David Bach on Protecting Yourself From Identity Theft
Financial author and columnist David "Finish Rich" Bach has followed up his November column on identity theft with some more useful discussion, particularly around the ease with which thieves can utilize a Social Security number, name, and address to become another person:
In 2006, there were about 230 million Social Security numbers held by
individuals. As Abagnale puts it, those are 230 million targets of
opportunity for identity thieves. If someone gets their hands on your
name, birth date, and Social Security number, that's all they need to
become you.
Bach is referring to Frank Abagnale of "Catch Me If You Can" and PrivacyGuard fame there, by the way. This, in particular, raised the ire of many of the readers, some of whom pointed out that PrivacyGuard was (at least a few years ago) possessed of a rather shady privacy policy. I don't use the service myself, so I can't say if they've cleaned up their act or not, but the fact that Bach didn't do his due diligence before mentioning this got him shredded. You can view their current privacy policy here.
Bach also references Sen. Patrick Leahy's "Social Security Number Misuse Prevention Act," which would severely restrict the commercial use and sale of SSNs--but provides a public records exemption that could be a major loophole. Still, it's progress.
One of the commenters on Bach's article notes that doctors, hospitals, and other medical services regularly ask for your SSN as an identifier, which can be a gateway to medical identity theft. All of that personal information on a person's medical history, just waiting to be stolen and reused for expensive medical procedures, and with very little in the way of safeguards to protect against it or restrict dissemination of the number.
Overall, Bach's advice is good, but he could have done better--and the commenters aren't cutting him any slack. Proof positive that ID theft is a topic that touches a raw nerve in a lot of people, and that the "basic" advice isn't cutting it anymore.