posted
A growing number of banks and retailers are moving beyond Social Security numbers to verify your identity. They're relying on such personal details as your car color, your father-in-law's name and the city you lived in five years ago.
No, you never gave them this information; rather, they pulled it from public and private databases. These private details are increasingly being used to approve you for credit at a store, give you access to your account online or to verify that you — rather than an impostor — are making a purchase.
posted
Somewhat related - I was having a discussion with my wife about how to get a drivers' license replaced. One of the requirements is a birth certificate.
A birth certificate has long been required and accepted as valid ID. I asked the question, and have never come up with an answer, how can you identify a person by their birth certificate? If I took one with a basic description that matches my own - eye and hair color, race, and approximate age - how would someone know it was me?
The database method seems on the surface to be a type of privacy invasion. However, it IS a way to check "data points". If enough match up, you could safely assume someone was who they said.
-------------------- Fundamentally Unfundie since 1975 Posts: 7942 | From: Louisiana | Registered: Jun 2000
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
quote:"Names, addresses and Social Security numbers are no longer the unique identifiers they used to be," says Kevin Watson, Verid's CEO. "You can phish someone's password and Social Security number, but you can't phish someone's memories."
Yes you can - surely that's what the banks are doing, if they've managed to gather this information without being given it by the customer?
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:"Names, addresses and Social Security numbers are no longer the unique identifiers they used to be," says Kevin Watson, Verid's CEO.
Yeah, but my green Dodge minivan is unique. I mean, no other middle-aged guy in America -- nay, the world -- drives such a car.
Maybe it's the scratch on the side and the dent in the back.
Pogue
-------------------- Let's drink to the causes in your life: Your family, your friends, the union, your wife. Posts: 11325 | From: Kentucky | Registered: Nov 2000
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quote:"Names, addresses and Social Security numbers are no longer the unique identifiers they used to be," says Kevin Watson, Verid's CEO. "You can phish someone's password and Social Security number, but you can't phish someone's memories."
Yes you can - surely that's what the banks are doing, if they've managed to gather this information without being given it by the customer?
Logic > Banks.
-------------------- "The United States Government: significantly less cruel and sadistic than the Taliban." - Dara Posts: 1289 | From: Aberdeen University, Aberdeen, UK | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Not to mention that a lot of that information might not be correct in the public record, and even if it is some of it might be hard for people to remember. Ask me where I lived 5 years ago...hmm...2001...I was in the USAF at the time...I can think of probably 2 or 3 places I spent time in during 2001. Do you mean *this month* 5 years ago, or anytime during 2001? You get the picture.
Also, I wasn't (and still am not) always good about updating my information with my accounts. When I was living in L.A. and Orange County I lived in quite a few different places but I had all my mail going to a P.O. Box in a central city for my needs (Costa Mesa) so that I wouldn't have to worry about changing all my info everytime I moved. If you'd asked my bank or credit card company where I lived they would say Costa Mesa even though I'd been living in Irvine, Anaheim, Fullerton, etc.
Posts: 918 | From: Southern CA | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
Banks that I use do use this kind of information already as additional identifiers, but it's collected from the customer rather than third-party databases. So the security of asking you your mother's maiden name, or your car colour, or your first school, is in the assumption that you must remember "which lie did I tell?" each time you call your bank.
I have huge trouble with online and phone banking because instead of using this kind of security as a matter of course, banks seem to use it only as a back-up security. For everyday use you are presented with a welter of pin-codes, secret identifiers, "unique numbers" etc. I so very rarely make changes to my bank account that I hardly ever use most of the PINs associated with my accounts. Or I forget the combination of email adresses, log-in names, passwords and PINs that gives access to my account.
Then when I do need to set up a standing order or something, I've forgotten my unique number, and I have to bring my passport to a branch and provide all my security info, and prove who I am all over again. Bah.
-------------------- I want you to lay down your life, Perkins. We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war. Posts: 4495 | From: Surrey, UK | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
My favorite security question is "What city were you born in?" The answer is not what someone would be likely to guess based on where I grew up.
"What hospital were you born in?" would be good, too, especially since the hospital has changed names since I was born.
-------------------- How homophobic do you have to be to have penguin gaydar? - Lewis Black Posts: 8322 | From: Columbus, OH | Registered: Aug 2005
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posted
Car color is a really bad idea. Since I now own two cars, which color is the correct color? And if they give me two chances it just makes it that much easier for someone else to guess correctly.
Mothers maiden name was a problem for me since, I used my step-mother's for a while, and I've used my mother's, but when I was married we always used my wife's mother's maiden name.
Beach...you'd be surprised at how many people give you three guesses...Life!
posted
I know what you mean about the maiden name thing, Beach. My wife set up most of the accounts, but not all, and I don't always remember which ones. I was on the phone with one a couple of weeks ago, and they asked me that question. I answered with my mother's maiden name and was wrong. I started to get upset & quite obnoxious with the poor person trying to help me, until I remembered that my wife probably set the account up. I quickly apologized and told them my wife's Mom's maiden name and was able to go on with the call.
-------------------- I've got a pen in my pocket does that make me a writer? Standing on the mountain doesn't make me no higher. Putting on gloves don't make you a fighter. And all the study in the world doesn't make it science. -Paul Weller Posts: 199 | From: Kalamazoo, MI | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I've been tripped up on these things far too many times. It's always the telephone number that's the problem. You see, I prefer not to keep my credit card companies updated on the number so as to avoid getting telemarketing calls from them. So I update the address but not the phone number when I move. This has led more than once to me trying to remember a number I had for a matter of months as long as seven or eight years ago. One time I was talking to a bank about getting a student loan, and they wanted the phone number I had in my records. After going through every number I could recall having since I moved out of my parents' house (and groping for several numbers I couldn't remember), I finally tried my parents' number (ten years after I had last lived with them), and that was the one they were fishing for. Just to add a wrinkle to the whole thing, the area code had changed since the time when it was officially my number.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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posted
American Express have a great anti-fraud check when activating a new credit card. You need to give a code off the previous credit card. So if the card gets stolen in the post, the thief can't do anything with it!
-------------------- I am not taking lectures on physics from a man in tights. Posts: 236 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2005
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