Creepy UPS identity confirmation

hmmmmm I didn't have to go through all of that weirdness when I signed up...

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

That's run by one of the big credit reporting agencies, I forget which. It's the same one the USPS and the health care exchange use.

I mean ... none of this is new. The only thing that's new is that since all the hoopla over the past year, police agencies have been much more public about using people's phone history to track where they have been in the past. I keep my GPS off as a matter of course ... although obviously they could turn it on remotely if they wanted ... and there's still the cell tower triangulation to give ballpark locations.

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I ended up with a glitch verifying my identity through the healthcare exchange. The credit reporting agency had incorrect information about me so I did not answer the questions correctly. They also had odd information about my spouse but I managed to guess what they really wanted and get him signed up. I ended up having to mail in a copy of my drivers license to sign up.

My problem is having homes in more than one state. The credit reporting agency just doesn't know where we live. :)

I generaly don't worry about this stuff; I accept the surveillence stuff as, well, the price we pay for not getting the sh*t bombed out of us. But, DH is vigilant about checking all of our stuff, which is good. He's the one whose Amex card has been breached at least 5 times, mostly because he uses it so much! We use a password security system that generates random passwords for everything we do and I don't have to remember them. Well, almost everything. Some things I like to control!
But... many years ago, before the advent of anything to do with a computer (1978?) I applied for a very small loan from my credit union, so I could finish my masters degree. I was denied because they said I owed Sears 300.00 (a lot of money then). It turns out, the credit reporting agency had my parents' Sears account listed under my name. My dad and I have the same first 3 numbers in our SSNs and our names begin with the same first 3 letters. My dad went to the credit bureau and threatened a lawsuit. They removed the balance from my report, and magically, Desert Schools Federal Credit Union gave me the measly 300.00.

Those kinds of questions aren't just used by UPS. We use a system when a student is taking a remote exam online that asks them for those sorts of answers also and the time limit they have to type the answers in is short. There is also a web camera watching them.

I've refused to have anything delivered by UPS since they slapped a 75% "customs brokerage fee" on a $100 item I ordered from an American site some years ago. They had me over a barrel, or rather my husband, as he was at home when it arrived. As I had little experience of buying from other countries at that time, I didn't know it was way over the top and it just put me off from buying items from non-Canadian sites.
When I ordered a $500 bike frame from an American online site recently it was delivered by normal post and the customs charges were only 10%, so UPS was definitely gouging. If I'd known there was a class action suit against them for that very reason, I'd have tried to take part, I think.