FULL ARTICLE HERE
"Sep 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Glen Murray
I called the Best Buy in Whitby because I couldn't believe it would be that easy.
The phone rang only twice and a crisp young voice answered, "Best Buy, can I help you?" I asked about how I could get a Best Buy Credit Card. The very chipper voice said that all I needed was a driver's licence and a major credit card. "What if I don't have a driver's licence?" I asked. Don't worry. I was covered if I had my Social Insurance Number (SIN) and some proof of my home address.
I asked how long it would take to get the card. "Two to four minutes" she assured me and, not only that, she exclaimed I would be issued a temporary account card I could use "that same day!" "How convenient," I said barely hiding my sarcasm.
Well, that explained how on Oct. 2, 2006, it took just two to four minutes to become a victim of identity theft and credit card fraud.
A person pretending to be me, filled out a Best Buy credit application with the wrong birth date, they offered two phone numbers, one phone number was the general number for the University of Toronto and the other was not in service. Not only was the home address wrong, it was for a city I had never lived in.
Nothing was done to verify the person's identity beyond accepting the SIN. The application was sent into Wells Fargo, which handles Best Buy's credit cards. It used the SIN to check with the credit bureau. As I had a good credit record, the card was authorized. No further steps were taken to ensure that the person applying for the card was actually me.
Emboldened and now armed with one credit card, the imposter marched over to the Whitby Home Depot and repeated the crime. Within a few hours, the Best Buy card was maxed out and Home Depot card had a few thousand dollars charged against it.
The cards require no down payment and these retailers require no payment for months. The better part of a year would go by before there would be any recorded delinquency on the card.
I only discovered this crime in August of this year, when a collection agency called to collect on the overdue accounts.
I then called the retailers to find out how this happened. I was told over and over again by the people at Home Depot and Best Buy, and their respective finance providers Citicards Canada and Wells Fargo, that they would never give out a credit card based on a SIN and home address. I spent hours investigating only to discover that that is exactly what happened.
Then I found out the credit bureaus had been notified of these unpaid bills and my credit rating was dramatically downgraded.
The retailers who rush to give out easy credit, require no payments for the better part of a year and ask for little proof of identity, have made credit card fraud and identity theft one of the easiest crimes to commit.
No amount of evidence from me was sufficient for the credit bureaus to expunge my record. The absurdity is that the victim of this crime has to rely on these same lax retailers and finance companies to clear their name with the credit bureau. There is no chipper voice from Best Buy telling you that they will clear up this matter up in two to four minutes.
What makes me angry is that all this could be happening to you or me again right now.
Credit account fraud and counterfeit cards involve over 270,000 accounts and cost Canadian consumers, retailers and financial institutions about $250 million every year.
Until there is a law requiring minimum identity standards for issuing credit we are all very vulnerable to identity theft."
"Sep 16, 2007 04:30 AM
Glen Murray
I called the Best Buy in Whitby because I couldn't believe it would be that easy.
The phone rang only twice and a crisp young voice answered, "Best Buy, can I help you?" I asked about how I could get a Best Buy Credit Card. The very chipper voice said that all I needed was a driver's licence and a major credit card. "What if I don't have a driver's licence?" I asked. Don't worry. I was covered if I had my Social Insurance Number (SIN) and some proof of my home address.
I asked how long it would take to get the card. "Two to four minutes" she assured me and, not only that, she exclaimed I would be issued a temporary account card I could use "that same day!" "How convenient," I said barely hiding my sarcasm.
Well, that explained how on Oct. 2, 2006, it took just two to four minutes to become a victim of identity theft and credit card fraud.
A person pretending to be me, filled out a Best Buy credit application with the wrong birth date, they offered two phone numbers, one phone number was the general number for the University of Toronto and the other was not in service. Not only was the home address wrong, it was for a city I had never lived in.
Nothing was done to verify the person's identity beyond accepting the SIN. The application was sent into Wells Fargo, which handles Best Buy's credit cards. It used the SIN to check with the credit bureau. As I had a good credit record, the card was authorized. No further steps were taken to ensure that the person applying for the card was actually me.
Emboldened and now armed with one credit card, the imposter marched over to the Whitby Home Depot and repeated the crime. Within a few hours, the Best Buy card was maxed out and Home Depot card had a few thousand dollars charged against it.
The cards require no down payment and these retailers require no payment for months. The better part of a year would go by before there would be any recorded delinquency on the card.
I only discovered this crime in August of this year, when a collection agency called to collect on the overdue accounts.
I then called the retailers to find out how this happened. I was told over and over again by the people at Home Depot and Best Buy, and their respective finance providers Citicards Canada and Wells Fargo, that they would never give out a credit card based on a SIN and home address. I spent hours investigating only to discover that that is exactly what happened.
Then I found out the credit bureaus had been notified of these unpaid bills and my credit rating was dramatically downgraded.
The retailers who rush to give out easy credit, require no payments for the better part of a year and ask for little proof of identity, have made credit card fraud and identity theft one of the easiest crimes to commit.
No amount of evidence from me was sufficient for the credit bureaus to expunge my record. The absurdity is that the victim of this crime has to rely on these same lax retailers and finance companies to clear their name with the credit bureau. There is no chipper voice from Best Buy telling you that they will clear up this matter up in two to four minutes.
What makes me angry is that all this could be happening to you or me again right now.
Credit account fraud and counterfeit cards involve over 270,000 accounts and cost Canadian consumers, retailers and financial institutions about $250 million every year.
Until there is a law requiring minimum identity standards for issuing credit we are all very vulnerable to identity theft."
The credit reports show no "weird" activity.......I just dont know.
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