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Tue 22 Feb, 2005 09:03 am
Question: How is ChoicePoint able to gather the personal information it has in it's data base? Anyone!
ATLANTA ChoicePoint said Monday that residents in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories might have been affected by a breach of the company's credentialing process in which criminals gained access to its huge database of consumer information..
ChoicePoint said it was almost done notifying by mail the 144,778 people that might have been affected. Authorities in California said as many as 500,000 people might have been affected, but ChoicePoint disputed that number..
The company also announced that it was making roughly 17,000 customers go through a credentialing process again to verify that they were legitimate businesses, and that it had hired a retired U.S. Secret Service agent to assist in revamping its verification process..
Any client that is not a publicly traded company or a government agency will have to be credentialed again..
Once credentialed again, those customers will no longer receive access to consumers' Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver's license numbers unless they are backed by a public company or government agency, James Lee, ChoicePoint marketing director, said..
The company acknowledged last week that thieves apparently used previously stolen identities to create what appeared to be legitimate businesses seeking ChoicePoint accounts. The thieves then opened 50 accounts and received volumes of data on consumers, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers and credit reports..
The ring, which operated for more than a year before it was detected, used the information to defraud at least 750 people, according to investigators in California..
Lee said the company learned of the problem in October, but did not notify the customers who were possibly affected until this month because authorities did not want to jeopardize their investigation..
Formed in 1997 as a spinoff of the credit reporting agency Equifax, ChoicePoint has rapidly grown beyond its roots of analyzing insurance claims information to become a clearinghouse for personal data on hundreds of millions of people..
The 19 billion public records in its database at its suburban headquarters in Atlanta include everything from motor vehicle registrations to license and deed transfers, military records, and names, addresses and Social Security numbers..
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Re: Identity Theft made easy.
au1929 wrote:Once credentialed again, those customers will no longer receive access to consumers' Social Security numbers, birth dates and driver's license numbers unless they are backed by a public company or government agency, James Lee, ChoicePoint marketing director, said. . .
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The 19 billion public records in its database at its suburban headquarters in Atlanta include everything from motor vehicle registrations to license and deed transfers, military records, and names, addresses and Social Security numbers. . . .
How absofrigginlutely thoughtful of them - whoever "them" might be.
A man has been taking our trash every week for at least a month and a half. My brother is concerned as he hasn't shredded every important paper he puts in the trash, he asked the trash picker to stop and the man said he can do what ever he wants with trash that is put on the street, then he took 2 bags and rode off on his bike.
He dosen't take anyone elses trash but ours, my brother and I are home all day and we see him.
We are careful now as to shredding.
paulaj--
Check with your local police department and find out exactly what the regulations are. Many communities have ordinances forbidding people to help themselves to recycled bins. Others regard all garbage as belonging to the homeowner or to the trash collector.
Hi Noddy, the regulations are, once the trash is placed on the sidewalk anyone can take it.
Other people have called about this man. The police can't do anything about him, his actions are within the law, and the trash picker is well aware of this and threw it in my brothers face.
All I can say is get a shredder.
A frustrated dumpster diver? A man with an unusual hobby?
Any chance you could nail him for trespassing?
Noddy24 wrote:A frustrated dumpster diver? A man with an unusual hobby?
Any chance you could nail him for trespassing?
If he trespasses again, then yes. I beleve he is looking for returnable cans.
It's my brothers beef, I say, let the man recycle if he wants to, but he shouldn't trespass.
He could be very poor, I have compassion for him. My brother dosen't see him the way I do.
Tomorrow is trash day, it's going to start all over again.
My brother and this guy were yelling at each other 2 weeks ago. <i roll my eyes>
My brother put a nasty note on a trash bag, the picker guy saw it, kicked the bag, and took off. I was going to go outside and cut the nasty part of the note off, but both my brothers were watching and waiting for the guy.
I'm grateful I have a place to live, but sometimes I hate living here, my family members don't think like me, and i don't think like them.
I feel bad for that man, I have the urge to give him money (even though i have next to nothing.)
My feelings are actually hurt over this. It's making me a little sick and I already have a headach.
Paulaj--
If you wrapped your brothers in black plastic and duck tape and put them out, would the Garbage Picker take them off for recycling?
If not, you'd have to rescue them before the regular garbage men threw them in the compactor on the garbage truck.
The male territorial instinct is most peculiar.
Noddy24 wrote:Paulaj--
If you wrapped your brothers in black plastic and duck tape and put them out, would the Garbage Picker take them off for recycling?
If not, you'd have to rescue them before the regular garbage men threw them in the compactor on the garbage truck.
The male territorial instinct is most peculiar.
Noddy, my brother has already wrapped the trash in black plastic bags with tie wraps, he just tears them apart and has spilled some trash on the ground which has ticked my brother off, hence the nasty note.
This situation is technically none of my business, but the note seemed so cruel, and the fellow became so angry, it bothered me. That man could have had a very difficult life and this might be all he is capable of at the moment.-
"We are all fighting the good fight" Aristotle?
I'm an underdog magnet, there is nothing I can do to change this. If I see someone being treated badly, it's like there doing that to me. My emotional armor can be quite thin, perhaps I could take some type of course or class to toughen up. lol
I kinda liked Noddy's suggesting of wrapping your BROTHERS in black plastic trash bags, paulaj. That really made me laugh!
You don't need to toughen up, sweetie. You're a mature woman with a thoughtful, compassionate nature. Nothing wrong with that, it's admirable. Your brothers need to grow up. They're acting very childish.
Noddy24 wrote:Paulaj--
If you wrapped your brothers in black plastic and duck tape and put them out,
I completely missed that, good one! I had a headache when I was posting on this thread yesterday, my reading/comprehension skills must have been limited.
After I posted that story, I took a drive and looked for the fellow so I could apologize for the nasty note my bratty bro left, I didn't find him.
Thank you Eva
paulaj--
Just read today that one reason the police are inclined to ignore garbage scavengers looking for material to recycle is that many of these men are garbage picking instead of panhandling --or breaking and entering or armed robbery--to support a dope habit.
Of course, this may not convince your brothers.....
paulaj wrote:...he asked the trash picker to stop and the man said he can do what ever he wants with trash that is put on the street, then he took 2 bags and rode off on his bike.
I would get someone else's opinion on that, other than the lunatic who's stealing your trash.
For what it's worth, there is a broad range of activity that is not unlawful in-and-of-itself, but if done repeatedly and targeted to a specific person or persons, and if that activity causes those persons harm or concern of harm, the activity might be considered harassment.
Absent any help from the cops, consider putting something really obnoxious in your trash for a while. Get creative. If your trash is really foul, this moron might lose interest.
Lastly, it would be just awful if you accidentally backed your car over him while he was picking through your trash. ;-)
Scrat wrote
Quote:Lastly, it would be just awful if you accidentally backed your car over him while he was picking through your trash.
Caution if you do he will probably end up owning your house.