Hawg, Putting the word TRUTH in all caps in front of one's opinion does not a fact make. xen·o·phobe Pronunciation Key (zn-fb, zn-) n. A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples. George, thank you for the above. Why do I need to WAIT for there to be evidence of information being stolen, used, or abused to have the question answered, Hawg? "This is nothing but a clear case of xenophobia, no matter how you slice it. That's all I have to say. Uh huh, not everyone agrees with you or your opinion; you resort to further labelling and name calling. Shame on you, Hawg, go to the corner until you can place nice! Sassy
PAE, You don't think I know the definition of the word xenophobia? I think George did a perfectly good job providing you the definition from DICTIONARY.com, a source you could have easily used on your own. Hawg Hanner
Sassy, Putting the word TRUTH in all capital letters before my factual statement does not necessarily make the statement true...that is correct. The information contained therein does, unless you can prove otherwise. And just because my opinion differs from your own (and for the record, it most certainly does), it does not mean you have to get hyper sensitive on me. The free flow of information and thought is what makes this board good. I welcome any further opinions from you on this topic and your effort to disprove any of my facts. All I was trying to do was alleviate some of your unfounded fears. Hawg Hanner
Hawg... lets run thru this scenario... providian sends the customer center with all our sensitive info to any country but ours... 4 yrs from now providian goes bust 5 yrs from now all of a sudden my info has been stolen and used in a malicious manner. We learn that it is a citizen of that country who did the deed. You say I can go after the company, but what happens when the company is not in business anymore? I can't go after assets of a company that has claimed bankruptcy or has closed up shop. You see, I do not care if Dell sends their technical support lines overseas. I do not care if my ATT cable modem support line is in Canada. As long as they can answer my questions, that is fine. However, when you talk about my personal information, my net worth, of which i have busted my butt to obtain, yes that information should be protected on this soil, no one elses. I did not start this thread so that there would be fighting amongst us. I started it so that other people would know what they are dealing with. -- Allen
Hawg, There is no reason for me to attempt to prove otherwise. You are entitled to your opinion, have it, keep it embrace it -- but, I have a problem with you slamming the rest of us for not agreeing with you and you can't back up your opinion with anything more than what it is, your personal opinion. I am not hypersensitive nor is this a free-flow of information sharing nor even a discussion. You have declared those of us that disagree with you to be suffering from xenophobia. Works for me, Hawg, whatever floats your boat. Sassy
Well said Allen When it comes to my green, I can get REALLY mean!!!!! It takes TOO long to recover from identity theft, no matter WHERE the crime was committed. And not knowing what is going on with YOUR/MY account is opening a can of worms that makes me (and others) very nervous!
Sassy, Let's agree to disagree. I have in fact provided facts and not hyperbole. You just chose not to accept them as facts and nor can you prove them false. I won't change your mind on your opinion and you won't change mine. So be it. Hawg Hanner
Actually, I looked it up before I asked the question... I take issue with you accusing me of xenophobia when you don't know me.
PAE, Sorry about calling you a xenophobe without actually knowing you. Allow me to restate: Your comments on this board are riddled with xenophobia in my honest opinion. Hawg Hanner
I can see that this is going nowhere and well... We'll just agree to disagree and leave it at that. If you knew me you'd never think to imply any type of xeno anything...
allen074 , Very well put. With modern communications, even if your information was stolen in the US, it can be instantly sent overseas and the crimes committed with it can done from be overseas. So there is nothing special about where it may reside. There are two separate issues here. Issue 1: What protection do you have against an overseas based criminal? Issue 2: What will law-enforcement do about an overseas based criminal? Regarding the first issue. You have the same protections from an international criminal as a domestic criminal. Your fraud liability is limited based on law. The financial intitution where the crime occurs is regulated by the laws of the country it is based. If an overseas criminal opens and loots and account with a US bank, then you are protected by US law. If they open an account with an overseas bank, then you are protected by whatever laws regulate banks in that country. Regarding the second issue. I am willing to bet that a small time criminal based overseas will not be pursued by US authorities. Some countries are more cooperative than others. The US can do one of two things. They can ask the criminal's home country to prosecute for them. In this case, they give all the evidence to the criminal's country to use to prosecute for breaking the laws of the criminal's country (if what they did was illegal in their country). Or they can ask the criminal's country to arrest and deport the criminal to the US for prosecution here. I know it may be frustrating to know that some scumbag from overseas gets away with a small crime simply because the effort needed to prosecute them outweighs the benefits.
I am responding kinda late but here is my take on this. I am a Call Center Manager for a very well known telecommunications company. Most of you probably have our service. Almost EVERY company outsources a customer service function. I know we do. That includes ALL customer service functions. When yo u call and pay your bill by cc, activate wireless service, there is a 50/50 chance your call is being taken by an outsourced company, most are in this country. Make no mistake about it folks, a lot are located over seas. They have the same information as the "regular" company has. That includes sensitive information, social security numbers, ect. Some of you would be surprised to know that Citi, YES Citibank, uses an outsourced call center for new applications, here in western pa. Brace yourselves, because they employ criminals and all types of people to process applications when you apply online and call for status updates ect. How do I know this? I was recruited to Manage the Citibank project. I turned it down but I saw first hand some of the things that went on there. If some of you don't believe me, when you call any customer service number, ask them point blank, "Are you xyz company, or are you a vendor?" More often than not, your call will be answered by a vendor. Especially, American Express, Citibank, most wireless communications companies, cable tv operations, direct tv, and countless others. If you don't believe me check out these websites: teletech.com, prcnet.com, convergys.com and APAC customer service solutions. Some of them actually list their clients. They are ALL major players in this area. In all likely hood, your information is safe. Make no mistakes folks, your identity can be stolen in a heartbeat if you have a dishonest person on the other end. They don't screen people the way they should. The only thing they look for is felonies, thats it. Remember these companies employ thousands of people. They don't do the background checks they should, and they pay them FAR less than their clients pay people to do the same job. If this thread wasn't so long I would tell stories that would make everyone uncomfortable. I will save that for another thread.
ts, Thanks for posting, welcome to the board. It's scary indeed, the only 2 privacy regulations we have, one being the FCRA, the other Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, are enforced by the FTC, we all know how often that happens. It's largely and mostly self-regulated. HIPAA as well. Sassy
Sorry Hawg, 2.5 million, eekkkkkkkk! Sassy From this thread: http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=283598#post283598 The Internet Jerusalem Post Nephew of former Israeli president jailed for credit card fraud http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1039751228991 The Associated Press Dec. 13, 2002 LONDON - The nephew of a former Israeli president was sentenced to five years in prison Friday for carrying out an international credit card fraud. With the help of 300 credit cards and an array of bogus identities, Dan Mazar lived in high style, prosecutors told Southwark Crown Court in London. He bought a 220,000 pound (US$348,000) London apartment in cash and filled it with expensive furniture, including a 4,000 pound (US$6,300) bed and a 3,500 pound (US$5,500) television. "It was a meticulously planned, carefully executed conspiracy to defraud credit card companies on an unprecedented scale," said prosecutor Martin Hicks. Mazar's lawyer Jonathan Goldberg described his client as the "black sheep" of a distinguished Israeli family. His uncle was Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, who was appointed president of Israel, a largely ceremonial role, in 1952 and died in office in 1963. He said Mazar was driven to crime after getting into debt with a loan shark. Hicks called Mazar the "central figure in what was plainly a sophisticated conspiracy." Nobody else has been arrested in connection with the fraud, which lasted almost three years, and no details of other conspirators were given in court. Mazar, 33, was arrested as he left a central London drugstore after using a bogus card in April. When he was searched, officers said they found 15 credit cards in different names and a list of identification details to help him keep track of his various aliases. Mazar, of north London, admitted one charge of conspiracy to defraud 286,902 pounds (US$453,306). Police said this was the British side of Mazar's scams and that the sum from other frauds, including in the United States and Israel, could amount to as much as 1.6 million pounds (US$2.5 million). Passing sentence, Judge Stephen Robbins said it had been a "massive and highly sophisticated" fraud. The judge ordered Mazar to pay 40,000 pounds (US$63,000) of prosecution costs, and ordered him to pay the court 286,902 pounds (US$453,306) within 18 months or remain behind bars for a three more years.
I called to pay my bill. The guy wanted my full ss#. I asked to speak with his manager. He told me he couldn't with out my full ss#. I repeated my request 5 times. He told me he would assist me when I complied with his request, and hung up. I found the phone number for compucredit, and called. I demanded to speak with the president of the company. (Knowing full well I wouldn't but I would get someone that would assist me). The woman transfered me to a Customer Service Supervisor. I told my story. I told her I was VERY uncomfortable doing business with a company that demanded my full ss# for verification. No company should demand a full ss# over the phone! Its not about the call center being in India for me its the verification process. Under no circumstances should any company use the full ss# to verify identity. There are other pieces of information they could use to verify. I complained about not being able to understand the guy ect. He was extremely rude ect. She apologized for all my problems and did give me a courtesy credit for 100 bucks. The supervisor was very nice, did what I requested. I was kind of surprised because I expected the customer service for emerge to be as sub standard as Providian.
You DON'T need any part of your SS# to pay a bill!!! You need the account # to be paid The name on the card The routing # The account # Your address Amount to pay
