« Paris Hilton Hacker Gets Jail |
Main
| Welcome to the Third World »
September 16, 2005
They Don't Need Your Identity
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
Here is a surprising story.
Three times more money is lost to identity theft where the thieves just make up an identity than when they use someone else's.
Gartner Group figures $50 billion is lost from such "victimless fraud" every year, against $15 billion from identity theft.
The problem is U.S. banks don't check identities closely. Crooks can get a pay-as-you-go mobile phone with no credit check, open up a bank account in the name of that "person," pay bills on that account for a while, then use the account to get credit cards.
Banks in Europe share identity information and aren't subject to the same fraud to the same degree. Gartner said.
For that money you'd think they could at least give some forbearance to those declaring bankruptcy after Katrina, don't you think?
No, I didn't think so either.
Comments (1)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Politics | law
POST A COMMENT
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › The Legend of Dennis Hayes
- › Evolution Changes Its Mind (Again)
- › Welcome to 1966
- › What Must Craigslist Do?
- › No Such Thing as Free WiFi
- › The Internet As A Political Issue
- › Google Images Ruled Illegal
- › Fall of Radio Shack
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Thuktun on September 16, 2005 03:18 PM writes...
It's particularly interesting because Europe has stronger privacy protections for its citizens. If it manages have those and at the same time fight identity fraud better, I think we could learn something valuable.
(Sadly, certain groups of people in the USA seem radically opposed to considering the opinions or ideas of the rest of the world, as though it were unpalatable to admit we could learn something from someone else. I think that's usually termed 'arrogance'.)
Permalink to Comment