It’s in the news again. Idiot phones are once again causing people to become victims of identity theft. They aren’t smart phones, they are phones for idiots.
The current and growing scam is walking into a cellular retailer no where near the victims location, impersonating them and “upgrading” phones to the latest idiot phone on the market. The FTC calls this account hijacking. A 2013 Forbes article stated over 5000 phones were seized from one identity theft ring. This problem is growing.
One thing contributing to this problem is the abuse of Social Security Numbers for identity. Nearly every vendor management system out there asks companies submitting candidates to provide the last 4 digits of their SSN as a “unique identifier.” While this may skirt the letter of the law regarding the use of SSN, it does not skirt the spirit of the law. Adding insult to injury the last 4 of your SSN and your cell phone number are traveling around the Internet in unencrypted email. If you have applied for a job via email through one of these systems, you are at risk, even if you don’t have an idiot phone.
While skimming through the articles floating around about phone account hijacking a common thread emerged. The cellular stores were only requiring a photo ID and the last 4 of SSN to identify someone. This doesn’t have to be an ID good enough to fool a cop which can run the information on it, just an ID good enough to get someone into a bar. They walk out with one or more $600+ idiot phones charged to your account. The articles also point out they aren’t dumb enough to use or resell these phones inside of America where cellular providers could track them. These phones are shipped overseas where they can most likely be sold for close to full street price.
You will see much advice on you taking steps to prevent this such as adding pins to accounts, etc. What is missing is a national outcry for the government to crack down on SSN abuse. I’m old enough to remember when SSN abuse was so wide spread banks used to offer the option of having both your driver’s license number and SSN printed on your checks. Why? Because most retailers took checks and didn’t have check cashing cards. Every time someone wrote a check the clerk had to record all of this information on the check. Retailers have moved to credit cards which have their own issues but the job application process is still using SSN exposing every job seeker in the country to identity theft.