FTC Recruiting Identity Theft Victims 48
coondoggie writes "In an effort to buttress its enforcement and better understand the scourge that is identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission said today its plans to conduct a wide-ranging study of victims of the crime.
The FTC is looking for people harmed by the crime and said the survey will examine the remedies available to victims under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act). Among other things, the FACT Act gave consumers the right to place fraud alerts on their credit files if they are, or suspect they may become, victims of identity theft; block information on their credit reports that resulted from identity theft; and obtain copies of their credit reports free of charge."
Shred (Score:3, Insightful)
Shred and don't be stupid. Blockbuster does not need your SSN.
Lumping too much stuff together (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as the FBI is mandating that credit card fraud is "identity theft" there will never be any sort of accurate numbers as to real, honest-to-goodness identity theft. Today, every time someone uses your credit card number on an online site and the charge is really submitted, this is considered "identity theft".
The truth is that use of SSNs and fraudulently applying for loans and such is incredibly rare. It is so rare as to almost not be a problem - except the folks at Life Lock and others do not want you to find this out. They want to get their money from you for protecting you from something that almost never happens.
Almost everyone I know has been a "victim" of credit card fraud. Only problem was, they weren't really the victim. The merchant was. I've never heard of anyone actually losing anything because of credit card fraud. Now, if you use a debit card instead of a credit card you are asking for trouble because you will lose with those. No, I don't know anyone that has lost money - probably because they had more sense than to use a debit card for purchases.
Blockbuster does not need your SSN (Score:3, Insightful)
I once went to Blockbuster to see what I needed to do to rent a movie and was handed this form that looked like a loan application. I handed it back saying they didn't need all that information. All they need is to know if I can pay.
Falcon
Re:Lumping too much stuff together (Score:4, Insightful)
That's not entirely accurate, I had my information stolen from those incompetent jackasses at TD Ameritrade. And as far as I know none of my actual SSN, credit car or bank info was stolen, but I do get pre-filled out spam for prescriptions. And as a result it opens me up to other problems as well.
It's incredibly unsettling and IMHO I ought to be given the option to put a free freeze on my account whether it's overkill or not.
I don't apply for many credit cards and rarely is there a valid reason why anybody should be checking my credit at all. As far as I'm concerned they shouldn't ever be allowed to check it without notifying me and getting an OK.
Really the biggest thing would be forcing the banks and institutions that don't follow appropriate procedures to pay whether or not it's really their fault in the matter. Places like Starbucks that don't consistently require signing for charges are pretty mortifying places to use a card.
Re:Lumping too much stuff together (Score:2, Insightful)
What is it you think a signature adds to the transaction?
and obtain copies of their credit reports free (Score:5, Insightful)
THEY SHOULD ALSO BE 100% LIABLE WHEN IT IS ABUSED!!!!! Credit reporting agencies are the source of the problem and the enablers of credit fraud.