Businesses Facilitating 'Identity Theft'
 

Hey, folks! I haven't been here in awhile, but thought this would be a good place to get something off my chest and maybe get some feedback.

Three or four years ago, I got a call from Sprint, asking when I was going to be paying the nearly $300 I owed them. As I didn't even own a cellphone at the time, this was news to me. Turns out someone else opened an account in my name, etc. At first they seemed sympathetic, but a couple of weeks later I got a call from their "Investigations" (read "Collections") Department, advising me that I had a number of options to pursue, but that they all began with "Pay the bill..."

When I objected that it wasn't my bill or my account, they attempted to make me feel in some way culpable or guilty because I "failed to safeguard" my social security number and birthdate. I told the guy that I could follow him around for a day and have his SS# and birthdate by the end of it. This information is literally everywhere.

After I finally contacted the Regional Customer Service Director, I thought I'd gotten them to back off permanently - but a couple of weeks ago, I got a letter from a collection agency about the money, so it looks like the problem is ongoing.

Here is my thinking about this: businesses and companies like Sprint are forever attempting to make it easier and more convenient for people to open accounts with them and start giving them money - but in their attempts to gain a bigger and bigger share of the market dollar, they've forsaken security and common sense. They permit anybody who knows somebody else's SS# and birthdate to open an account - with zero verification of any kind. And then - when they, inevitably, get ripped off - they expect someone who had no hand in establishing the account to pay the bill. They want to make us believe that we are the victims...when in fact, they are the victims. They want us to file police reports, take the criminals to civil court, etc., when that should be their responsibility.

Our "identities" are not being stolen, in most cases - they're being given away.

The companies who do this also hire "Identity Theft Experts" to go around trying to get consumers to confuse situations where someone has directly accessed your bank account or established credit, with cases where a third party has impersonated you, and the negligence and greed of the business owners have facilitated their doing so.

Sprint opened an account in your name then gave the phone(account) to someone else. Therefore Sprint stole your identity. Sue Sprint, press charges, don't let them get away with it. File a police report and file suit in small claims court for $1,000. :yelgreedy

I started this thread in 2000. Identified are two necessary functions. However, even in The Cellar, the overall concenus was that this is really not a serious problem.

One, we use driver's licenses for a function they were not intended. To identify yourself. Therefore even the 11 September attackers were using counterfeit NJ licenses to get onto planes.

Two, we use Social Security numbers, again, for a function they were not intended - identity. Again, we have no system so that you can even prove who your are. A system that empowers the little guy at the expense of a big system now intended only to protect the big system.

Third, even the lady who was then in charge of Passports got on Nightline (maybe 1999) crying out the absolute need for protection from this crime. She was talking to an American who would not hear facts because too many will only respond emotionally - after they have personally suffered from the crime.

A US Passport being a most desireable target for counterfeiting. A task so easily accomplished that the Clinton administration was part of the raid on a gigantic al Qaeda document counterfeiting operation in Albania. The counterfeit passports were said to be so good as to be undetectable.

Four, we return to two functions identified in that earlier discussion. You must have a means so that you can prove who you are AND the same system must also make it possible for you to discover that others have stolen your identity. Both functions are under your control. Screw those who decry it cannot be done; therefore it will not be done. That is the neanderthal thinking that always creates failure.

I expect a majority here to still be opposed to such needs using various reasons such as, "It cannot be done", or "Government will use it to screw us." How many people need we screw before even the neanderthals admit a solution is required.

An unavoidable problem with this solution is that it requires a central database. This function cannot be accomplished with many independent, private databases. If done using separate databases, then a potential victim cannot verify his identity is secure. It is essential that every America be provided with (not required) to have a system so that he can prove who he is AND can verify his identity has not been compromised.

How many godwulfs need occur before we, the people, stop being our own worst enemy - and admit we must innovate. An 'identification and verfication' system has become necessary and inevitable. Simply a question of how many neanderthal victims happen before logic overrides our misplaced emotional fears. Every American should have the right to both identify himself AND to protect his own identity. No such system exists or is even being proposed. That would require innovative thinking in a government who is too busy planning unilateral attacks on Iran and North Korea.

Part of the problem is, it's hard to unfalliably identify someone on paper alone. Much of the identification is removed from the actual person. Even a photograph isn't entirely conclusive, what with hair dye, colored contacts, make up and dental adjustments, all generally affordable to whomever wants, and clothes can easily hide just how fat or skinny someone really is. Just about all business that deals with the possibility of identity theft is done on paper and removed from the actual physical person.

To come up with a (nearly) infalliable identification network, there needs to be something from the physical body of the person with This SSN, since SSNs are still unique to each person, that can not be replicated by people who would want to do it. DNA comes to mind. It's pretty well established that the likelihood of two unrelated people having the exact same DNA comes up to odds that equal less than one for every person on the planet. As far as America and her SSN system is concerned, DNA samples would need to be taken and stored along with the issuance of an SSN number to a person, upon birth, upon naturalization (or whatever the step is called when immigrants offically become US citizens and get their own SSN card)...

Leaving all privacy issues aside, the biggest kink in this would be ease of proving who you are to someone or trying to get proof. Let's use Sprint as the example: Sprint would need an offical validation of someone being who they say they are before opening an account. That would require either Sprint, a third party or the customer to go somewhere to submit a strand of hair to be tested and compared with what's recorded with his SSN. That's a lot of extra time and extra steps just to get a cell phone. It's just easier, faster and less of a headache for everyone involved to just rely on offical documents, detatched as they are. And as we all know, with speed comes the increased chances of mistakes being made.

The idea is that to get an official document you need to convince the government you are who you are and how easily convinced the government is sometimes relies on how good/bad a day the civil servant processing your paperwork has had. They're human, things get overlooked, stuff slips through. It's a matter of getting the most work done in the least amount of time. Paperwork allows for that. For a driver's license, for example, it's almost all done via paperwork (and renewals can be done online because the DMV assumes all your information still pertains to the same physical person) and the only point that could really blow your cover is showing up for the photo, but how would they know you're really you? All they know is what's on the paper and paper has a bad habit of lying and telling stories.

We're not talking a National Security Clearance here, folks. These companys do this shit over the phone. They don't even try to verify identity, because they might lose a customer by making it the least bit inconvenient. THEY DON'T CARE. :mad2:

We should be discussing a simple system where they (Sprint) are provided a unique code to confirm against a standard data base. Code that changes with each use AND a data base that flags a warning when someone unauthorized accesses the data base. Your key to this system would be something equivalent to a smart card. Nothing complex since even smart cards have been ubiquitous for over ten years most everywhere in the western world except the US.

Now burden of proof lies entirely with Sprint. Without you proving who you say you are, then Sprint has no alternative but to swallow all expenses. Your credit rating cannot be touched because the person who said it was you did not prove it.

Again, this requires a central database that confirms you are who you say you are AND that lets you know if someone is counterfeiting your identity.

Paper for identificaton? Kidding -right? Paper is so easily counterfeit that even al Qaeda was doing it in Albania, of all places. Paper without advanced (electronic) coding is all but useless as proof of identity in a world where every college kid now routinely gets counterfeit driver's licenses.

After my recent driver's license fiasco, I was shocked at how easily it would have been for anyone to get a license in my name in Virginia. I had my dad pick up a copy of my birth certificate at the county courthouse, which required only a signature, no I.D. My husband picked up a copy of our marriage certificate from the other courthouse, no I.D. required. I took both documents to the DMV and they snapped a new photo (I even gave them a different address than I had last time, and they didn't bat an eye). I figured I'd have to show up 50 times with different documentation, but nope. It was easy.

Funny how when Sprint needed to contact me to collect "my" bill, they were apparently able to do so without a great deal of trouble. I doubt very much that the person masquerading as me provided Sprint with my home telephone number - yet that's where they called me. Granted, not everyone applying for a cellphone account is going to have a home phone number to call for verification before the account is established, but at least in my case, why didn't Sprint call and check it out? As someone else wrote in this thread, they don't care. They're thinking about all the legitimate, paying business they gain by making it all so easy and convenient for the new customer, and if they get ripped off...well, they can always intimidate a certain percentage of people into paying a bill they didn't run up, and simply raise their rates and charges to make up for the rest.

Honestly, I'm not sure that there's more than the most tenuous connection between this "identity giveaway" problem and the whole national security issue brought up by another poster. The latter is a complex can of worms that I'm not prepared to address. All that I'm saying is that the companies who pull this kind of crap need to be reigned in - either voluntarily, or at the direction of some governmental authority - so if they choose to give away people's identity and grant somebody credit on the basis of information that a kindergardner could track down, they would be prohibited from harassing people or reporting bad credit when they get ripped off.

Hmm. That's interesting. I had a very similar experience with Ameritech. Someone had used my social security number to get a cell phone. Ameritech wanted me to pay.

In my case, I told them I was not going to pay and could prove that I was living elsewhere at the time the account was created. I also told them I was going to bring in a lawyer. At which point they started speaking in a much more conciliatory fashion. I went to the police department in the area the phony address was given to file a complaint.

However, it still required a lot more phone calls to get every department of the phone company to agree that I was not liable.

I also called all the big three credit reporting agencies to require that I be personally present to open new accounts. I haven't had any problems since then.

give me your first and last name, (i already know what metropolitan area you live in) and i can give you your home phone number, you address, how much you paid for your house, if married, your spouse's name and some other fun little trivia in less than 10 minutes. and i'm not even a computer type - this is all in public record. if i have your social i can pull a courtesy copy of your CBR and know everyone you have had an account with in the last 10 years and then start opening dept store cards using your own accts as verification of ID.

isn't the technology age a bitch?

my advice though is to pull your tri-bureau from MYFICO.com and check your credit history. sprint generally only reports to one of the 3 agencies, but they rotate. if they went through the trouble of hitting your credit history with this, you can dispute it right online and generally it will go away. if it doesn't sprint has offices with a lot of muckety-mucks at just north of Central and Thomas.

So what do you think would solve this problem? Or is it really a problem?

It's a huge problem, so are traffic accidents. We treat both the same way, take minimal precautions and keep rooted in the belief it won't happen to me. :(

Catch 22: On one hand, all of that information is available to anyone who has the right info, which is more or less easy to get a hold of. On the other, if you take extraordinary steps to keep your life secret or hidden, people think you're up to something. :ninja:

sure its a problem, but what are you going to do. laws merely keep honest people on the straight and narrow and give a blueprint for disobedience to the criminal minded.

I checked out myfico.com, and it's one of those companies that will provide you with your credit reports at a price; actually, my wife got hers the other day from freecreditreport.com, and I don't think it cost her anything - you just have to cancel the service you sign up with to get the free report within a month, or something like that.

Anyway, I did a google search on "credit reports" and "federal law" and came across a site called bankrate.com that looks very interesting and informative. They list the mailing address and fraud reporting phone number of each of the big three credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian (formerly TRW) and TransUnion. I know that it's a federal law that they have to give you a free copy of your report if you report a case of credit fraud to them, so I'm going to call each one of them today and find out what they need in order to do just that.

I just called Equifax (1-800-525-6285), which happened to be first on the list, and got an automated phone system into which you plug your info, and they will (they say) add a "fraud alert" (they also called it a "security alert") to your credit information, and send you (within 7-10 days) a copy of your credit report; they will also contact the other two agencies, which will do the same.

If you get a call from a collection agency demanding payment on something that is fraudulent, DEMAND that they stop calling you, and also throw in the words "lawyer," "harrassment," and "lawsuit" while you're at it. Those guys will stop at nothing, and they'll ruin your credit too. I once had a situation where my account got mixed up and I had these morons calling me non-stop about someone else's overdue bill. They called me at work, at home, and they even called the manager at my apartment complex. Insanity. Just make sure they don't screw up your credit.

Actually, according to the 1986 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act all you have to do is notify the debt collection agency in writing that they may not contact you again, and they must comply. No implied threats are needed. If they do contact you again (other than to confirm that they will never contact you again) they are in violation of federal law and you can sue them for damages up to $1000, and much more if there's a class action suit because they do it to a lot of people.

The person you actually owe money to can call you as much as they want, but a collection agency has VERY limited powers. Most people don't know this, and put up with the crap from collection agencies. Anyone being contacted by a collection agency should read the Act so they know the rules.

Of course, they can report the debt to the credit agencies, and they can take you to court if you refuse to pay. The judge could rule against you, and force you to pay. But there are statutes of limitation.

Wow, cool. I didn't know that. Hopefully I won't be in a situation to need that information anytime soon!

that prevents them from contacting you, not demolishing your credit report. i had a client once that misunderstood this and demanded in writing that my (old) company not contact her in ANY way. she was still bitching about having her house foreclosed upon last time i heard. moral: whether or not you receive anything in the mail or a phone call, it will still be an outstanding debt until it is settled in some way with the company.

godwulf - i believe myfico.com charges $12.95 per bureau so a total of about $39. well worth it, for the ease. you can dispute right on line and print your tri-bureau immediately. i recommend it at least once per year. this method also doesn't result in an inquiry on your report.

most of the "free" sites are instantly linking you up with a large number of lenders who will contact you ceaselessly. these sites are sponsored by lenders.
even a lender has to pay to pull your bureau, so they aren't going to do it for free.

I would like to take the opportunity to publicly rant again about the selective service. They sent a reply postcard asking for my son's social security number. Of course, if you wanted to, you could mail it back in an envelope, assuming you wanted to provide your own envelope and stamp.

How many 18-year-olds just fill it out and send it back. So because of a government agency, hundreds of thousands of postcards with names and social security numbers are floating through the mail.

Stupid.

One of my ex’s worked for a collection agency for a short time. Boy, did I get an education. :eek:

I got a call one day from a guy that frantically needed to contact my neighbors at XXX address, because their nephew was in an accident. Did I have their number?
Nope.

Do you know their name?
Nope.

Do you know where they bank, is there a bank in the neighborhood?
Nope.

You know, you shure don’t know much, do you?
Nope.

I think you’re pretty stupid!
Smart enough not to tell you anything. :p

That's entertaining...calling with the premise that someone's nephew was in an accident and wanting to know their bank as a means of contacting them. That's a laugh and a half.

My favorite was the guy that tried to get a discover card number by claiming to be a store where I had bought something ...

Oh really? What store?

*mumble* *mumble*. It's a kiosk in the mall.

Oh, okay. That's cool. I was at the mall. Which mall is that?

The big one.

Oh, you mean Willow Grove?

Yes, Willow Grove.

Oh, that mall. Which part?

The new part. I just need your credit card number.

Why?

Well, there's a problem with the item.

Item? What item?

The one purchased with the discover card.

Oh. Okay.

What kind of item was purchased?

I can't tell you that.

What do you mean, you can't tell me that?

It was purchased as a gift, and if the gift was for you it would spoil the surprise.

Oh. I see. So you want ME to give YOU a credit card number, for a kiosk I didn't shop at, in a mall that I don't go to, where I purchased an item as a present, but I'm not allowed to know what it was so I don't spoil the surprise for myself? Am I clear on this?

*dialtone*

Hello? Hello?

Dumbshit.

I know this is an older post.

But has anyone figured out just how corrupted the credit bureaus are?

:eyebrow:

The reason they can grant credit without proving who you are is because there may be "up to 20 consumers" using your SSN at the credit bureau all with different names than your own.

They will hide the file from you when they provide YOUR consumer report, but they will show all 20 files to your creditor.

I can provide the proof if you want to be shown or you can look in my profile. Since you guys don't like link posting on first posts. :biggrin:

I do like the forums alrighty though. What brought me here was this discussion on google search. Looks like an intersting place to hang out.

Couple of inetersting things to note.

Poster above is correct business in general cannot seem to find the right person to open the account for but when the bill comes due they most certainly can find out who the identity actually belongs to so they can plea for funds.

Try having someone call and ask for payment of a HOME mortgage and then see where you sit. Makes cell phone accounts look tame by comparison. But no less irritating.

Idtheft03 - are you an insider? You sure sound like one, or at least someone who has been given the high hard one from the credit bureaus.

Not an insider just a regular person. Who is PO'd beyond all sense of reason.

With almost a half a million dollars in illegal alien identity theft. Yes there are 5 different aliases they could be the same person or different people we may never know.

No one wants to arrest anyone. All we got is a police report and no credit now.

As I said below go see the website, and you can see the Class Action a brewing.

You can also see the business site for collectors where they actually ADVERTISE the product that shows up to twenty consumers all using the SAME freaking social security number.


I cannot believe they can sell that $hit maximum possible accuracy my arse!

In the meantime we still don't immediately identify the reasons for this problem - 1) no accurate method to prove you are who you claim to be, and 2) no accurate method to confirm others have not stolen your identity. Functions to protect your identity could exist. But even here, we don't even demand same. Without demanding both objectives from the law, then identify theft will always exist and will continue to increase exponentially. It may explain why Nigeria is a top three long distance phone calling country to the US. So profitable to steal identities in the US and to get US citizens to invest in people who cannot even prove they are who they claim to be.

We currently have the identity protection system we want as demonstrated by this thread. Not one poster demanded a solution. Some complained. But not one demanded a solution.

I have demanded a solution in my injuntive relief.

The solution is to treat the SSN as the unique indentifier that it is, and for the bureaus to purge data not belonging to a social security number OWNER when fraud is reported.

3rd mixed solution is to provide SSN searches to individuals so you can dispute through exisiting systems data that should not exist for a given NUMBER.

We don't not have the protection system we want.

Most people ASSUME that the bureaus are treating your SSN as uniquely yours.

SS number violates principles required for identity proof and has absolutely no method so that you can protect your identity.

So lets use driver's licenses as identity proof? Again, it suffers from the exact same problem. Driver's licenses were not even created to prove you are who you say you are. They are so that cops and only cops can prove you are who you say. Again, there is absoutely no way for you to protect yourself. They are even perfect to buy alchol underage and hijacker airliners to crash into buildings. Why? The identification system must be established for reasons completely different from the principles that created SS numbers and driver's licenses. IOW to use SS numbers or driver's licenses for that purpose is akin to demanding no 'verfication and protection' system.

You seem to be missing the point I made above so I will try to clarify. Since you missed it entirely, we are not correctly using the systems we got currently.

This is not about protection as a solution at this point the crap has done left the horse.

After the fraud is discovered, is what I am talking about.

The only place else to go with that is to go to DNA, and the science is NOT perfected on that.

Retinal scanners and fingerprints fail because people will just steal eyes and prints from dead people or live ones for that matter.

There is never going to be a system that is 100% fool proof.

So you have a straw argument nothing can satisfy.

First you chastise me as complaining about the problem and not offering any solutions and then you want to pick apart the solutions.

You paint me wil a broad brush like joe hick consumer.

People like you are the reason nothing ever gets fixed.

You don't know what I personally have demanded or not demanded in law, congressional hearing, congressional office or otherwise and it is arrogant to assume you do.

This thread demostrates nothing about the identity protection system desired. At least on my part.

You are jumping to wild conclusions such as a need for retnal scanners, DNA, etc. An effective system needs not use all that complexity.

Now what is it that you want to accomplish? Protect identity or build a system of law enforcement? SS number nor driver's license does neither because they were not even intended to accomplish these things. A good system need be built first on a foundation intended for that purpose. We are using SS numbers and driver's licenses for identity because we have nothing to do the job. This topic was discussed rather extensively in an earlier discussion: A National ID Card

Nothing posted in this thread says anything beyond discussion identity protection and identity theft identification. If you feel insulted, it came from elsewhere - and not from anything posted here. Required is a system so that you can prove who you are and so that you can prove no one else is claiming to be you. Identity protection must meet both objectives.

No matter what perfect system you come up with, if it can't be used over the phone, business isn't interested. Anything that slows the sale, or gives the customer pause, is out. :yelgreedy

What is also needed as our case illustrates is an effective means of correcting the BAD identity data as well.

There are no processes or procedures either in existance that will correct our situation.

The credit bureaus are not treating the SSN as a unique identitfier which it is. There are not multiple people given the same number by the SSA.

So the fact they would allow the same number to be reused with other names is a fundamental flaw in need of being addressed.

We can only build a better system.

And Bruce is right anything that hampers instant sales are going to be stifled by business at every turn.

Therefore the SS number system will not work as expected - because it is not even established to perform identity functions. What makes telephone transactions so insecure? The missing and non-existant identity and confirmation system.

I believe you have a problem with this by assuming I am talking about existing systems and equipment (ie retnal scanners). Innovation starts by learning new fundamental concepts and procedures - and not getting bogged down in the microscopic details such as electronic fingerprinting. The classic expression is seeing the forest from the trees.

For example, satellites contain an identity and verification system so that unscrupulous companies cannot subvert another's satellite. Please tell me where such systems do not work over electronic media?

In the early days of satellites, everyone was careful to protect the other. When the Russians launched a new satellite, they told us what frequencies they would be using so that we did not harm their bird - accidentally talk to their bird. We did same with Russians. The entire identity system used for control was equivalent to a SS number system -dependent on all being honest. Even in satellites, such systems are no longer acceptable. Nothing super 21st Century technology. A system so that each owner could prove to each bird who we are AND so that the bird could inform us when others attempted to subvert the system. Without the later, then no security exists. We don't even have that simplistic system in business, the nation's economy, the credit card system, nor in credit bureaus. Somehow you even have to pay something (ie money or giving you address to credit spammers) to verify your own credit - typically long after that rating has been destroyed. Any systems that do exist are best called KLUDGES.

Take the ATM as an example. When it comes to basic transactional security, the nation's banking system is just fine, happy, and will to accept identity fraud as a cost of doing business rather than getting serious about personal security. Destruction of your credit rating does not adversely affect their business credibility nor their bottom line. Just like with ATMs and Smart Cards, the American banking system has no interest or incentives for an identity and verification system. You are not demanding same; and they are not. So it will not happen.

IOW losses due to bad credit would have to increase ten-fold or more before the issue is addressed - unless the public takes interest and demands same. Not only do be have nothing to perform identity verificatons and protection - ie SS number system. We have no interest in creating same. Not enough people realize yet that they have been harmed which is why credit bureaus should be required to provide you a credit report for free and when demanded. Again, will not happen.

Remember, ATMs existed in the western world for 10 years before any appeared in America. Companies who make smart card chips have sold billions - and still smart cards don't exist in America. With fear of technology rampant in the banking/financial industry (industry hyped networking in the early 1990s as a major innovation), and with people not even clamoring for identity protection, then no effective protection system is even being proposed.

Your SS number system - an upgrade from the existing system - will not work. For example, to prove who you are, you must provide a SS number. Now criminals have complete access to YOUR identity number because you must expose that number to prove who you are. This is the same problem that even makes credit card fraud so easy. Such systems will not work for the same reasons they do not work today. The foundation on which identity is proven is not based in security. Without a foundation that includes fundamental security (including the verification function), then identity theft remains profitable and unimpeded.

If a SS number is good enough for identity protection, then so is a credit card number. Furthermore, both are based upon and easily subverted by a compromised birth certificate system. A failed system that was never intended to provide identity verification and that provides no means to detect attempted identity theft.

We have no working identity system. The SS number system will never provide active identity protection - detect when others attempt identity theft. Without meeting both critieria, then no identity system exists. Nothing currently in existance is built on a secure foundation. Every existing identity method (SS numbers, credit card numbers, driver's licenses) is built for other purposes which is why identity theft will remain easy. None of those systems meet nor can be made to meet the two criteria - to prove you are who you claim AND to detect when another claims to be you. Two criteria. How, pray tell, can a SS number system even begin to meet those two criteria?

Well, speaking from experience, (being one of the people that signs people up for services over the phone), people don't WANT to wait. Every customer I talk to wants to sign up over the phone. To facilitate that, they are more than willing to give us the following information:

Name
Address where they want service (this has to be accurate or they dont get cable where they live)
SSN
DOB
DL #
Employer name

That's it. We run a quick check through Equifax, which does not count as an inquiry. It checks against fraud alerts in their database for that SSN. IF it comes through clean, we then cross-check the ssn/name/address in our previous customer database. If we have no record of them, we set up an installation.

If it comes up with fraud alert in Equifax, we have them come into the office with 2 forms of ID and their original ss card, and make them pay a $50 deposit before we install.

99% of customers (that is not a scientific figure, just an estimate based on my experience doing this for over a year now) want us to set them up for an install, and do it RIGHT NOW. "Can you install it today??" "No, we're going to need you to come down to the office and bring some ID and your social security card with you." "You gotta be kidding me! I want cable today!" "Well, I'm sorry, but there seems to be a fraud alert on your social security number, and you should contact Equifax immediately to find out what the problem is." "Whatever. I'm going to satellite."

There has only been 2 times I've ever had a customer refuse to give me his social security number over the phone, and voluntarily come in with his ID.

Bottom line is, when customers want goods and services RIGHT NOW, the business that doesn't provide it is the loser.

The problem starts with our fast food, rush, instant gratification society.

Because I got an offer from an online vendor for free stuff if I signed up for their branded card, I got one.

Like most cards, you have to call an activation number so that you can use the card.

I had the damnedest thing happen.

I got a LIVE human, instead of the typical recording that would tell me to listen to several special offers while my card was being validated.

The human demanded that I provide my SS#.

I said "no."

"What do you mean, no?"

"I mean no. I don't give it out."

"If you don't give me your ss# I can't activate your card."

"okay then, don't activate it."

I called back at 3am. Automated system.

I didn't even have to listen to a credit protection scheme offer.

Just "Thanks for calling, your card is now activated."

Thank you for proving my point. :thumbsup:

Why does a person with a fraud alert have to pay a $50 deposit that another person doesn't have to pay?

Just curious. It seems to be penalizing victims of identity theft just for being vicitms.

It would seem to me if the person was willing to come down and personally guarantee they were the "real deal" an extra deposit would not be necessary.

The $50 covers their actual cost of making the installation so they're not out if a problem arises. They don't want to take the time or resourses to find out the whole story because they've got other people to screw,....er,...serve. :yelgreedy

Well Bruce that is AWFUL victimizing the victim...........just plain awful!

Life's just not fair, is it? :yelsick:

Well No it is not...........