How to combat identity theft & hacked email

[UnderOpenSky]

I was talking about a real world situation where you're about to go into a club and they're demanding to scan in your ID. Either you meekly comply or you go home alone and I suspect asking for information about the scanning company and data protection is unlikely to be met with many answers.

It won't be long till they don't have to scan any ID. Just your face.

 

[CH1]

None of these preventative measures deals with the case of someone using your physical street address to order goods, set up a BT account etc.

Having had to deal with this - and researched electoral register evidence on the possible miscreant you can imagine I was delighted to find that Police investigations have been outsourced to Action Fraud which operates a call centre (a division of Capita) and that BT themselves were very wary of involving the Police.

I would suggest speculation about nightclub bouncer's attitudes to data retention and password storage is somewhat removed from real cases like mine and others reported on Radio 4 Money Box etc. I lost no money, but my credit was completely compromised. Some others have lost thousands of pounds. Not through password situations but through data savy fraudsters armed only with a smart phone.

 

[David Clapson]

Apart from your street address, what other info about you did they acquire, and how did they get it? How did they get hold of the goods and make money out of this?

 

[CH1]

Apart from your street address, what other info about you did they acquire, and how did they get it? How did they get hold of the goods and make money out of this?

Date of birth. Not middle name it seems.
Maybe they were scanning Facebook?

The guy (likely candidate here - based on his name and the fact that an Augusta Camara lives at 46 Cooks Road according to the electoral register) opened a BT account in my name at 46 Cooks Road SE17, ordered an iPhone at my Coldharbour Lane address - which I returned to BT Mobile.

At that stage I have no idea that the BT account at Cooks Road had been opened in my name. Neither did BT Recovery Team tell me about this when I was discussing and returning the iPhone7.

First I knew of it was when my credit limit was slashed from £2500 to £500 and I started to make enquiries. It then turned out I had two BT accounts in default to the tune of £698 (at Coldharbour Lane) and £744 at Cooks Road.

Equifax had collated the information and my account numbers and passed the info to my credit card issuer. BT however never got my account numbers or tried to debit them apparently.

The whole thing was Orwellian from my perspective. An ipPhone was ordered at my address by a criminal and I reported it. It then turned out that the criminal was impersonating me at his Brandon Estate address too. And neither BT nor Action Fraud in any way interested except to take a report. The BT fraud people in Belfast suggested caution - like you CAN report it to the local police, almost implying that if there was any reprisal it would be down to me.

I should add that I've never met or knowingly corresponded with Mr Kamara/Camara. But I do (probably like most people) get frequent spurious Facebook friend requests so I'm wondering if there are ways of skimming Facebook for persponal info such as date of birth.

It could of course be a co-incidence - but personally I'm convinced what happened was a form of Facebook fraud and I have hidden my date of birth now - bolting the stable door and all that.

 

[nick]

dunno if this helps - but in 2002 I got chased by Wescott debt collectors for a phone account at an old address (it had a shared hall where mail was left, so was easy to ID-thieve even pre-internet).
I explained to all and sundry to no avail - debt collectors said I should have paid when cheated - even though they had written to an address I had moved out of a year previously.
The bit for CH1: I was told to go to report it to the police by the debt collectors. After a very long wait at Brixton nick I was informed that I couldn't report it as I hadn't suffered a loss - it was up to Wescott/the phone company to report it as it was the loser.
Eventually I:
a) put a comment on my credit file to say it was disputed due to ID theft
b) wrote to the Data Controllers of the phone company, the debt collectors , & Equifax.

There was a brief resurrection of the question about 3 years later - but I faxed copies of all the letters I had sent and it went away in the end.

I still have copies of the letters I sent - PM me if you want me to send you the wording I used

 

[Winot]

Interesting article in Guardian money at weekend - you can add a note to your credit file asking that your fingerprint be provided before any credit line opened in order to prevent fraud:

The foolproof way you can stop ID fraud

 

[David Clapson]

The guy (likely candidate here - based on his name and the fact that an Augusta Camara lives at 46 Cooks Road

The middle name, Yemi, leapt out at me...it's Yoruba, one of the main Nigerian tribes. Other Nigerians blame their country's reputation for fraud on the Yoruba. No doubt the Yoruba have something equally damaging to say in return. But it's true that the southerners, including the Yoruba, tend to be better educated so perhaps better equipped to pull off this sort of thing than northerners, many of whom are illiterate.

 

[CH1]

The middle name, Yemi, leapt out at me...it's Yoruba, one of the main Nigerian tribes. Other Nigerians blame their country's reputation for fraud on the Yoruba. No doubt the Yoruba have something equally damaging to say in return. But it's true that the southerners, including the Yoruba, tend to be better educated so perhaps better equipped to pull off this sort of thing than northerners, many of whom are illiterate.

Funnily enough Camara/Kamara is Sierra Leonian.
I did originally - before it got nasty - ask BT Mobile why they had sent an iPhone7 out to a person with an English name but an African-style Gmail address.

BT Mobile were not kind enough to give a written answer to this!

 

[David Clapson]

I've just started using the free version of the Dashlane password manager, purely because it seems to have better reviews than the other free ones. Microsoft now installs Keeper whenever you install Windows 10. By default it's right there with its own tile on the W10 Start screen. But the free version doesn't get the best reviews.

 

[CH1]

Breaking news - out of general interest
Equifax's chief executive and chairman Richard Smith is stepping down, bowing to pressure from investors after a massive data-breach scandal that potentially exposed personal information for millions of consumers, sparked investigations and litigation, and battered its shares.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Not sure where to put this...but here goes.
My elderly dad got a new phone. Major thing in his eyes. He is not very tech.
So next thing he was looking for a cover and went into a shop that sells phone accessories. He's always looking for the best bargain and will haggle ... So the guy in the shop says to him.."you can buy this cover for €16 or €12 if you sign up and give us your email address". "Sign up to what?"Asks dad.
"Sign up for info and offers".
My dad was a lot confused by this....all he was buying was a phone cover. So he asked how they did this and why they needed the info...he was cute enough to ask who they were going to share the email address with...but I think he got a bit paranoid...as he told us that the conversation developed into him talking about identity theft..etc.
Anyway...it confused him and he came away with no cover.
But how weird eh?
Buy something and get 25% off if you give us your email address so we can spam you and who knows what else.
For anyone who still only uses cash and lived most of their lives without hi tech it's not a world they readily understand or appreciate.

 

[Baronage-Phase]

Dp. .. sorry