Identity Theft
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The story I’m about to tell you is absolutely real - and don’t try this at home, kids. I still can’t believe it happened this afternoon, and I hope I never hear it happen again. Identity Theft is real, and what you’re about to read will astound you.
We hit the mall this afternoon, hoping to upgrade a few gifts and catch some day-after-Christmas sales. One store was offering 50% off, and (as you can imagine) the line was quite long. I stood in line, playing games on my new cell phone, waiting for Ponzi to collect a few goodies and to checkout. Now, I’m typically oblivious to conversations that happen around me, but I couldn’t help but to catch one that was taking place between the girl behind me and someone on the other end of her phone line. This is where the nightmarish tale of information privacy truly begins.
The woman states that she needs her sibling to transfer funds ($300) between one bank account and another, but not to warn “Dad” because he might get upset if he knows why this small sum was being transfered. No big deal - I’m sure this happens all the time. I continue playing my puzzle game, happy that she’s not my daughter and “managing” my finances behind my back. And then it happens (and mind you, I’m paraphrasing - but all of the following personal information was shared quite audibly for anybody to hear):
“My bank account number is [BLEEP].”
I was floored. She recited her entire bank account number to the other person, as if it was nothing more than a phone number. It gets worse.
“Then you’ll need my Social Securty number, which is [BLEEP].”
My jaw dropped. I stopped playing my game, and actually felt myself compelled to turn around and inform her of the grave mistake she was making. But it gets worse.
“Then you’ll need my password, which is [BLEEP].”
She did. She recited not only her bank account number, not only her Social Securty number, but the password to access this account. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. THIS REALLY HAPPENED THIS AFTERNOON! Had I, or anybody else around me, been nefarious, this would have been a dream come true. I should have stopped her when she first announced her bank account to anyone within earshot, but the girl’s cavalier attitude implied immaturity (and would likely have prompted more than a nasty glance in my direction). Oh my goodness, folks - this was stupidity cubed.
You teach your kids not to accept candy from strangers. You teach friends never to click on links that come from unwarranted “PayPal” emails. You scan your computers for spyware religiously. For goodness sake, shout this story from top of the mountain so that all can hear. You NEVER share your Social Security number, you NEVER share your passwords, and you NEVER share your bank account information. And if you really need to share this data, you DON’T DO IT IN PUBLIC! Identity theft is real, and any one of these pieces of data could lead any thief to an endless goldmine. Anybody can be a victim - your finances could be comprimised in a snap. Fraud is everywhere, and it’s not just online. Teach your kids to be responsible with information, please!
And she thought her father would freak over transfering $300 between bank accounts?!
Tags: scam, fraud, identity theft, theft, idenity, credit report, credit check, social security, bank account
4 Comments
Gary (TuxedoJericho)
October 24th, 2007
at 3:16pm
WOW! That floored me. It just blew my mind that someone was that moronic to just blab that info out.. let alone in a public place.
Lois
January 22nd, 2008
at 1:24am
I am in the military and this is a big concern. They force us to put our SSN on papers to get credit for a class. Then they threaten us if we don’t put our whole social we won’t get credit. For example, yesterday I went to a training facilities and once again there were 23 of us that had to put our socials down. COME ON!! Someone could have easily taken out their phone and taken a picture of all those socials. Then we can all say good bye to your identity.
MIchael
March 7th, 2008
at 8:05pm
The problem is that most business and government agencies have been asking for this information for years and people are just trained to give it with out so much as blinking an eye. I don’t understand how in todays age such critical information can be asked for an a regular basis.
I just moved and I refused to answer some of these types of questions by my electric company and was hit with an additional $200 deposit required because I refused to comply.
Whats a consumer to do when they need to co-operate with certain aspects of corporate america who happens to have no regard for our own privacy and protection.
Its gotten to a point where we can’t even trust our job search sites with our own resumes. Monster was hacked not to recently and 1k’s of users personal information were compromised. One would think this is not a big deal, but I literally just received a call from 866-660-5578 asking me to go to a website to fill out an application for a job that my resume seems to be a fit for. This turns out to be a ruse and after doing a search on the web address provided in the message and or on the phone number which called, I quickly realized this was part of a (for the moment) harmless scam. There are 1k’s of other people who have reported this and yet there seems to be no solution.
Corporate America and the government need to wake up and address this issue head on, hopefully they won’t look to the National ID act for a solution which can, literally make this issue so much worse.
Brad
May 30th, 2008
at 10:02pm
This is astounding! Why would anybody give personal information out to an unknown character? It’s completely moronic! Stupid! Idiotic! it makes me fear for my own identity!