The vets who just had their data stolen are about to be screwed again

[BrewerJohn]

as well as anyone else who is a victim of identity theft.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/14/pf/credit_bill/

USA Today reported that the proposed Financial Data Protection Act of 2006 pre-empts laws in 17 states that allow anyone to freeze their own credit and instead permits only ID theft victims to request a freeze.

If it becomes a law, vets and military personnel who live in states that permit unrestricted credit freezes would lose that option, the newspaper said.

...

According to the report, a credit freeze cuts off access to a person's credit history. Since most banks and merchants insist on seeing a credit report before issuing credit, identity thieves can't open bogus accounts using stolen data.

But under the bill, which is backed by the financial services industry, simply having your data lost or stolen isn't enough. Theft victims must file a police report describing a specific instance of it being used to commit a crime.

Here we go again. We the people don't deserve to be able to be protected against having our
identities stolen, until it's too late.

The only question left is, exactly how do corporations stand to profit by this?

[peacetalksforall]

1. THIS IS NOT OUR COUNTRY. EXACTLY WHICH COUNTRY ARE WE

IN?

[CoffeeCat]

4. I just posted in this thread about this...

That law is outrageous, and what's even more outrageous is the systematic way that someone or some organization is gathering private identity information on tens of millions of Americans.

A laptop--that contains private information from thousands of Americans--is stolen weekly in this country! The notion that this is a coincidence or just a few people misplacing their laptops--is laughable.

We need to find out what in the heck is going on...

[CoffeeCat]

2. Something is reallly rotten in Denmark...

First off---I don't believe, for one second, that all of these high-level, critically important laptops--have disappeared "by accident."

How many "lost laptops that contain identity information on tens of thousands of people" reports have we heard lately? It's absolutely not a coincidence!

I bet a large organization (ChoicePoint, the US Government?) is doing this. I don't know if they're gathering a database or if they're planning stealing identities, or screwing people over--or what. It's a bit surreal.

And now...this new "Federal Data Protection Act" prevents people from freezing their own credit???? Why is it the government's business when someone wants to freeze their own credit?

This entire multi-tentacled debacle really needs loads of attention. I don't pretend to know what's going on here, but this is messed up.

Someone is up to something...

[Canuckistanian]

3. They could offer all the vets $100

That would cover it, right?

[Ilsa]

11. LOL! Great idea! And they should do it in late October for extra impact

after these fine people have had their lives stolen.

[RagAss]

5. I filed a police report and then called the FBI after my card

was stolen a year ago. You'd be surprised how much cooperation I received from everyone after that. the card was used on a spending spree across multiple states so it was my duty as a citizen to inform the FBI office.

[pitohui]

6. it's fairly obvious how corporations profit

undocumented workers can most easily become documented by stealing someone's elses identity, especially their social

unfortunately the more you cry to punish employers for hiring undocumented workers, the more you will make it profitable for the professionals to steal and sell real identities

corporations will want their slaves w.out consequence so they will just put pressure on the obviously undocumented person to produce, voila, some documents

the veterans will indeed be in a world of hurt when they discover that someone else is "sharing" their benefits

it's really insidious, i know people who got NO red cross or FEMA assistance because someone else had already stolen and used their social/address while they were without power or home and had no way to get in touch w. anyone to get help

they have never been able to get anything even now, it's quite hopeless, as far as red cross and FEMA are concerned, that social did get assistance so the real owner of that identity is screwed

i'm waiting for some of them to be told that "they" have collected more than their share and will have to actually pay back money they never received, you heard the prediction here first, people willing to use other people's identities are not all nice people willing to hold back on doing all they can to get "easy" money you know

[lonestarnot]

10. Do you have any idea how many social security checks we send to MEXICO

to the same individual? One person rips off 5 ss#'s, works on 'em and later collects on 'em sends em to Mexico to 5 different people that that one person worked on while here.

[IndyJones]

7. So now I wonder...is this because the NSA wants 24/7 access

and somehow can't get access to someone's info if it's frozen? Something else is going on here. This is just too strange.

[lonestarnot]

9. It's called theft by institution, FDIC probably insures them, so they're

about to legalize theft in mass to steal more of of tax monies. (I may be way off base here as I'm just throwing my hat in the ring and talking out of it, and don't know what the real story is. But this sounded reasonable to me.

[lonestarnot]

8. Well that tells me there is money in identity theft for the financial inst

itutions.

[Pierogi_Pincher]

12. The 'financial services industry' offers credit monitoring at

around 39.00/month to keep a close eye on your credit file(s) for any new accounts that are opened.
Uh-huh.

P_P