What's everyone think about this article that seems to say that identity theft is the fault of bank's and their lax identification practices concerning credit. Wonder who they'll blame after October 1.

Customer conveniences are a double edged sword.

The October 2 article will say, too little, too late.

This is just stupid. Yep, there are probably some slackers out there who ignore the fraud alerts, etc., and that's just wrong. News flash to America! Identity theft is never going away, people. We all wanted conveniences like internet and telephone applications, and there are some drawbacks. We can't stop it, we can only hope to contain it. What this probably means is that GLBA and CIP aren't going to cut it a few years down the road.

A lot of the Identity Theft has been carried out by folks opening accounts at big "wherehouse" type home improvement stores, large electronic/stereo/computer stores, cell phone accounts, and car purchases from dealerships.

Are these all considered "banks"?

Here's a new twist that we heard about recently. A person applied for and was offered a job from an internet ad (for an internet-based job. Sorry, don't know which job site). The person sent typical HR-requested identification information to the 'employer' and had their identity stolen for their trouble. Scary!

The person figured this out after they had several fraudulent checks pay against their account. I'm sure somehow this will be the bank's fault, but my imagination is having a hard time connecting the two!

Here's my twist on a line from a M*A*S*H episode:

Rule #1: P.T. Barnum's dictum "There's a sucker born every minute" is still in full force and effect.
Rule #2: Banks can't change Rule #1.

Quote:

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Here's a new twist that we heard about recently. A person applied for and was offered a job from an internet ad (for an internet-based job. Sorry, don't know which job site). The person sent typical HR-requested identification information to the 'employer' and had their identity stolen for their trouble. Scary!

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I heard about this ID Theft scam a few months ago from a Postal Inspector. At one point, I saw an advisory on Monster.com, but I haven't seen it lately.