deird_lj | signing my life away

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signing my life away

It occurs to me that, if you decided to become an identity thief, becoming a mobile phone salesman would be a really good start.

Got a new phone (an IPHONE) yesterday, and I had to give them:
- my driver's license
- my credit card
- my Medicare card
- my address
- how long I've lived there
- where I work
- my boss's name and contact number
- how long I've worked there
- my signature (three times)
- my bank account details

O.O

I'm going to wake up next week to discover that my bank account is empty and the guy who sold me my phone has moved to Hawaii, aren't I?

(And to prove, once again, that computers do indeed hate me, my phone decided not to connect to the network for three hours after it should have, and I had to talk to FOUR different customer help line guys before they could figure out what was wrong.)

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Why did they need your Medicare card?!

ID points, I think. To prove it was me.

WTF? Why did they need to see your Medicare card????

Gabrielle

So they could prove it was me, I think. Which is odd, because they already had my driver's licence and credit card. If I'd already stolen those...

That seems so weird to me.

Gabrielle

It's that whole 100pt ID check thang. Also medicare cards are pretty easy to confirm as lost/stolen, in that case...

- where I work
- my boss's name and contact number
- how long I've worked there

Why is this relevant, I wonder?

Credit check. :)

(Given that they'd just handed me a VERY EXPENSIVE phone, I guess it's reasonable...)

If this is too personal, please tell me to shut up-- So does that mean that you are paying installments on it or something? Because if you paid upfront, I still don't see why they need to know this.

Sorry, this is just a pet peeve of mine. Considering that every time I go to Bath and Body Works, they ask me for my phone number. It's like, "I don't WANT you keeping a shopper record on me. I just want to get some lotion, pay you cash, and leave." I've taken to downright lying when stores ask me for my email, saying I don't have it or don't check it, because I don't need their spamming coupons, or them knowing who I am.

Nah, it's a contract. I get the phone for "free" as long as I have a rather-expensive account with them for two years.

Huh. I mean, I have a contract on my phone (though not an iphone) and I didn't have to give them my life history, lol.

*Snort*

They don't sell phones for cash in America.

The very idea. It's like you've never heard of America at all.

Getting a phone requires a mandatory credit check. If you don't participate in the overspending, debt based, credit card fees economy then you're not really considered a first class citizen. Don't plan on renting an apartment, buying a house, opening a company, getting a telephone, or signing up for home internet access. You may have to check with multiple banks before one will open an account for you. If you don't believe in borrowing, your soul stinks in the nose of America.

Let's just say that ever since I came back from abroad, I'm not really satisfied with my native culture.

Yet another reason why I'm glad to not be American...

(Reason number one being the food.)

>(Reason number one being the food.)

Thank the petulant Gods we've been importing more and more immigrants from the Far East and Latin America. Best to hire them to cook your food for you.

I'd try and defend our food, but the main plus of American food is that we basically have a concentration of the good food from all the other countries in the world, but kind of different/Americanized...

Let's think about this in the context of me.

- my driver's license
I''ve never shown this to anybody, ever since acquiring it. (Then again, I don't own a car.)

- my credit card
Yes, if I'm paying for something with it. A couple of times I've used it as a form of identity, too.

- my Medicare card
The only people who've ever seen my NHS card are a doctor or two I registered with. I've given the numberon it to hospital receptionsits once or twice, but these days I generally say "Sorry, I can't remember what it is".

- my address
Pretty standard for expensive purchases.

- how long I've lived there
Never been asked this.

- where I work
Never been asked this, except as social small talk. Except maybe when I applied for a mortgage on my house.

- my boss's name and contact number
Never had to give this outside a work context.

- how long I've worked there
Never been asked this that I can remember.

- my signature (three times)
Given this.

- my bank account details
Given this when arranging to pay by direct debit.

When I got my mobile, as far as I remember all they wanted was my credit card and address. I've proven my identity by presenting an electricity, gas or telephone bill with my name and address on it often enough; that's pretty standard here. If anyone asked for photo ID I'd have to go and get my passport.

- my driver's license
I''ve never shown this to anybody, ever since acquiring it. (Then again, I don't own a car.)

Really? I have to show it to all sorts of people - especially my bank, when I'm taking out large amounts of money. (Easiest form of photo ID.)

I've often seen references in Britain to "produce some form of ID such as a driver's licence", but I've never had any trouble with using utility bills and the like.

How large is a "large amount of money"? I think £250 is the daily withdrawal limit here but all you need for that is your debit card, no other ID. In fact, I don't think I've ever been asked to produce a photo ID as such - obviously I've been asked for my passport when going abroad, and I've worked for companies which issued photo-IDs to their employees, but they're specific-purpose IDs which just happen to have photos on them.

Large amount of money: over $1000, which is my rent money. *does conversion* So that's £576.7 - which seems to be fairly large...

Um, yay for getting an iPhone? :) Really though, yay! I hope you love it (and that the bad network faeries stay away from now on).

I have to present my driver's license all the time, even though I don't really drive- course that could be cause I'm under 30 and it's when I buy alcohol here in America. ;)

Strange phone-signup people, I say.

Very strange.

Yay iPhone!

Yay for new iPhone. I got one about a month ago and love it. Though I too had problems getting it connected - though that was all my fault (but the customer service guy was kind enough not to point that fact out to me) *g*

I got mine from the o2 website, filled in the name, address and bank details for the direct debit, credit card details for the bit I was paying towards the cost of the phone so that I could get a lower monthly charge and the phone was delivered two days later. No ID checks at all.

My (British) driving licence is so old it doesn't even have the photo card with it that new licences are now issued with.

Oof, that's scary! Probably necessary and not that skeevy, but...eugghh. Weird feeling to give someone all that.

And, ooh, iPhone! I feel like that's something I want now because I don't have it, but would be totally hopeless using it and would only end up using about a tenth of the possible features.

I started by thinking about how long it had been since I was on a "real" mezzanine, one as of old. Nifty things, they were. Then I got into words that rhyme with mezzanine: magazine, Argentine, tangerine, tetrazine (not involving chicken), thorazine and all those other "zine" drugs, and bombazine -- a word most folks have never even heard today. I'm strange. Yup, and I do know it, but there ya go. And if it gives you any comfort, computers hate me too. The techno-gods cursed me long ago. I don't even get along with light switches and things that plug in.

Here's hoping your identity is not thefted by the mobile phone guy,
the Fairy Godmother of Verbal Usage

...just read this, and I gotta query the

O.O

...should it be o_O (or O_o, I dunno if teh way round really matters)?

...I've never seen a O.O, is all. He does look scared though.

o.O would be one eye wider than the other.

O.O is both eyes extremely wide.

:)

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