ID Theft Costs Banks $1 Billion A Year
from the ouch dept
Identity theft is still a crime that doesn't get enough "respect" from authorities, so it's good to see some people trying to quantify the costs - even if they might be a little questionable. The latest study says that identity theft costs banks $1 billion a year. Banks get hit hardest as identity scammers hit them up for home loans or credit cards, and the banks have no way of verifying the person is who they say they are. As the article points out, the scarier part isn't so much the money, but the lack of any real system being put in place to stop identity theft.
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so silly
In other words: capabilities, just like computer science has known about for 40 years.
For example: why do driver's licences have name, D.O.B etc on them? Why not just have a card with a photo and the legend "the person whose photo is on this card is licensed to drive through 1-jan-2004." If you lose your wallet you still have to go get another...but the thief doesn't get your name.
Etc....the hell with patching screwy systems; just fix 'em!
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Maybe a different approach is needed...
However, maybe the answer is to isolate identity information by intended purpose as much as possible, so that compromising one source doesn't allow access to other sources. Hmmm. I'm not sure how this would be put into practice, and the Office of Total Information Awareness wouldn't like it much, but it is an interesting idea.
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Re: Maybe a different approach is needed...
- First, find a black-helicopter-fearing congressperson who can make this a rallying cry
- Educate the public
This process had been working to prevent the unification of driver's licence records. It remains to be seen how well it will continue to work.[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
We are hosed though. Government has fantasized about the ultimate information database for years and now they might be able to make it a reality. My only hope is that it being government, they will never succeed in succesfully analyzing the data.
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