Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
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Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#2> (from TFA) stolen identity records that included a consumer’s name, date of birth, Social Security number and email and physical address.
Scary how little you need to steal an identity in some places...
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#3The usual, credit agencies ARE JUST AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT. They exchange all of our information with each other, and their security is so absolutely horrible that a 20 something hacker in Vietnam who just learned English could stay in their systems for years and build a business off of reading queries directly from these databases. It’s actually insane.
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#4The usual, credit agencies ARE JUST AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT. They exchange all of our information with each other, and their security is so absolutely horrible that a 20 something hacker in Vietnam who just learned English could stay in their systems for years and build a business off of reading queries directly from these databases. It’s actually insane.
The existence of these databases, especially given how insecure they are is, of course, a real national security threat, but the lack of reaction from the government is telling.
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#5> (from TFA) stolen identity records that included a consumer’s name, date of birth, Social Security number and email and physical address. Scary how little you need to steal an identity in some places...
Are there places that it would require more to steal an identity?
What countries and what type of information do they ask for?
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#6> (from TFA) stolen identity records that included a consumer’s name, date of birth, Social Security number and email and physical address. Scary how little you need to steal an identity in some places...
Are there places that it would require more to steal an identity? What countries and what type of information do they ask for?
Brazil would require a "CPF", which is a unique number assigned to individuals. If you are doing something simple such as an online purchase or monetary transfers(to someone else's account), the number alone could be sufficient, coupled with other information like full name and address.
Many places will not be happy with just the number and will require at minimum a scan of the actual document - if you are lucky. Most likely, if you need to send in a copy, that copy has to be notarized. Which means that you have appeared in person with the actual document and got it notarized. You'll then send it by mail or drop off in person.
Sometimes this is not an option and you need to be present with the actual document - like if you were selling property or opening bank accounts, or even starting a business (which requires trips to many governmental agencies).
If you are filing taxes, then CPF is required, as well as the ID card, voter registration card(voting is mandatory). They have started to combine documents, but even then the actual hardcopy is required in most cases.
Medical care... well that's free so there's no fraud needed. If it's for private insurance, you'll have to have your insurance-issued card, plus your ID card. Unless it's an emergency, but even then you'll have to provide these sooner rather than later.
Financial institutions like banks: you'll either use internet banking, in which case any credentials or devices needed will have been issued in person by a branch, or you'll have to go to a branch.
If your physical documents get stolen or lost, you need to report to the police and get issued new ones. In that case, ID theft can happen if they were indeed stolen, but it's unlikely to have long-lasting implications if you have made the police report. This usually requires some corruption as some of those documents have photo ID. In that scenario, you may have to do some work to clear your name and it is not very different from US ID theft.
The bureaucracy is ridiculous so often you can have issues doing things even if you are who you say you are . But actual ID theft is not that prevalent. If you search for 'identity theft' most of the results are about getting website credentials compromised.
The main issue in the US is the use of a 'unique ID' which was never meant as ID, can't be changed and has no built-in security measures.
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#7[deleted]
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#8The usual, credit agencies ARE JUST AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT. They exchange all of our information with each other, and their security is so absolutely horrible that a 20 something hacker in Vietnam who just learned English could stay in their systems for years and build a business off of reading queries directly from these databases. It’s actually insane.
The existence of these databases, especially given how insecure they are is, of course, a real national security threat, but the lack of reaction from the government is telling.
Yet everyone is freaking out and moralizing about nonfinancial data voluntarily given to Facebook. If only the credit bureaus kept our financial and identity data as Facebook kept your list of favorite movies and your selfies.
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#9I regularly wonder why we don’t have some form of physical verification token which signs things with our identity, the whole system is broken in that regard.
Re: Confessions of an ID Theft Kingpin
#10I regularly wonder why we don’t have some form of physical verification token which signs things with our identity, the whole system is broken in that regard.
That would be quite nice, but I’m not sure I’d trust the government to not store and then lose all the secret keys near instantly.
If they can overcome that, sign me up.