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I signed up earlier this year and the validation required answering several multiple choice questions with data from my credit report such as mortgage, car loan

I signed up earlier this year and the validation required answering several multiple choice questions with data from my credit report such as mortgage, car loan, etc. I also received a postcard confirming that Informed Delivery had been activated for my postal address.

TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago
I see, so they do some kind of verification. Thanks for your reply! I guess asking about credit report info is inadequate if people are managing to abuse this. One problem with that kind of thing is it's essentially security by obscurity, it's not deliberately created secret knowledge that can be trusted, it's stuff which happens to not be public and which only you should know, but there's no guarantee and you can't easily change it, right?
- _JamesA_ 8y ago
  The more I think about it I might be getting the validation mixed up with healthcare.gov. I definitely received the postcard though.
shimon 8y ago
I signed up a few months ago and had this type of validation as well. I didn't get a postcard, presumably they hadn't started that practice yet.
rootusrootus 8y ago
Same here. I signed up late last year and they used the same kind of credit bureau-based system that social security uses to verify your identity by asking questions about previous addresses, current mortgage or car loans, etc. Maybe it would be good to also add in a postcard check where they send you a code to verify you have access to mail for the address anyway. Sure, a thief could too, but in that case there isn't much of an extra risk to informed delivery since you'd be compromised already.
sesutton 8y ago
I just signed up and 2 out of the 4 questions could easily have been looked up on Zillow and they're all multiple choice with 4 options. The 2 questions were the year my house was built and the original sale price. So anyone would've had a 1/16 chance of just guessing it right.

TazeTSchnitzel 8y ago

I see, so they do some kind of verification. Thanks for your reply! I guess asking about credit report info is inadequate if people are managing to abuse this. One problem with that kind of thing is it's essentially security by obscurity, it's not deliberately created secret knowledge that can be trusted, it's stuff which happens to not be public and which only you should know, but there's no guarantee and you can't easily change it, right?

_JamesA_ 8y ago
The more I think about it I might be getting the validation mixed up with healthcare.gov. I definitely received the postcard though.

shimon 8y ago

I signed up a few months ago and had this type of validation as well. I didn't get a postcard, presumably they hadn't started that practice yet.

rootusrootus 8y ago

Same here. I signed up late last year and they used the same kind of credit bureau-based system that social security uses to verify your identity by asking questions about previous addresses, current mortgage or car loans, etc. Maybe it would be good to also add in a postcard check where they send you a code to verify you have access to mail for the address anyway. Sure, a thief could too, but in that case there isn't much of an extra risk to informed delivery since you'd be compromised already.

sesutton 8y ago

I just signed up and 2 out of the 4 questions could easily have been looked up on Zillow and they're all multiple choice with 4 options. The 2 questions were the year my house was built and the original sale price. So anyone would've had a 1/16 chance of just guessing it right.