100 Million IDs Stolen

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According to the people at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, there has been more than 100 million IDs stolen since February of 2005. That number, if it is indeed correct, is absolutely staggering. To put it in perspective, the population of the United States is 300 million.

That disclosure pushed the total number of data breach victims on the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse Web site to 100,152,801, said Beth Givens, director of the consumer advocacy group. The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has been tracking data breaches since February 2005, when ChoicePoint Inc. disclosed that thieves had stolen information on 163,000 victims from the company's database.
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Terrible..

My boss just had his identity stolen, I wonder if it could be related. On black friday someone charged up $43,000 on his credit card between Best Buy and Marshall Fields. He did catch the guy though because the man used his original Reward Zone BB card to get the points for the purchases which had his original name and address on it. :p So far though the Michigan State Police and any other department of justice don't want to do anything to go arrest the man. On top of this, Best Buy won't give my boss the name of the man that stole his identity via credit card. They said its a 'privacy issue' of the man who stole his identity! I just had to 'wow' about how easy it is to get away with identity theft and nobody does anything about it, not even the justice system.
 
w1retap said:
Terrible..

My boss just had his identity stolen, I wonder if it could be related. On black friday someone charged up $43,000 on his credit card between Best Buy and Marshall Fields. He did catch the guy though because the man used his original Reward Zone BB card to get the points for the purchases which had his original name and address on it. :p So far though the Michigan State Police and any other department of justice don't want to do anything to go arrest the man. On top of this, Best Buy won't give my boss the name of the man that stole his identity via credit card. They said its a 'privacy issue' of the man who stole his identity! I just had to 'wow' about how easy it is to get away with identity theft and nobody does anything about it, not even the justice system.
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Yep, the punishment and prosecution is pathetic for these type of crimes.


100 million people, wow. This is truly sad.
 
Indeed and I hope the politicans will tighten the screw of those thieves. More severe jail sentences and bigger fines would help reduce them a bit.

On the other side, there is still a big lack of education to teach everyone what to do and not to do with personnal records.
 
w1retap said:
Terrible..

My boss just had his identity stolen, I wonder if it could be related. On black friday someone charged up $43,000 on his credit card between Best Buy and Marshall Fields. He did catch the guy though because the man used his original Reward Zone BB card to get the points for the purchases which had his original name and address on it. :p So far though the Michigan State Police and any other department of justice don't want to do anything to go arrest the man. On top of this, Best Buy won't give my boss the name of the man that stole his identity via credit card. They said its a 'privacy issue' of the man who stole his identity! I just had to 'wow' about how easy it is to get away with identity theft and nobody does anything about it, not even the justice system.
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Has he tried contacting the FBI? They do have a department for this, and while they typically take minimal action, solid evidence (like what BestBuy has) can be enough for them to take an interest- after all, he's made it easy for them.
 
Xilikon said:
Indeed and I hope the politicans will tighten the screw of those thieves. More severe jail sentences and bigger fines would help reduce them a bit.
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How about enforcing the existing laws and penalties instead of upping them?
 
I have always thought that it was particularly interesting that you can rob a liquor store for $45 and a bottle of vodka and get 5 - 20 in prison doing hard time. Steal $5 million through identity theft, get 5 years in white collar prison playing tennis. What the!?!
 
SJConsultant said:
How many of those 100 Million ID's are dupes (meaning one person was in two or more compromised DBs)? :p
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Exactly.

How many user forums are you registered to? I know I've registered IDs on at least five sites linked from HardOCP to get on contests or to make a comment.

How many gaming communities are you a part of? Battle.net, Bioware, ...

How many customer support forums are you registered on? ATI, Canon, VIA, ...

How many banking and investment accounts do you have? Do you have separate signons for stock options vs. employee stock purchase plans?

I make it a point to register my information on AS MANY PLACES AS I CAN. This makes my internet identity less and less uniquely valuable to anyone who ends up buying/stealing it.

I'm selling my soul by logarithmic increments.
 
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