Identity Theft: Misinformation Can Be Your Friend
by Arcade One
All the advice I've seen about protecting yourself against identity theft is about as effective as Homeland Security's advice to buy duct tape and tarps to protect yourself against terrorists. Even if you follow their advice (most of which is common sense anyway), chances are you're already screwed.
This article looks at common ways in which your name, address, Social Security number (SSN), and other personal info can be legitimately compromised without your knowledge and then explores some simple (albeit unorthodox) ways to minimize the risks.
Shortly after reading an article in 2600 (20:4) that mentioned removing your SSN from your credit rating I began the process of purchasing a house. Because this was to be my second time purchasing a house I was already familiar with all the steps involved - from getting a mortgage to setting up accounts with my local utility companies.
In particular, I was all too familiar with the stream of junk mail and phone calls that start when businesses get their grubby paws on your address and phone number following your purchase. Worse than that though is the potential invasion of privacy, abuse, and fraud that can be perpetrated by somebody with the right information.
Note that the information contained herein is not legal advice (despite my using fancy words like "herein") and you are strongly urged to consult an attorney if you have any questions about the purchase, sale, or transfer of ownership of a house or any other legal proceedings for that matter.
Also note that this article is intended to be a recollection of my experiences and as such I have spent relatively little time verifying my claims for accuracy. Last but not least, the laws may be different in your state (or country).
When you buy a house, the purchaser's name gets added to the (publicly accessible) tax rolls. That means anybody can go online and find out when a given property was sold, who purchased it, what it was sold for, and what the property taxes are - for any sale made to any house at any time. (For instance, for Palm Beach County see www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/tc_pubaccess)
Your Home's Title
A "title" is a legal document that describes who owns a particular house.
Usually the information contained in the title only changes during a sale but it can also change when, say, two people own a house and one relinquishes their interest in it by signing a "quit claim" deed. In any case, whenever a title change goes into effect the new information becomes public record.
Many companies regularly purchase tax rolls from the county (which is only too happy to sell it to them) and send out junk mail to the people named in the tax rolls.
Since the title must include the homeowner's legal name, you don't have much choice in obfuscating it. The only way I can think of would be to purchase the house in the name of a company, partnership, or trust but that gets into legal stuff that is beyond the scope of this article.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
When you sell your home through a real estate agent they will list it in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS).
Companies of all manner of moral standing access this database regularly for newly listed homes. While an MLS listing usually doesn't include your name, it is still a trigger that you are considering selling your home and as such subjects you to the whims of marketers who will try to sell you related products and services for moving, cleaning, storage, and anything else that they might want to market to somebody who is selling their home.
Utility Companies
When you buy a house, chances are you'll want utilities such as gas, electricity, water, sewage, phone, and cable.
Most of the companies that provide these services ask for your SSN, at the very least simply to identify you uniquely but often to run a credit check. (After all, they're fronting you their services - and in the case of cable TV, physical hardware - and they don't want to be ripped off by a deadbeat.)
Some also ask for your driver's license number or other state issued ID.
Thereafter, whenever you call them to get info on your account or make changes to your services they will ask you to identify yourself by recalling the last four digits of your SSN.
Problem is, your SSN is notoriously easy for anybody to obtain and armed with that info (or at the very least the last four digits) they can monkey with your account to their heart's content. And your driver's license number isn't particularly hard for somebody to get a hold of either.
Aware of this, I purposely avoided divulging my SSN or driver's license number when setting up accounts with my utility companies. The results were interesting to say the least. Some companies initially weren't sure what to do but ultimately they all had a contingency plan.
Although I already had a BellSouth account, to set up service at a new address I had to provide my SSN and since I didn't want to do so BellSouth required me to go in person to a third-party payment center where the guy behind the counter glanced at my passport for less than a second and made a note into his computer that I had paid them a $100 deposit (refundable after one year of continuous service). Ironically the payment center accepted cash or checks but not credit cards.
The power company required a $240 deposit (refundable after 24 months of uninterrupted service provided I made no late payments) in lieu of me giving them my SSN.
The water company let me get away with faxing them a copy of my passport.
Interestingly, I was able to get away with not providing my SSN or driver's license number to the cable company and they didn't make me pay an extra deposit either. I think they had my SSN from the last time I (stupidly) gave it to them when setting up an account.
Name and Address
So much for my SSN and driver's license number. What about my name and address?
Many of these companies share information with affiliated third-parties (usually meaning anybody who is willing to cough up the money to pay for it) and virtually all of them use this info to solicit future business (such as calling you to upgrade to the next level of cable service).
Most companies let you provide an alternate billing address (different from the address where you actually receive service).
Options for protecting your physical address (opening a post office box) are beyond the scope of this article.
However, here's a tip that will help you at least identify who is sharing your address. When providing your billing address, add a bit of info that will uniquely identify that particular company.
For example, if you live in a single family home you can add an apartment number (e.g., #1A for ABC Cable, #2A for American Express, #1B for BellSouth, #1D for DMV, etc.).
Then when you start receiving mail from Joe's Window Tinting addressed to you at apartment #1A, you'll know they got your address from ABC Cable.
I keep a list of which companies I have given which apartment numbers to. So far the list contains 65 individual apartment numbers.
Now you may wonder how it is possible to place a credit card order if you are constantly providing a different apartment number since part of the verification process is to ensure the address you provide matches the billing address on file.
The good news is the apartment number is usually dropped when attempting to verify an address.
So even though your credit card bill gets sent to:
You can specify:
without any problems.
If you already live in an apartment and/or simply want to further obfuscate your real address, you have several choices:
- Add a suite number. For instance, if you live in apartment #5D, add a unique suite number that identifies a particular company: "Suite C1" for the cable company, "Suite P3" for the phone company, etc.
- Append a unique identifier to your existing apartment number. If you live in apartment #5D, add a dash and then a unique code that identifies the company you want to track: #5D-1, #5D-2, #5D-3, etc.
- Add a unique identifier to the house number. If you live at 123 Main St., #5D, change it to 123-A Main St., #5D, or 123-B Main St., #5D.
- Last but not least, use a unique first and/or last name. For example, you could have your phone bill sent to Belle Doe and your cable bill sent to Telly Doe.
I'm lucky because I have two other options for obfuscating my real address.
If you're like me and you live in a house with an alley behind it, consider using the name of the alley rather than the street your house faces.
Best of all, the mail in my neighborhood gets delivered to a common mailroom where the postal worker inserts it into individual mailboxes that are given numbers unrelated to our actual house numbers (presumably so a thief won't know which mailbox contains mail for which house).
This affords me the opportunity to use the address of the mailroom (yes, it is housed in a building with its own address) combined with the mailbox number as my mailing address. Voilà! Free P.O. box!
Keep in mind that the more you obfuscate your name and address, the greater the chances the post office will return your mail to the sender. But all things considered, you have to munge it pretty badly for them to do that.
The advantage of using a unique person's name in your mailing address is that you can theoretically notify the post office that one of those names has moved and they should stop delivering mail to that person.
For example, if you had your new computer shipped to "Ken Puter" (get it?) and you start getting all sorts of other solicitations addressed to that name, simply notify the post office that Ken Puter has moved and they will stop delivering mail addressed to that person.
Remember that the post office isn't run by geniuses and the danger of asking them to stop mail addressed to one person is that they will occasionally (or worse, frequently) return mail addressed to other people at the same address. So if you're going to try this, make sure the names you select are unique and clearly distinct from each other, and even then don't be surprised if your mail occasionally gets "lost."
Also keep in mind that the USPS has guidelines for what does and does not constitute a valid address.
Don't get too tricky or you might find your mail being returned to sender. For details see this section of the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM): pe.usps.com/text/DMM300/602.htm
While bulk mail (which can be identified by the preprinted "PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID" where the stamp usually goes) is usually the most insidious of all junk mail, the irony is that you can't simply cross out your name, write "Return to Sender," and drop it back in the mailbox.
The USPS discards all non-deliverable bulk mail, so if you truly want to return it to its origin you must repackage it, address it (if you can find the company's address), and provide postage.
Note that when you ask the USPS to forward your mail, companies that subscribe to the USPS' "Change Service Requested" will be notified of your new address.
So don't think that you can hide your new address from the rest of the world by forwarding your mail there. In fact, filing a change of address form with the USPS is pretty much a guarantee that your junk mail will follow you.
My advice: if you move, notify all the companies and individuals who need to know of your new address (remember to provide them all with a unique apartment number, suite number, or other identifier!) and forget the post office.
Or simply request temporary forwarding to your new address until you've had the opportunity to notify everybody of your new address.
The Government
Once the government has your address (and the moment you apply for a driver's license or file your taxes they will have it), it's a good bet they'll send you a summons for jury duty - whether or not you're already a registered voter.
It would be an interesting exercise to attempt to get out of jury duty by returning every summons with a note: "Moved from apartment 1A to 1B. Please forward to new address."
The cycle could continue indefinitely. Of course, I'm not advocating this; it's illegal to fraudulently evade jury duty.
Interestingly, I have received mail from a local car dealer that was addressed to the apartment number used only on my driver's license, which tells me (not surprisingly) the government is selling my name and address to local businesses.
Conclusion
In addition to all the other obvious advice about checking your credit report on a regular basis, you should be obfuscating your name and address wherever you can get away with it.
In the war against identity theft, misinformation is your best defense!