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
_______________________________________________
Wikipedia-l mailing list
Wikipedia-l(a)Wikimedia.org
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l