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It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

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Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#241

Post by bradley13 »

namdnay wrote: post #209
bradley13 wrote: post #208

Stepping back, and looking at the situation as a whole: the real problem is a lack of privacy laws. Banks, businesses and employers should be prohibited from sharing your personal information with third parties. I live in Switzerland, where this is the case. Even the government doesn't get this information. If the government thinks you're cheating on your taxes, they have to use warrants and follow the same procedure…

“Everything works just fine” It definitely worked great for a lot of dictators, tax cheats and the sort… I think Switzerland is a great example of why complete privacy isn’t fair on ordinary taxpayers - it allows the ultra-rich to hide what they owe

As far as I am aware, Switzerland had always cooperated with law enforcement requests. Even before FATCA, if your government thought you were cheating on your taxes, all they had to do was present a warrant.

That said, yes, dictators and such were - and are - a problem. They aren't going to prosecute themselves, after all.

By the way, one of the top places unsavory types stash their cash is the US. FATCA is a one way street: US banks don't provide information on their international customers.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#243

Post by ryukoposting »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #235
munk-a wrote: post #220

The fact that we haven't nationalized credit reporting absolutely baffles me. These companies have so much power over our lives, are completely unaccountable, and are so incredibly incompetent.

The whole credit rating system as it is in the US seems complete ass-backwards to me. It basically encourages people to go into debt to build a history of paying it back in time. Here in the Netherlands it works exactly the opposite: the best 'rating' is to not be in the system at all. When you get a loan, the amount and monthly payments are registered. This registration is removed once you have paid back the loan. W…

There are a million things broken about the American credit reporting system, but I'm going to try to make a case for one very specific part of it:

> how much is your income and how much are your current financial obligations

This doesn't work if your income doesn't show up in the government's system. For example, if your income comes from illegal activity. Crime is bad and you shouldn't do it, but crime is an economy and some people really don't have a better option. If your income comes from criminal activity, getting boxed out of the consumer financial system isn't helping you towards any avenue where crime is no longer the best option.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#244

Post by saagarjha »

drsnow wrote: post #203
saagarjha wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I am from the fraud remuneration department of Brazil and know the person who pays out compensation for these crimes. Simply send me all your personal information and credit card details and I’ll make sure you get your appropriate payout.

What is your email sir

Not telling you. There are scammers everywhere

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#245

Post by saagarjha »

Aeolun wrote: post #239
saagarjha wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I am from the fraud remuneration department of Brazil and know the person who pays out compensation for these crimes. Simply send me all your personal information and credit card details and I’ll make sure you get your appropriate payout.

This is a scam.

Excuse me, you're calling me a scammer? I suggest you click on my username and see that it is a very legitimate account, with twice the karma as you to boot. I think you're more likely to be the one scamming! Don't listen to 'Aeolun, everyone!

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#246

Post by Aeolun »

craigmccaskill wrote: post #182
schleck8 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a lawyer but this just screams legal action. Their systems clearly aren't sufficiently secure to prevent large scale fraud

There have been a couple of class actions, doesn't seem to have changed the outcome though.

I mean, the last time the settlement was like $27 per person in the suit?

And the form to get that settlement meant giving some random authority more personal information than these companies even have.

I would keep going too.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#247

Post by michpoch »

emodendroket wrote: post #212
bradley13 wrote: post #208

Stepping back, and looking at the situation as a whole: the real problem is a lack of privacy laws. Banks, businesses and employers should be prohibited from sharing your personal information with third parties. I live in Switzerland, where this is the case. Even the government doesn't get this information. If the government thinks you're cheating on your taxes, they have to use warrants and follow the same procedure…

I would say this problem would also be solved if we stopped pretending that a Social Security number was a serious substitute for secure national ID.

What's the issue with SSN being an ID?

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#248

Post by robertlagrant »

namdnay wrote: post #209
bradley13 wrote: post #208

Stepping back, and looking at the situation as a whole: the real problem is a lack of privacy laws. Banks, businesses and employers should be prohibited from sharing your personal information with third parties. I live in Switzerland, where this is the case. Even the government doesn't get this information. If the government thinks you're cheating on your taxes, they have to use warrants and follow the same procedure…

“Everything works just fine” It definitely worked great for a lot of dictators, tax cheats and the sort… I think Switzerland is a great example of why complete privacy isn’t fair on ordinary taxpayers - it allows the ultra-rich to hide what they owe

It also makes the formation of dictatorships less likely.

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#249

Post by robertlagrant »

ajmurmann wrote: post #97
nyokodo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what is the point of using it? Plausible deniability allowing them to push as much significant risk of identity theft onto consumers instead of themselves where it should be.

Even the term "identity theft" needs to go. My identity wasn't stolen! I'm still the same person. The bank got tricked by a scammers and somehow the bank tries to make that my fault. Edit: Imagine this the other way around! Grandma gets scammed by someone pretending to be her bank. So the bank's identity got stolen. So now the real bank needs to fix it, provide more proof of identity to all customers and jump through…

Why do you think that calling something theft blames the victim of the theft?

Re: It's still easy for anyone to become you at Experian

#250

Post by Aaargh20318 »

ryukoposting wrote: post #243
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole credit rating system as it is in the US seems complete ass-backwards to me. It basically encourages people to go into debt to build a history of paying it back in time. Here in the Netherlands it works exactly the opposite: the best 'rating' is to not be in the system at all. When you get a loan, the amount and monthly payments are registered. This registration is removed once you have paid back the loan. W…

There are a million things broken about the American credit reporting system, but I'm going to try to make a case for one very specific part of it: > how much is your income and how much are your current financial obligations This doesn't work if your income doesn't show up in the government's system. For example, if your income comes from illegal activity. Crime is bad and you shouldn't do it, but crime is an econom…

> This doesn't work if your income doesn't show up in the government's system. For example, if your income comes from illegal activity.

It's not a government system. Banks will typically ask for a payslip.

> For example, if your income comes from illegal activity.

You think banks are going to give you a loan if your income is from criminal activity? That's cute. Banks are required to report suspicious activity and the last thing they want is even the appearance of being involved in money laundering. It's a problem for certain professions, like sex workers (which is a perfectly legal occupation here) as they mostly get paid in cash and often deposit large amounts of it they are an obvious channel for money laundering and as such they have a hard time just getting a bank account, never mind getting a loan.

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