Identity theft part 2 - lonnnng post

Lost User

Some of you may remember me from such posts as Identity Theft[^] Its been a couple of interesting months since then. When we reeived our credit reports from the credit agencies here we found there had been 30+ requests for credit information on my girl friend. Each one was the result of these people attempting to obtain credit in her name. They walked into a large department store here and using her photo drivers licence as ID (obviously there is a woman involved and she must be incredibly good looking) were able to rent a few thousand dollars worth of HiFi equipment. They even gave her bank account details for the rental company to take the payments out of. I guess the salesman are not known for their inelegance and the opportunity to make some commission melted their brains. They applied for credit cards on line from about 15 different organisations, some had been approved and the cards sent to a non-existent address that they were using. (The trick here is to use the address of a block of flats but use a unit number that does not exist. That way the postman generally leaves the mail on top of the mail boxes and they can drive by and pick it up) For about a month she would get an email each day with the details of the applications that were made the previous day. We then had to contact each of the credit providers, attempt to convince each of them that the applications were fraud and eventually provide statutory declarations to have the applications removed from her record. The police were of very little help. As there was no personal threat and the financial losses were small (didnt cost us any money in the long run and only about $5000 was taken from the various credit providers) they were not willing to escalate the issue to the fraud or electronic crime departments. The constable that came around when we were robbed is still responsible for any investigation but has about 15 other things he’s working on as well as doing his regular duties so I don’t expect him to spend much time on it. A lot of the applications they made were to smalle

Bradml

You have their adress? You now have 3 options: 1. The Nerd Way: Obtain their IP and attack them through that. Make sure to expose as much about them as possible, then remotely activate their web cam and have it stream to YouTube. 2. The Tough-Guy way: Obtain a baseball bat and attack them through that. Mare sure to expose as much flesh as possible, then localy activate your car and have it run through their house. 3. The Brad Way: Obtain a mouse trap, place it in an envelope marked "GE Credit Cards" and then watch from a safe distance. Be sure to activate a web cam and stream to YouTube.

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Nish Nishant

I still don't understand how details like someone's name, address, and date of birth are still used as a way to validate a person (most bank and credit card phone support ask for basic info that's so easy for someone else to get at).

Regards, Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications. (*Sample chapter available online*)

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

You have their adress?

I have the dummy address they've been using. Somewhere way way out west beyond the intellectual divide that is Strathfield (Appologoes to MM and any other westies) About the only thing I can get out of the cops is "DO NOT DO ANYTHING STUPID". Seems like good advice to me

System.IO.Path.IsPathRooted() does not behave as I would expect

Bradml

Define STUPID

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

charlieg

Well, I cannot speak for countries other than the US, but it's bad over here. The banks figure in a certain fraud % and just budget it. Then the banks have laws passed so that the consumer is responsible to keep an eye on the credit report that they have no control over.... it can make you sick at times.

Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Whoever said children were cheaper by the dozen... lied. My son's PDA is an M249 SAW. My other son commutes in an M1A2 Abrams

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

Define STUPID

Violence, provocation. Basically I dont want to know who these people are, it would without doubt end badly and bloody. We want to put it behind us and forget about it as much as possible. At the end of the day they only cost us a lot of our time and caused a lot of stress. I could have been so much worse and Im happy to walk away from it with our bank accounts and bodies intact.

System.IO.Path.IsPathRooted() does not behave as I would expect

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

Obtain their IP and attack them through that.

You think you are good? LOL, I bet you couldn't even change my wallpaper remotely.

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El Corazon

Nishant Sivakumar wrote:

I still don't understand how details like someone's name, address, and date of birth are still used as a way to validate a person

Why should it change? What physical reason, beyond the physical and financial discomfort of the identity theft victims? What percentage of the population are they? 1%? 3%? it doesn't really matter. It is small enough they have no voting majority to "force" change. The banks and other companies do have the money and influence to make sure that they get the least part of the responsibility, they do have the voting majority through political influence. Therefore there is no reason to change, no push to change, no desire to change. For a time there were some people here even claiming that there were no identity theft victims, that it was all a myth. Which only assists in keeping the status quo, therefore there is no reason to change. And why should the banks change identity information when the primary method of identification for the entire USA is name? I don't want to sound to pessimistic, but in this instance I am. As in physics without a force that pushes an object, inertial resistance means there is no change. There is political resistance to change, the responsibility lies with those without power, therefore there is no force for change.

_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)

Bradml

Care to post your IP and find out? :rolleyes:

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

Care to post your IP and find out?

Sure why not. 209.251.20.183 I dare you to hack me.

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Bradml

Mate there are 2 reasons why I am not going to: 1. I have no reason to. 2. I wouldn't want to damage your moms PC. (By the way, how do you find Cogent?)

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

I wouldn't want to damage your moms PC.

:laugh: My mom doesn't even know what a computer does. I'm on my laptop that I paid for, so go ahead, lets see how good you are. All you got to do is create a message box or change my wallpaper.

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RoswellNX

Captain See Sharp wrote:

Sure why not. 209.251.20.183 I dare you to hack me.

If you are looking for some real vandalism, post it at one of the Craigslist forums or at MySpace... But if you ask me, i'd rather pass. Think about it, why would someone want to risk their entire career? I personally, as a web dev can spot security risks in web applications, and see signs of poor workmanship admin's side if i'm working on a machine "in person", but all i do is report it to them. Grow up. *cough* Captain *cough* Roswell:rose:

"Angelinos -- excuse me. There will be civility today."
Antonio VillaRaigosa
City Mayor, Los Angeles, CA

Bradml

hmmmm.... Well it does look like you are quite open at the moment. I really don't think it would be wise of me to do anything illegal now however, as chris (and a few others) would easily track me down. Ok tell you what, wait for me to get home and then I will see what happens. BTW you didn't answer my question, how is the Cogent network suiting you?

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

Well it does look like you are quite open at the moment.

Bradml wrote:

Ok tell you what, wait for me to get home and then I will see what happens.

Ok, lets see something happen.

Bradml wrote:

BTW you didn't answer my question, how is the Cogent network suiting you?

I wikied Cognet because I didn't know what you were talking about. I don't use that ISP, I don't know how you came to that conclusion.

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Bradml

What he is asking me to do is more or less childs play. He has given me an IP to an XP box that is manged by... well him. The only thing is it is illegal and also a waist of my time. Perhaps it would humble him a bit though.

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Lost User

Bradml wrote:

Perhaps it would humble him a bit though.

We will see.

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Bradml

Captain See Sharp wrote:

I wikied Cognet because I didn't know what you were talking about. I don't use that ISP, I don't know how you came to that conclusion.

No you use SISCOM, but from what I can remember they operate over the Cognet backbone. I have heard good things about Cognet and was wondering what you experience with the network was.

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Lost User

Jeffry J. Brickley wrote:

even claiming that there were no identity theft victims, that it was all a myth

I think its just a buzz word. What I described above could equally be described as fraud and thats what it would have been called 10 or even 5 years ago

System.IO.Path.IsPathRooted() does not behave as I would expect