Drug Dealin' Identity Thieves

[wenwilder]

Organized crime is changing names and yours may be on their list.

The idea behind stealing your ID? They don't get shot at, the profits are about the same, and the fines... are much cheaper.

Drug dealers collect credit card details and create false cards to use at retail stores. Large groups of street dealers are driven to malls, shopping centers and other stores where they go on shopping sprees.

They keep the spending below $200 (US) per person so the avoid having the card refused. They then turn around and sell the legal, and untraceable, goods on online auctions. eBay here we come!

Isn't organized crime supposed to be about shooting and stealing? The Godfather Way. This way just seems a little emasculated to me but it's a personal lifestyle choice. :o)

Oh well, I live with the comfort of knowing I don't own a credit card and I don't have an identity worth stealing. :o)

[seorocks]

one of the banks they are testing a new way of beating it. They will start giving away machines, which needs your pin number to activate it. You then use a code from the machine and include it in your only purchases. The code changes every few minutes of course and this is supposed to protect the card holders. not sure how easy though to implement. what if someone wanted to buy something when they were at a friend's house? are they expected to carry with them that machine? not practical.

[pagetta]

i've not heard of that seorocks but if its a genuine idea i guess it would be keyring size with a random number appearing on a digital dislay - bit like citrix keyring things.

[seorocks]

now thats huge.. have a look: http://www.newsroom.barclays.co.uk/c...3&NewsAreaID=2

[davidmg]

One of the grocery stores here in Cleveland has gone to the finger print ID system. This system seems to make sense. Unless the God Father starts taking fingers?????

[sofakingdabest1]

seorocks-American banks are resisting what Barclay's is doing. Asian banks have already adopted this.

[Dinghus]

No matter what we do, there will be somebody who figures out how to get around it. If you watch Mythbusters at all you will have seen the show where they bypassed the fingerprint locks with just a copy of a fingerprint.

Anyway, what everyone needs is ID theft protection. Hopefully you will never need it but if you do, you will be glad you have it. This is the best one I've found so far.
ID Theft Protection

[halfmexi]

In Mexico banks made it mandatory to use the changing key numbers to make online transactions in April - it is keychain size and gives you a new set of numbers everytime you press the button. Of course the banks themselves are having trouble getting their websites optimized to handle the new system themselves - its a Mexico thing.

[simonm]

The gizmos that generate a key code, I use one daily to login remotely to one of my customers. The 6 number code changes every minute and is combined with a number code of my choosing. I guess fairly infallible - but isn't everything until its cracked.

Simon

[cinebiz]

"Oh well, I live with the comfort of knowing I don't own a credit card and I don't have an identity worth stealing. :o)"

A relative of mine had no credit history, a modest income, and didn't think their identity was worth stealing, either - until it happened. A co-worker managed to get the SSN# of a bunch of people at their office, and did a lot of damage. It took years to set things straight.

I personally have bunches of stuff on my own credit history now that the three reporting agencies won't remove because I can't prove it's NOT mine. They changed the status of one bogus credit card account to "paid", but they won't take it off of my record.

Honestly - I don't think key codes, fingerprints, or anything will prevent someone creepy enough to steal your ID from doing so. As some people have said here, any device is infallible until somebody cracks it.

[getmea]

I think this is a good idea. I see it working like a cell phone transmission system. But, good luck having the US introduce anything like this. In fact, I think the US is too resistent in introducing anything which causes waves.

For instance, cameras at intersections to catch traffic violations. NO! That's an invasion of privacy! Brazil has had them for years with no public turmoils.

Brazil has a secure entrance built in every bank where you must deposit your purse, wallet, etc. in a drop box while a security guard at the other side of the glass looks. Meanwhile, you walkthru a metal detector turnstyle. NO! Everyone is guilty until proven innocent! At last Brazil has no bank robberies in years.

A little gizmo to walk around with for credit card security? NO! What if it can be used as a GPS? Big brother must be watching...

[jeffposaka]

Oh well, I live with the comfort of knowing I don't own a credit card and I don't have an identity worth stealing. :o)

How do you get through life without a credit card...I can't imagine.

[edhan]

Over here, the banks are already using Two-Factor authentication method. It simply means either using the Token device where it will generate a random 6 digits numbers to input after your password or the 6 digits numbers will be sent to your handphone. So guess this method will be able to deter crimes.

[oohdale]

Drug Dealin' Identity Thieves

I don't know what is along the way but, I know what is at the end of this trail.

The "MARK" a world wide "Mark" and that is the only way. Everyone by then will welcome it too. The rich will allow it to protect their assets and the poor will want it too, to get registered to get their check or disability. A "MARK" in the Forehead and the Hand. The only way. Now along the way there will be many ways to try and stop this "Drug Dealin' Identity Thieves" but the only way to stop it is a MARK. I hope I am not here to see that day.



I would again say; oohdale never thought of it, someone else did.:>)

[wenwilder]

Originally Posted by jeffposaka

How do you get through life without a credit card...I can't imagine.

I live in a small to mid-sized community. (We have a Super Wal-mart now if that moves us into the mid-size) We still have stores that don't take credit cards. Many of our gas stations have just recently - and by recently I mean w/in the last 4 months - switched to "pay-at-the-pump" gas pumps. So there is little need for a credit card.

I rarely order anything online and when I do I pay by Money order. Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid - or perhaps... I prefer not to go into dept or throw my money away on outragous interest rates. Is it truly worth wasting money to own a credit card?

There's a bit of madness in my methods but semi-sanity in the reasons behind them. :o)

P.S. They'll find a way to make credit card purchasing more secure - and then they'll make even smarter bad guys. It's just like idiot proofing something - "so easy an idiot can do it" - they always make dumber idiots. ;o)

[jeffposaka]

I live in a small to mid-sized community. (We have a Super Wal-mart now if that moves us into the mid-size) We still have stores that don't take credit cards. Many of our gas stations have just recently - and by recently I mean w/in the last 4 months - switched to "pay-at-the-pump" gas pumps. So there is little need for a credit card.

I rarely order anything online and when I do I pay by Money order. Perhaps I'm a bit paranoid - or perhaps... I prefer not to go into dept or throw my money away on outragous interest rates. Is it truly worth wasting money to own a credit card?

There's a bit of madness in my methods but semi-sanity in the reasons behind them. :o)

P.S. They'll find a way to make credit card purchasing more secure - and then they'll make even smarter bad guys. It's just like idiot proofing something - "so easy an idiot can do it" - they always make dumber idiots. ;o)

I see what you mean. But it must be pretty tricky to do a trip to Hawaii on cash and money orders. :)

[wenwilder]

Originally Posted by jeffposaka

I see what you mean. But it must be pretty tricky to do a trip to Hawaii on cash and money orders. :)

It's not tricky at all - I just don't go to Hawaii :o)

[orphans]

When I need to send a wire transfer, either domestically or internationally I have to use the random number generator key ring. In addition I need my company log in, personal log in, personal password which must be changed each month, and am required to add a multi-digit pin number to the 6 digit random number on the key ring. <whew> Pretty secure. But that is just one bank. I am wonering if each bank/credit card issuer will require a separate token key ring. That could make my pocket pretty bulgy, and not in a good way.

A previous poster thought that it would be necessary to "mark" people with personal ID's. I'm not sure how that would be diferent from any biometric identification system. As a different poster noted, fingerprints are relatively easy to spoof. I have read that retinal scans can be faked. The RFID chips they were talking about in the next generation of our passports are already being sniffed and duplicated. Too many bad guys out there.

As always the answer is - you can't completely stop fraud and identity theft. You can only make it sufficiently difficult that you hope the bad guys leave you alone to pick on an easier or more valuable target.

This is not a new problem. Think about all of the westerns you have seen where the evil cowboy pretends to be someone else with a good reputation. He knows the names of ranches and owners but is usually tripped up because one of the names he uses is the name of someone who has recently died, and our hero figures it out. Ahhh, identity theft John Wayne style.

Dave

[debase23]

I am obligated to say this any time the topic of identity theft comes up.

There are some unexpected avenues that enable identity theft; it's the (US) state & national gub'mint. Not by intent, but by beaurocracy. A couple years ago, my tenant in an upstairs rental apartment gave me a form to complete to assist her in getting in to assisted housing. The form had her signature and her social security number; she was elderly, I knew her and a little about her life and family, and I had access to her mail. A fertile garden for ID theft - I think the worst fines stem around the mail part. It would be so patheticly easy to go set up credit cards in her name! When I pointed it out to the housing agency, they responded that it was a government form and it could not be easily changed. I am ashamed now that I just left it at that, instead of demanding to file a complaint with the office head etc., etc.

Moral of story? Um, I guess to point out that no matter how good your code, there is still the ol' brick & mortar non-credit card ID theft to watch out for.