I read with interest Ken Hanley’s article in the Jun 29th issue of ComputerWorld (“They have a little list, and that’s good”, page 15). I chuckled as I read the article. It is something my trusting son would write. Ignorance is bliss.
You know there are 500 Hanleys listed on Canada411 but only 2 live in Calgary named Ken or Kenneth. One couldn’t possibly have hoped to find a phone number for the right Hanley without the Internet.
Do you know how many people give out a simple piece of information like their mother’s maiden name when answering a telephone interview? Now this bit of information is used to verify requests at the registry of motor vehicles and credit card companies.
What could someone do with a credit card and drivers licence in your name? Remember with the global economy no one verifies who is making the transaction. So someone who needs an identity takes yours, pays his bills on time, and you only find out about him when he dies and lawyers contact you trying to settle his estate. I don’t have to tell you what the paranoid would say.
Dave Grimshire
Lower Sackville, N.S.