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Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#51

Post by dragonwriter »

hex1848 wrote: post #50

I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim. The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims. If you didn't do your due diligence in properly verifying the identity of the person you handed out cash, goods or services too it's on you. That being said, the entire system is broken. I've had 5 cellphones taken out…

> I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim.

Usually, the person whose identity is stolen is the victin.

> The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims.

They are also victims, but until you—often at considerable personal effort—have gotten all the debts and other bad marks by the fraudster dissociated from your identity, you are disadvantaged by it, and if you are disadvantaged or have had to pay a cost to escape that disadvantage, you are a victim, too.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#52

Post by AndyMcConachie »

hex1848 wrote: post #50

I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim. The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims. If you didn't do your due diligence in properly verifying the identity of the person you handed out cash, goods or services too it's on you. That being said, the entire system is broken. I've had 5 cellphones taken out…

This 2 minute video explains everything you need to know about the phallacy of identity theft. With credits to Mitchell and Webb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS9ptA3Ya9E

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#53

Post by fma »

pmiller2 wrote: post #46
cwkoss wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if anyone has ever successfully sued a credit reporting agency for defamation when the agency reports information about fraudulent accounts. Seems like it would be very easy to demonstrate damages.

AFAIK, they just aggregate whatever is reported to them. Without any sort of editorial discretion, it doesn't seem likely you could go after them for any damages.

You'd have to in good faith submit disputes. If they fix it then it's all good. If they don't fix or, it comes back again later, then they just violated your rights under the FCRA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Reporting_Act)

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 (“FCRA”) is U.S. Federal Government legislation enacted to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of consumer information contained in the files of consumer reporting agencies. It was intended to protect consumers from the willful and/or negligent inclusion of inaccurate information in their credit reports

Of course, Trump and his appointees wants to dismantle CFPB which helps protect consumers on these kind of things.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#54

Post by organicmultiloc »

kxyvr wrote: post #33

Since I was having a hard time finding the link in the article. Here's the page to add a NCTUE security freeze: https://www.nctue.com/consumers Here are the pages for adding security freezes to the other big four agencies: https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo... https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.... https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html https://www.innovis.com/s…

I tried to fill out the NCTUE freeze page several times, it keeps claiming there is a reCAPTCHA error despite me clicking it out correctly and getting the green check.

Seems to be intentionally broken to avoid people freezing.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#55

Post by tomohawk »

pmiller2 wrote: post #44
teddyh wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stallman was right: I never pay for anything on the Web. Anything on the net that requires payment, I don't do. (I made an exception for the fees for the stallman.org domain, since that is connected with me anyway.) I also avoid paying with credit cards . For freedom's sake, insist on paying cash. When a business pressures you to pay in an identified way, that means your help as a citizen is needed: say, "If you won'…

Good luck buying a house or a car with cash. I know he's specifically referring to things on the internet, but, I'm sure, Stallman being Stallman, he would say you should follow this rule offline as well.

Why would you borrow money to get a car? It's a depreciating asset. If you have to borrow money to get a car, you're buying too much car.

A house, you probably will need leverage for, but at least there's a reasonable chance it will appreciate in value.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#56

Post by astrange »

mieseratte wrote: post #45
Deinos wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. As long as you have a SSN and other identification out there, you are a potential target...

Well, you can't go fully off-the-grid but it makes things a little easier if you're monitoring: * Lack of history makes successful applications less likely * Lack of history makes fraud stand out, any activity is fraud * Since fraud has been identity theft, meaning I have to bitch-and-moan, lack of utilization of credit lends to a stronger story which can help convince folks whereas a serial debtor makes for a less s…

Why do you care if someone steals your CC? You don’t have to pay for any of it.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#57

Post by organicmultiloc »

rcthompson wrote: post #19
Dirlewanger wrote: post #15

It's all so tiring. It's seriously going to be decades until we get politicians in power that understand the Internet and start holding companies accountable that don't give a shit about security (namely, all of them).

Will it ever happen? When the current generation of children reaches office-holding age, a majority of them may understand internet culture , but I don't think a significant fraction will ever understand the internet in a technical sense.

The current generation of youngsters seem to be really good at tapping things quickly to get what they want on a phone, but if anything they are less technically literate than previous generations.

My niece dropped a programming adjacent class in college because they required them to use real computers "like with keyboards for old people" and she didn't want to learn how to do that.

They're also really good at optimizing for likes on insta, I would argue that is not technical literacy either.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#58

Post by tomohawk »

reaperducer wrote: post #5

Bottom line: Whenever possible, wherever possible, pay cash. I used to laugh at my father-in-law whom I once considered to be a conspiracy theory whackjob with his off-the-grid lifestyle. As more and more of his "crazy" insights turn into New York Times headlines, I'm starting to think he was ahead of the curve.

Especially since its not chip and pin in the US, its really easy for the CC number to be skimmed and stolen. Also, any place like food trucks or restaurants where they take your card, it seems much more likely to have the CC number stolen. We've had way less problems since going to cash for those kinds of things.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#59

Post by typomatic »

dragonwriter wrote: post #51
hex1848 wrote: post #50

I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim. The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims. If you didn't do your due diligence in properly verifying the identity of the person you handed out cash, goods or services too it's on you. That being said, the entire system is broken. I've had 5 cellphones taken out…

> I am tired of people calling me a "victim" of identity theft. I'm not the victim. Usually, the person whose identity is stolen is the victin. > The companies and government agencies that allowed themselves to be defrauded by someone posing as me are the victims. They are also victims, but until you—often at considerable personal effort—have gotten all the debts and other bad marks by the fraudster dissociated from…

> They are also victims, but until you—often at considerable personal effort—have gotten all the debts and other bad marks by the fraudster dissociated from your identity, you are disadvantaged by it, and if you are disadvantaged or have had to pay a cost to escape that disadvantage, you are a victim, too.

You seem to be misunderstanding the point badly--the situation you have described is nonsense.

Firstly, what do we mean by "having your identity stolen"? I submit that this is not an attack on me as a person, it is an attack on a fictional representation of me held by a conglomerate of corporations.

This is the point of OP: I am not involved in these transactions! I haven't committed a crime, purchased anything, or interacted with either the party who has defrauded this conglomerate nor this conglomerate. In fact, due to the way this information is collected and stored, I may not have ever had any direct relationship to either party.

So what's happened here is that a conglomerate of companies have been defrauded and now insist that I am to make amends for it. It's nonsensical, and no amount of repeating the facts of the current situation will make it anything but ridiculous.

Re: Think You’ve Got Your Credit Freezes Covered? Think Again

#60

Post by Jwarder »

organicmultiloc wrote: post #54
kxyvr wrote: post #33

Since I was having a hard time finding the link in the article. Here's the page to add a NCTUE security freeze: https://www.nctue.com/consumers Here are the pages for adding security freezes to the other big four agencies: https://www.freeze.equifax.com/Freeze/jsp/SFF_PersonalIDInfo... https://freeze.transunion.com/sf/securityFreeze/landingPage.... https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html https://www.innovis.com/s…

I tried to fill out the NCTUE freeze page several times, it keeps claiming there is a reCAPTCHA error despite me clicking it out correctly and getting the green check. Seems to be intentionally broken to avoid people freezing.

I've seen the reCAPTCHA issue a few times this month on other sites. My guess this is a result of Google shutting down the reCAPTCHA v1 API.
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