[ale] OT: am I paranoid?

[David Corbin]

On Thursday 09 October 2003 14:34, Bjorn Dittmer-Roche wrote:
> The credit card companies (and the credit companies) don't want you to
> know how easy it is: all it takes is your SSN and your mother's maiden
> name. 

I'd like to take issue with this.  As I work for a credit company (it's a 
temporary problem I hope to fix).  They want you to know how easy it is.  
Why? Because they want to sell you products.  Selling consumers access to 
their own information is a really the only place credit companies are likely 
to get any signficant growth.  Therefore, they want to scare you about 
Identity theft (it is a real problem of course, but fear is their friend).  
In return, because they'll hand out your information to just about anyone, 
they can take some of your money to tell you WHEN they've given it away.  
It's a real scam - the only good thing from my perspective, *my* group is not 
doing this.

David