It is not that your identity so far as the state or federal government is stolen. Identity theft refers to someone gaining sufficient access to your personal information that it is possible to access your credit card accounts and bank accounts or create new ones. What they are stealing is your credit rating. They can then run up a big bill and leave you with it; the banks and credit companies may forgive the debt, but straightening your credit rating will be difficult and time consuming, or expensive (if you hire it done).
I suspect the same thing could happen to a Belgium citizen.
Could a person armed with your identity card open up a line of credit without you knowing it.? Could they get a "lost" identity card issued in your name to them?
Fred
On Jan 29, 2006, at 1:55 AM, Walter Vermeir wrote:
I have seen a request form a person who has a entry on the English language Wikipedia to remove his date of birth because he fears identity theft. He is a USA-citizens.
At first glance that seems to me a very strange reason to request to remove that information. How can you steal someones identity??
From the day of my bright until the day that I day that I die all my
movements are tracked in the national population register of Belgium. I have a electronic identity card, a electronic national medical insurance card. Most databaseses of the government functions are interconnected to exchange information about the citizens. There is not much the government does not know. (*) So how the hell can you steal some ones identify?
But I understand that things are very, very different in the USA regarding that. That there no way to verify someone identify. That you can get a visa-card whit a drivers licence ID and a drivers licence with the Visa-card as identification. And that this is also the reason that Americans are not enthusiastic to give you there bank account number because there is no good protection against abuse.
So when you look at it that way I would be scared also for identify theft if I where living in the USA.
Would it not be reasonable to consider the local circumstances when putting information in the articles?
Greetings, Walter
-- Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org Wikizine.org - news for and about the Wikimedia community
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