Creepy UPS identity confirmation

[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.

[Irulan]

Hnmm, I don't know what UPS My Choice is. I use one of the commercial services, My UPS. (ups.com) username/password is it.

[tulip]

I had a package stolen off my porch, too. Apparently there are people who follow delivery trucks specifically for that purpose. I now have packages held for pickup.

[OakLeaf]

I hold most of mine also, because our lane won't take a lot of truck traffic. UPS My Choice (and the equivalent FedEx service, I forget what it's called - although FedEx will only hold express parcels, not ground) - is the only way I know ahead of time that a parcel is coming so that I can have it held. Or just this week, I got notice that an unexpected parcel was coming to the wrong address. I could've redirected it myself if I'd paid for it, but I was able to contact the shipper and get them to redirect it.


To anyone with an interest in surveillance, two books by James Bamford, The Puzzle Palace (1982) and The Shadow Factory (2009) are a great place to start. But that's a whole different thing from corporate data mining. I mean, here we all are on an internet forum ... some of us take some basic steps to protect our privacy from blunt instruments, but I'm sure TE makes good use of our data (as they should! for hosting this place).

[rebeccaC]

malkin…if the people you knew question were employers or relatives then those, the addresses and birth dates (even ex's) were common credit report info.

[malkin]

Seriously, how many people know the birthday of their ex-spouse's ex-spouse?

[rebeccaC]

I wouldn't care to know ….but then no legal ex's involved in my life….yet

[Irulan]

on the topic of crazy security stuff - this happened yesterday and I'm still freaked out about it, in a not-good way:

I manage a bank account for my sister who is a nun in retreat. All the deposits and withdrawals are on automatic, so I don't check it a lot. I figured with the holiday season and rampant electronic theft going on I should probably take a look at it. I don't log in a lot, so the site came up the extra security questions, as it should. I had some trouble with the answer as the ones I had noted weren't working, and ended up calling the bank at the number they give if you have login trouble. It is a very small local bank, so I know I am calling someone at the bank and not a call center.

I explained that I was having issues, she verified me with a user name and birthday, and then when I was going over the answers to the security questions with her, she was giving me the answers! As is, "do you have XXXXX for the best mans' last name?", and "do you have XXXX for your childhood best friend?" WTF? The issue was corrected - I had noted first name not last name for the last name question but still.....yikes. I think I'm going have a chat with them.

[Thorn]

I explained that I was having issues, she verified me with a user name and birthday, and then when I was going over the answers to the security questions with her, she was giving me the answers! As is, "do you have XXXXX for the best mans' last name?", and "do you have XXXX for your childhood best friend?" WTF? The issue was corrected - I had noted first name not last name for the last name question but still.....yikes. I think I'm going have a chat with them.

It was things like this for which I recently changed banks. After several attempts at pointing their security problems to no avail, I decided I couldn't trust them. The sad part is that the new bank may not be any better, but so far, they haven't done any obviously dumb things.

Seriously, how many people know the birthday of their ex-spouse's ex-spouse?

I have been divorced for more than 20 years, yet my ex will still shows up on these reports. Consequently, when sites that use the data list "associated" people, his current wife shows up. If I were you, I'd pull my credit report at this point to make sure that your ex's debt is not on your report. The association seems to last, but you want to make sure that there is no debt linkage.

But I had to fill out one of those Q&A's recently for something and, yes, I found it creepy. And I tend to keep a relatively low internet profile.

[BikeDutchess]

That's run by one of the big credit reporting agencies, I forget which.

Yes, and for some reason I thought that was tied to your SSN, which I did NOT supply to UPS My Choice. That's why the questions surprised me.

[Catrin]

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

[Crankin]

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.

[TrekDianna]

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.

[nuliajuk]

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.

[goldfinch]

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.

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.