Free Republic

[SNIP] Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. [snip] Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal [snip = alien]use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. [snip] "It is seen as a normal thing to do," said Luis Magaña, an immigrant-rights activist assisting farm workers in the agriculture-rich San Joaquin Valley of California.[snip] [snip]Many legal immigrants, [SNIP] pad their earnings by letting illegal immigrants work under their name and number, they also enhance their own unemployment and pension benefits. And...

TLALCHAPA, Mexico - Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. "I've almost managed to contact somebody to lend my number to," Mr....

By EDUARDO PORTER Published: June 7, 2005 TLALCHAPA, Mexico - Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number. So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. *** The number of people...

Europe and America are worlds apart when it comes to privacy laws. Privacy is a constitutional right in all European Union countries, which zealously safeguard personal information about their citizens. Each has its own data protection commissioner, a privacy watchdog roughly equivalent to the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in the United States. ...in the United States, people are accustomed to giving out personal information, such as their Social Security number, on all manner of documents. And credit information is collected, sliced and diced by major corporations that use it as part of a relentless stream of marketing. "The...

At a global security conference held today in Paris, an American company announced a new syringe-injectable microchip implant for humans, designed to be used as a fraud-proof payment method for cash and credit-card transactions. The chip implant is being presented as an advance over credit cards and smart cards, which, absent biometrics and appropriate safeguard technologies, are subject to theft, resulting in identity fraud. Identity fraud costs the banking and financial industry some $48 billion a year, and consumers $5 billion, according to 2002 Federal Trade Commission estimates.

The judge, the defense lawyer, and even the prosecutor all agreed that Andrea Turner probably never realized how serious her crime was. For a kickback sometimes as small as $50, Turner, a longtime employee of the Social Security Administration, routinely processed fraudulent applications for Social Security cards. She directed many of the cards to the same Elizabeth address, where they were sold to illegal immigrants. But in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, federal investigators stepped up enforcement of such identity fraud cases. And the penalties, Turner discovered, can be harsh: Yesterday the 40-year-old mother from Linden was ordered...

ROME (AP) — Italian police are trying to learn if a document-forging operation in Turin served as a logistical base for al-Qaida, authorities said Monday. The document center, an apartment in a Turin neighborhood populated by many illegal immigrants, was raided in December, said Luciano Nigro, a Turin police precinct chief, and investigation into its operations have been going on since. On Monday, La Stampa, a Turin daily, reported that police believe the place furnished documents for recruits for al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. ``I don't have proof,'' Nigro told The Associated Press, but ``we are investigating.'' Nigro said...

AUSTIN -- Computer hackers have obtained the names and Social Security numbers of about 59,000 current and former students, faculty members and staff at the University of Texas at Austin in one of the largest cases of potential identity theft ever reported. Authorities do not know whether the information has been put to illegal uses such as obtaining credit cards or withdrawing money from financial accounts. Law enforcement officials were expected to obtain and execute search warrants late today in Austin and Houston at homes where computers are thought to have been used in the cyberspace break-in. UT officials suspect...

A national identification system is one approach to strengthening identity security, but a white paper published by a coalition of government organizations also proposes a "confederated" system in which Americans could use multiple identifiers for clusters of agencies and/or businesses. This approach would enable individuals to sign on to an account once and have access to different accounts among several entities they commonly transact with, according to the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council's (NECCC) white paper. Agencies and companies would have to develop policies, procedures and an interoperable technical framework to support such an arrangement. The advantage to this system...