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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

#321

Post by Aaargh20318 »

kccqzy wrote: post #319
Aaargh20318 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously it’s a last resort. The point is that someone who can afford to pay and doesn’t is very uncommon as this would cause a lot of trouble for the person in question.

Then you might as well say that in the first comment. In the U.S. banks certainly already look at your income to make sure you can afford to pay. Credit scores just measure willingness to pay. And before AutoPay became popular, they also measure whether a person can consistently take care of their own affairs and remember to pay.

Not sure what autopay is, here you usually give the lender permission to directly take the money from your account. It’s part of the contract.

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

#322

Post by all2 »

rz2k wrote: post #261
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…

Do you know how Swiss financial privacy and credit reporting laws compare with countries in the EU? > Around 36 percent of the Swiss own their homes or apartments, the lowest rate in the West and well below the 70 percent average in the European Union, and the 67 percent in the United States. [1] I’m sure there are many factors, but I would be less willing to finance someone’s large purchase without more information…

What do they mean by "own"? Is it deed in hand or debt to a banker?

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

#323

Post by munk-a »

meowtimemania wrote: post #310
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…

Makes a lot of sense to me. Are people penalized in some way for a history of mis-spending their money? For example, an individual who could afford a loan in theory, but gambles away all their money at a casino and misses loan payments.

Someone fiscally responsible enough to never need a loan in the first place (either because of higher income or simply from living in more humble needs) will have a lower credit score than someone who did need a loan. That's weird.

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

#324

Post by munk-a »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #321
kccqzy wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you might as well say that in the first comment. In the U.S. banks certainly already look at your income to make sure you can afford to pay. Credit scores just measure willingness to pay. And before AutoPay became popular, they also measure whether a person can consistently take care of their own affairs and remember to pay.

Not sure what autopay is, here you usually give the lender permission to directly take the money from your account. It’s part of the contract.

That's essentially autopay (in effect). Autopay is a cron job for your bank account "Send 200$ to this lender every 15 days" or something similar.

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

#325

Post by AdamN »

mattferderer wrote: post #272
namdnay wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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

South Dakota, USA has entered the chat. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/the-great-amer... > A South Dakotan trust changes all that: it protects assets from claims from ex-spouses, disgruntled business partners, creditors, litigious clients and pretty much anyone else. It won’t protect you from criminal prosecution, but it does prevent information on your assets from leaking out in a way that might spark…

Those are trusts with assets and have no relationship to a record of credit events which is what the original post is about. Not to say that the SD laws aren't troubling - they just have little to with eachother.

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

#326

Post by robertlagrant »

mixdup wrote: post #293
robertlagrant wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I think the point that's trying to be made is, the traditionally recognized 'victim' is not the actual victim. The person whose "identity" was "stolen" is not a victim, the bank is. What was stolen was money--from the bank. But, we've designed our system, laws, contracts, etc such that the third party who was not involved at all has all responsibility of cleaning up the mess shoved onto them

I don't really understand this. If you pay me to store your car in my garage, and it's stolen, who is a victim of car theft?

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

#327

Post by robertlagrant »

notatoad wrote: post #282
robertlagrant wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

it's not about blame, it's about responsibility. "identity theft" implies that your identity is a thing that can be stolen from you, and you need to be responsible for preventing it from being stolen. instutions should be respomsible for protecting themselves from fraud, they shouldn't need me to protect them from my identity being used in an unauthorized way.

> and you need to be responsible for preventing it from being stolen

It doesn't imply this second bit.

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

#328

Post by CaptainZapp »

bradley13 wrote: post #241
namdnay wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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…

> 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.

The problem was - and this rightfully pissed off a lot of countries - that Switzerland makes a distinction between tax evasion (you "forget" to mention those 5'000 franks extra income) and tax fraud, where you actually cook the books.

Tax evasion is not considered a crime and if you're caught you get fined and pay back taxes. Tax fraud is a crime and may land you ion jail.

So, in case of simple tax evasion a third country may not get the information requested since this is not a crime in both countries, which is a requirement for this.

With the automatic information exchange with other countries Switzerland is no more a prime destination to hide your illicit gains.

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

#329

Post by 3np »

robertlagrant wrote: post #326
mixdup wrote: post #293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point that's trying to be made is, the traditionally recognized 'victim' is not the actual victim. The person whose "identity" was "stolen" is not a victim, the bank is. What was stolen was money--from the bank. But, we've designed our system, laws, contracts, etc such that the third party who was not involved at all has all responsibility of cleaning up the mess shoved onto them

I don't really understand this. If you pay me to store your car in my garage, and it's stolen, who is a victim of car theft?

Assuming the thief impersonated your friend, convincing you to hand over the keys and open the door so they could drive it off?

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

#330

Post by robertlagrant »

3np wrote: post #329
robertlagrant wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand this. If you pay me to store your car in my garage, and it's stolen, who is a victim of car theft?

Assuming the thief impersonated your friend, convincing you to hand over the keys and open the door so they could drive it off?

Can you finish your thought? I'm not following.
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