Torn-up Credit Card Apps Not So Safe

Maximum Prophet writes "This dude tears up a credit card application, tapes it back together, sends it in with his cell phone number and father's address, and voila, gets a credit card. Who would have thought security at a credit card company was so lax? The company recommends that consumers "tear up" financial solicitations before throwing them away, "so thieves can't use them to assume your identity.", but according to them, "Applications that arrive in damaged form are customarily transferred to an electronic format, he said -- often by machine. So it's possible a human being never handled the taped-up application and never had the chance to spot the obvious sign of trouble." In this era where we worry so much about identity theft, this sort of thing really makes you wonder what the point really is.

whose fault

[opencity]

'Shouldn't' this be the companies problem? MCI decided years ago I owe them money, I don't, and every two years some collection agency comes calling.

Possible? Yeah, but highly improbable

[defile]

"Applications that arrive in damaged form are customarily transferred to an electronic format, he said -- often by machine. So it's possible a human being never handled the taped-up application and never had the chance to spot the obvious sign of trouble."

What, a machine opened the letter, recognized it was an application (and not, say, other junkmail that got stuffed into the nearest bulk reply envelope), fed it into a scanner, then trashed the hard copy? At no point in the process does a human see it? Sounds like bullshit.

Re:Uhoh.

[Rob T Firefly]

He got the card in his own name, no actual fraud was comitted. This proof of concept only demonstrates that an actual fraudster could do exactly what he did.

Solution!

[wiggles]

Buy a shredder. I shred every credit card offer and transfer check my current credit card company sends me. It's ridiculous the crap they send me. One of these days, a thief is going to raid my mailbox before I get home and get a credit card in my name. Oh well. At least I get to play Enron Executive with my niece.

Pimply faced kids

[rueger]

Said it before, I'll say it again, I worry more about handing my card to the PFK at the corner gas station that about people going though my trash or grabbing my info off of the 'net.

Most of the fruad that I've suffered has been at the hands of large corporations that reckon that my lawyer won't be willing to take on their lawyer.

Stupid credit card companies

[n1ghtcrawler]

figures, considering they bitch at us to beef up our secuirty with them, and look at them! they dont even bother looking at our applications. THEY ARE THE SECUIRTY THREAT. they all need a huge smack on the head...

True, but why is it *my* problem to solve?

[Weaselmancer]

Why should I spend my money to solve a problem that some credit card company creates? Especially when I'm not even their freaking customer?

this is what suing is for

[mrpeebles]

I don't know if these credit card companies are legally liable for this sort of identity theft, but they should be. If they are going to make money putting us all at risk for identity theft, they should pay for any damages we incure, including any inconvenience it causes us. Ditto for all these companies that collect data on us.

Re:True, but why is it *my* problem to solve?

[valhallaprime]

EXACTLY! It's not like junk e-mail, where it's a nuisance but relatively harmless. I'm getting sent shit that actively is a danger to my financial self. And there's no viable way to stop it.

I live in a city...what's to stop someone from just plucking the unopened offer from my house-attached mailbox? Total Bullshit, these mailings.

Re:Make the banks liable...

[Anonymous Coward]

The losses will just be considered the cost of doing business and passed on to the consumer. At least until that cost becomes high enough that another company can undercut them by doing something about it without pissing off the consumer to much.

It might also be useful to have some sort of public scorecard for which companies have the highest incidence of identity theft, compromised data, etc. I recently received a notice from my bank that my account may have been compromised by an online retailer whose system was cracked - but they won't tell me who it was?!?! That disclosure should be MANDATORY so that maybe the cost to their business due to bad publicity & pissed off customers would make them take it more seriously.

Re:Stop them at the source

[Geekenstein]

Somehow, I don't see myself entering all my personal information into a website supposedly run by an organization I never heard of that has it's whois set up with a proxy service to boot. Anyone else rushing out to do this?

Re:But He Filled It Out

[R2.0]

The point he was tyrying to make is that the standard advise of ripping up credit card offers is worthless if any random person can tape the pieces together and apply for credit in your name fraudulently. That's why he applied in his father's name - he put in a fradulent application and it was accepted.

I know I'm going to be more careful to shred them all, but if you still think it's useless, that's fine by me. Send all of your ripped up CC applications to me, and I'll dispose of them.

Re:whose fault

[InsertCleverUsername]

'Shouldn't' this be the companies problem?

Can MCI provide you with a copy of a document you signed regarding the charges? If not (and if I'm not mistaken), what they're doing is illegal.

Please forgive me for sounding condescending, but parent and grandparent posts are COMPLETELY missing the point. It doesn't matter if it's illegal, all that matters is the they (giant, godless corporations) have infinitely deep pockets and an army of lawyers, while you have enough trouble making the rent. They are COUNTING on this.

As long as they're vastly more powerful than us, it is usually to their advantage to create problems for you that you may (or may not) pay to make go away. I finally paid a lawyer over $5,000 to correct MBNA's refusal to stop reporting credit fraud as mine. Once the 100 page brief was filed with the court and MBNA saw that there would be financial consequences, they finally backed off.

There's a huge difference between what's illegal and what's prosecuted.

Re:But He Filled It Out

[Vellmont]

That's why he applied in his father's name - he put in a fradulent application and it was accepted.

Nope, it's not quite that insane. He used his fathers address, but he used his own name (and presumably correct SS#). If you look close you can even see his name (Rob Cockerham) on the application. Learn to read more carefully next time, lest you miss-inform a huge number of people.

Don't throw it all out at once...

[mengel]

If you tear something up, put the odd slices in this weeks trash, and the even slices in next weeks (or better, next year's) trash.

Then let's see them put it back together...

Re:shred shred shred

[MillionthMonkey]

I keep a copy of the 217 page Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 [gpo.gov] handy for this kind of thing. When I get a credit card offer, I print out a polite letter explaining that I must decline the card because of a lack of bankruptcy protection, and that I am including a copy of the legislation in case they have any questions. I cram it all into the business reply envelope. Unfortunately I have to print double sided or 4 sheets to a page but that envelope gets crammed pretty good- nice and heavy.

I met a guy with an even better idea. He has a home equity line of credit (HELOC). When a stupid credit card offer comes offering 0% interest, he pulls a couple grand out of the HELOC. Then he applies for the card and does a balance transfer from the new CC account to the HELOC. (Credit cards are too smart to just send you wads of cash when you apply, but they will give you the money if it's to pay another creditor- that's why he uses the HELOC, as an account to shift balances around.) If he gets the card and the transfer goes through, he puts the money in a CD earning 4.5% that matures when the card's introductory period expires.

Re:gymnasium and scotch tape no longer required

[jc42]

Another thing some people do is to mix the shredded paper into their compost bin. It's as good as peat moss, and there have been a few studies showing that the bio effects of the ink are insignificant.

Some years ago, when I was in college, I lived in a 4-apartment building that had a coal furnace, but it would also burn paper. We put all our waste paper, including lots of computer output, into the furnace. It saved a significant amount in fuel costs. But the paper didn't burn as long as coal. A full load of coal would burn for two days, as I recall, but paper had to be refilled every day. The ash was about the same with both.

There's gotta be other good uses for paper that you don't want to send to the dump.