Identity Theft

Lori Lancaster | October 13, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | October 13, 2004
It's a pretty good idea for a crime, really, considering that a baby has yet to apply for credit cards, bank accounts, car loans, etc.

Lori Lancaster | October 13, 2004
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Scott Horowitz | October 13, 2004
I remember a Simpson's episode where Bart got a credit card in his dog's name.

John E Gunter | October 13, 2004
Fiction stranger than truth! Anyone who has ever watched the movie Highlander knows about the use of identity theft. Course, he was doing it with dead children, but there's a case of identity theft involving a child.

I know it's only fictional, but the author thought of it, so I'm not really surprised or shocked that someone would do it for real. I'm very disgusted by it, as that's something that really shouldn't happen, but it doesn't change my view that some people will do anything they can if they feel they will get away with it.

I'm just glad we have some laws in the country that try to prevent that.

I'm a big fan of apocalypse stories, and the parts that frighten me the most are not really what causes the apocalypse, but what humans do to each other during it. Sure there are those who help each other, but the really scary ones are the ones that prey on each other.

For instance, any of Romero's Dead stories are not really about the zombies, it's about society and the beasts that some humans become when society falls apart.

Hopefully they'll catch the guy and make him pay!

John

Anna Gregoline | October 13, 2004
My sister went through a nightmare of identity theft after her wallet was stolen. It wasn't over even a year later. The cards and IDs were sold time and time again, and one thief even managed to weasel a car out of a dealership and disappear with it, leaving the dealership to sick the police on my sister for the stolen vehicle. It was utterly ridiculous.

John E Gunter | October 13, 2004
Victims of crime usually end up getting the worst end of the deal. They always say that the criminal gets punished, but everyone I know who has had a crime committed against them usually ends up getting a raw deal about it.

Did the dealership want your sister to compensate them for the car theft?

We had a few pieces of jewelry stolen from our house, but managed to track down where the jewelry was pawned. In order to get the jewelry back, we had to pay the pawn shop the amount he gave the thief! So it was either pay up, or loose our jewelry!

Course, we have gotten our first payment from the theif in our compensation, but it's only 1/10 of what we had to pay to get the jewelry back. I'll be surprised if we get the other 9/10s he still owes us.

That's why I have such a closed minded view of dealing with people who break into your house. That's why I will deal with them in the way I have mentioned before.

That and the fact that if for some reason the thief manages to hurt themselves in my house, they'll probably win a lawsuit against me for trespassing in my house and getting hurt. Then I'll have to pay them!

John

Anna Gregoline | October 13, 2004
I always say, Crime pays.

The car dealership called my sister screaming and carrying on about this thing she didn't even know about. She called the police and explained the situation and they dealt with it, but she had to send her info all over the place and it took months.

Kris Weberg | October 13, 2004
I guess I'm not udnerstanding the "how could they do this to a baby?" argument, for five reasons:

1) The baby is, in all honesty, probably not affected by or bothered by any of this. In fact, the baby probably doesn't know what an "identity" is in the legal sense.

2) By virtue of being a baby, it's going to be REALLY easy to avoid the negative consequences of identity theft -- no court on the planet is going to try and stick you with any of the charges, you're legally too young to have an actual credit rating, and 5 weeks old means that reapplying for a new SSN will be a snap for the parents.

3) Also, thanks to the above, it's not going to be all that hard to catch the people who did this; SSNs can, in a way, be used to determine age. And once this relatively new SSN is taken care of, the crooks are out of luck.

4) Ironically, the special publicity this is getting further makes it likely that the criminals will eb caught and the damage limited.

5) Whatever damage is done will almot certainly be taken care of before the kid NEEDS a credit rating, legal ID, etc. I mean, what, there's about 12-15 years before this will become any kind of issue?

I guess it's easy to mistake legal identity for an actual person, but no physical harm was done to the baby, nor emotional harm, and that's about all you really CAN do that will actually hurt a baby him/herself.

Now, the parents might have major hassles ahead, but the fact that this is a big news story probably "insures" them to a large extent as well. Identity theft really doesn't work as well when everyone on Earth knows about it.

Anthony Lewis | October 14, 2004
"I remember a Simpson's episode where Bart got a credit card in his dog's name."

I thought that was "Married With Children". Buck the Dog got a credit card, and Bud used it to buy a lot of crap, until Steve told him that if he signed Buck's name to the receipts..."a jail he'll be a goin'"

Kris Weberg | October 14, 2004
Nah, it was also done on the Simpsons. The episode that parodied Lassie, in fact.

Anna Gregoline | October 14, 2004
Yeah, I have to say, in the scheme of things, while it's a rather rude thing to have happen, it's a lot nicer to do this to a baby than an adult that has bills to pay and credit ratings to ruin.

Jackie Mason | October 14, 2004
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Anna Gregoline | October 14, 2004
The address thing always confuses me too. I'm IN the freaking phone book, for one.

One precaution I always take is never to show my ID badge out in public. It has my name on it, and I don't want people knowing where I work or what my name is. I see tons of people wearing them on the train though. Seems a little unsafe to me.

John E Gunter | October 14, 2004
Why would you be concerned about where you work? Unless you have some job at a top-secret facility, where you need to have a DoD security clearance, most people won't be concerned about who you are or where you work. Not finding fault in what you’re doing Anna, just want to understand why you feel the need to not wear it.

That is, unless that person is a stalker and they want to stalk you. Then even hiding your Id won't do you much good.

We have heightened security where I work, as we have postal material and don't want someone to get any kind of terrorist materials in what we mail, but I'm not worried about wearing my Id, as if I loose it/it gets stolen, I just report it to my job and they deactivate it immediately.

John

Anna Gregoline | October 14, 2004
I don't want to make it that much easier for some crazy person on the train to find out who I am. You can always be followed, sure, but if someone knows my name and where I work, it's a lot easier to do that, isn't it? I just always found it odd that people would effectively wear nametags with info on them on the train. Another one of those situations where I think women are a little bit more aware of these kinds of things than men.

John E Gunter | October 14, 2004
I don't think it's that women are more aware necessarily, I think it's just the way society is. Men have a not worried about it/don't care type of attitude.

I figured that's why you didn't want to wear your Id on the train, but wasn't completely sure.

John

Anna Gregoline | October 14, 2004
It's that we have to be more aware - because we care about not being stalked or raped. Men don't have to have those concerns (except in extremely rare circumstances) and therefore they don't care/aren't concerned. Most women I know are warned about these types of things from a very young age.

Jackie Mason | October 14, 2004
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Kris Weberg | October 14, 2004
I'm a guy, and sometimes I got creeped out by strangers on the bus in Chicago.

Just sayin'.