Posted on 03/21/2005 11:59:44 AM PST by Radix
That number is the supreme prize for identity crooks, because so many public and private institutions use it as a primary means of identification. Combine a Social Security number with other data freely available online, and you can work up a fake identity with ease. Say you had my Social Security number. Next, you could go to Switchboard.com, an Internet telephone book, and get my street address and telephone number. Then go to anybirthday.com, and you've got my date of birth. In 30 seconds, you've got the makings of a first-class fake identity.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Before I posted, I did a search and saw your post from last week. I thought that you might find this interesting and so you have this PING!
Identity theft would disappear overnight if banks, etc were subject to liability for giving away identities. Instant credit, with insufficient verification feeds the root of this evil, and the banks have no liability.
Online thefts have actually just surpassed the old fashion kind - going through trash cans at apartment buildings and offices. You would be amazed at what you throw out and what can be done with it. If you don't have a shredder, you are still very much at risk.
My guess is that like most crimes there are a relatively few number of people perpetrating most of the crimes. If the FBI would just get serious about this, instead of things like busting Tommy Chong's bong-making business, then I'd bet that 85% of this crime could be stopped quite easily.
BUMP!
Someone got a cell phone using my only husband's name and Social Security number. They gave a non-existent address in the city where they got the phone, over 100 miles away from where we live.
We had to provide proof that we weren't in that city at any time during the weekend that the account was set up...regardless of the fact that we've had our own account with Sprint for over 10 years at our address. They didn't even bother to check their own records to match the address.
My husband kept telling them that we weren't the victims of theft, they were.
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