Have you guys ever done a google search for yourself on the net? I did it a couple of weeks ago, and was very surprised at what it picked up. Old homepages, newsgroup postings, mailing lists, I expected all that sort of stuff. What I did NOT expect to find was stuff like dates of divorce (including ages and the ages of any children), dates of marriage, birthdays, birth locations, mother's maiden names, dates of death, etc., all easily accessible. Apparently all this stuff is freely available. Check out ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ and you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. Everything is sorted by state. It seems identity stealing would be really easy. All you need is someone's social security number (pretty easy to get at school) and their pin number (birth date) in order to change their mailing addresses. That means someone could redirect mail, like loan refunds and reimbursement checks and the like. I think many companies only require SSN and birthdays for identification, maybe even require mother's maiden name, so possibly bank statements, credit cards, etc could all be compromised pretty easily. This makes me really nervous. Anyone know any ways to safeguard personal information? or at least make it more difficult to get? Credit cards would be my biggest worry, I think.
I did a search for my name, and apparently I play center for Purdue University. I'm the number 73rd ranked offensive lineman in the nation. I'm a bad mofo!
When I do a search on my name, I get all sorts of sites about the band Orgy since there is a member named Ryan and a member named Paige who are often mentioned in that order on websites.
Yeah, I' ve searched for myself before on the web. I hate it when theres another artist who isn't me but who is using MY name! POSER!!! Also, apparently I died at the age of 6 in a tragic house fire back in 2000...damn, thats really sad.
You found your date of death online? That would freak me out, too. That stuff you mention is public record. I've gone to the courthouse and simply asked to see divorce decrees (of others. My lawyers were kind enough to give me a copy of my own divorce decree) and make copies with no problem. I've gotten people's home address from their license plate, etc. Checked criminal convictions, lawsuit information, property records and all sorts of stuff like that. And it's perfectly legal. On the scarier side, I have managed to get bank representatives give me account numbers over the telephone. Now, these were my accounts, but I gave no proof that these accounts were mine other than my word and a very small bit of background information. I suspect that it wouldn't be all that hard for someone to get account information for someone else's accounts if one was bold enough to just ask. (Speaking of, I had to fax a letter to my bank the other day to get some account stuff done. They wanted the letter because they wanted a signed document stating my desire to do what I was asking the bank to do. I actually forgot to sign the letter, but they still performed the transaction. I just thought that was kind of funny).
They wanted the letter because they wanted a signed document stating my desire to do what I was asking the bank to do. I actually forgot to sign the letter, but they still performed the transaction. I just thought that was kind of funny). RM95 deposited a check made out to me in his bank account. Bank accepted it with no problems. Cleared all the banks. They apparently didn't look at the name anymore than he did!
Sweet! I'm a famous AeroSpace Engineer gone triathalete. I could have sworn that was my sister, but it nope, it says Susan!
hey that was fun put in an old girlfriends name and found her homepage, pics along with a ring on her finger http://purifiance.org/hush/ph/contact.html man......
