on religious grounds. These people vote and seem to be influential.

Re: Three Years in Identity Theft Hell

#180

Post by md_ »

needsilence wrote: post #176
md_ wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did he lose $3k? I've been curious about the real-world impacts of identity theft for quite some time. In the article linked, the author's only obvious losses were a) on the home mortgage (couldn't cosign; worse rate) and b) at the airport, with TSA (which I don't get; how did his credit rating have an impact on the secondary security screening?). It's unclear to me why I should care that much about identity thef…

You've never lived in a state where your car insurance premium depends on your credit score, have you. I think you understand perfectly well the problems identity theft can cause, but you're just being intentionally obtuse. > It's unclear to me... what a thief can do. Um... well... how about anything you can do with your identity, except it's someone else? Do you really not understand why that's a bad thing?

> You've never lived in a state where your car insurance premium depends on your credit score, have you.

Hmm, I don't know, to be honest. That hadn't occurred to me.

> I think you understand perfectly well the problems identity theft can cause, but you're just being intentionally obtuse.

Huh? No, I was asking a question. Why would someone be intentionally obtuse about something like this? I can't figure out how my comment was misinterpreted, but it certainly was. I apologize for my lack of clarity in the original post.

> Um... well... how about anything you can do with your identity, except it's someone else? Do you really not understand why that's a bad thing?

"Anything you can do" isn't very clear, hence my desire to understand the threat better. Assuming I have no need for consumer credit (like, actual loans), it's just not clear to me in which cases a bad credit score can be a problem. Auto insurance had not occurred to me, so thanks for that example.

Once again, I think you may have misinterpreted my comment in some manner. Do people really troll each other over, like, identity theft? Weird. But I wasn't. :)

Post reply on HN