Credit bureau stupid behavior
You may remember that I posted about getting my credit report disclosed to unauthorised parties a while back. In order to try to head off any damage to my credit reports I logged into experian.com, did the “Click here if you’ve been a victim of fraud” dance, placed notices in all three reporting agencies.
Now I’m getting email from the credit reporting companies(well one so far) with offers to purchase my credit report and scores. This would all be well and good EXCEPT they way they do it looks like internet scammers trying to “phish”1.
In what way does this: http://truelink.m0.net/m/S.asp
Not look like these:
http://pages.ebay.com.rsh.pl/
http://paypal.tbk.co.kr/.cgi-bin/ws/
The first one happens to be legitimate… I only know that because I gave them a different email address than my regular one and I know who it came from - it’s from Transunion. The next two are designed to fool you into clicking the links and are supposedly from ebay and paypal. What would happen if you clicked the first link?(you can’t here, because I purposefully didn’t make them clickable) I would venture to say that you might be less suspicious of links like the second and third after not being exploited by the first link.
This is irresponsible behavior on behalf of TransUnion. I might even call this negligent behavior by TransUnion. I went to their site because I received a notice that they - the credit bureaus - released my information improperly. Now they send me email with links to a different web site? Best case is that they don’t sell as many of their credit reports with scores, worst case is they are teaching the public that clicking unknown web sites - that ask for personal information - is ok.
1 - Define: phishing
I am just loving all of the ways to have personal information stolen, misused, misplaced, collected and all that other stuff. I just went to a new eye doctor at a large department store and they asked for my SSN to verify my insurance. I balked at that and just handed them my insurance card instead (which worked perfectly fine for them, I guess although they still messed up in telling me what my insurance covered.)
Since I just moved I had to get a new drivers license. Interestingly, I didn’t have to get the drivers license at the same time as when I registered my vehicle here but I did have to show quite a few pieces of information to prove I lived where I said I lived and that I was who I said I was. I don’t think they verified any of it. To get a licenses I had to show four pieces of information in order to get my new license. The best part was that I thought I misplaced my Social Security card so I went to the office to get a new one. I just needed one piece of ID to get a new one sent to the address of my choosing. I didn’t have to prove my address to them.
So, this leads me to a new question. Why do places use the “last four digits” of the SSN to veify people? Between that practice, poor security, everyone and their mother collecting personal info on people and storing it (for their data mining as well as your convenience,) and certain financial institutions not encrypting backup tapes is it any wonder why we have these problems?
I think I will try my hardest to go back to as much digital obfuscation as I can. My new phone number is 312 555 1212, cash will be the method of transaction, and I will use the international bank of the cookie jar on the third shelf of the kitchen cabinets guarded by rabid dogs and a vicious cat. Or something.
/rant
Comment by steve — 7/21/2005 @ 12:40 pm
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Comment by site admin — 7/21/2005 @ 2:19 pm