Creepy UPS identity confirmation

[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.