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As a European I'm dumbfounded how this issue alone isn't deciding elections in the US. Somehow everyone just accepted having their identity stolen every once in

As a European I'm dumbfounded how this issue alone isn't deciding elections in the US. Somehow everyone just accepted having their identity stolen every once in a while.

ianferrel 1y ago
I'm in my 40s, and I don't know anyone personally who's dealt with any kind of significant issue due to identity theft or fraud. Like, occasionally my credit card company will call me up about some fraudulent transactions and then they'll mail me a new card and take the fraud off my bill. A problem can be simultaneously incredibly acute for an unlucky subset, structurally really problematic, and also on average have very low impact. Those problems generally don't decide elections.
- electrondood 1y ago
  I periodically receive OTPs I didn't request, because malicious actors are trying password stuffing with really old credentials of mine from data breaches. It's relatively frequent.
  - kgwxd 1y ago
    Yeah, but the consequences of things like that, if they succeed, are rarely anywhere near the level Nord VPN and Life Lock would have us believe.
- Supermancho 1y ago
  I traveled to the Caribbean on a cruise. I figure one of the staff found my wallet, which had my original Social Security Card in it. Years later, I find a letter from the IRS about unpaid taxes on income over the previous 3 years. My SSN had been used for fraudulent filings, despite my residence always having been in California. There was also the discrepancy of overlapping tenures at cleaning companies across the eastern seaboard and overlapping tenures at tech companies on the west coast. I talked to the IRS and I got audited (naturally). My income tax returns were withheld for about 7 years plus the 3 that had fraudulent filings. One day, I got a check from the US Treasury for all the back-returns plus interest. It was worth, I guess. Some individuals had also tried to get various loans, phones, etc in my name but my credit was sub 500 at the time, so they were denied. I kinda got lucky and unlucky at the same time.
ivape 1y ago
[flagged]
EGreg 1y ago
"As a European..." https://qbix.com/blog/2023/06/12/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-industry-where-this-regularly-happens-2/ https://qbix.com/blog/2023/06/12/no-way-to-prevent-this-says... https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/25/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-industry-where-this-regularly-happens/ https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/25/no-way-to-prevent-this-says... So it happens everywhere
- cycomanic 1y ago
  I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but non of your links refer identity theft in Europe (Turkey might be considered Europe in some geographic definition, but when people talk politics/law they typically mean the EU).
- southernplaces7 1y ago
  That silly little phrase gets smugly mentioned on this site so often that it should be labeled a parody of itself. As a European myself, I can't generalize shit about people from my enormous multi-ethnic continent of several hundred million inhabitants and dozens of states, mini states and assorted autonomous regions. It's full of contradictions, problems, social disasters, bureaucratic fuckeries, authoritarian nonsense, simmering brands of racism/xenophobia and other assorted crap that varies widely from one little part of its landscape to another, sometimes drastically. Many other Europeans on this site should consider climbing down from their imaginary pedestals of moral superiority. Very little about either past or present day Europe (insofar as you can generalize about it at all) merits such a sense of superiority, at all. It all comes with trade-offs. Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels.
  - Aeolun 1y ago
    > Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels. Hearing stories about the US, that is indeed how it feels. I pretty regularly read unironic stories of people that literally lived on the street because of some random misfortune. I just can’t imagine that happening in my home country (e.g. socialist paradise), and I’m inclined to believe much of western Europe is the same.
quantified 1y ago
Identity handed to Musk's businesses, along with all of the personal history there, is mind-boggling. But MAGA doesn't care, and all the enabling congresspeople will just say "omg, we didn't know that we should care". I suppose it's not as bad as believing/promoting the lies that got the US into two wars in Iraq, but it's still bad and sort of feels like it goes into the same bucket.
RajT88 1y ago
You would be shocked how Blase people are about it. The credit card companies block a transaction and issue a card replacement and everyone feels OK again. I have had a couple of PayPal alternatives accounts opened using my email address. Still feel on edge about it. Holy shit. The only thing which gives me a modicum of peace is I get free credit monitoring from the Equifax boondoggle.

As a European I'm dumbfounded how this issue alone isn't deciding elections in the US. Somehow everyone just accepted having their identity stolen every once in a while.

ianferrel 1y ago

I'm in my 40s, and I don't know anyone personally who's dealt with any kind of significant issue due to identity theft or fraud. Like, occasionally my credit card company will call me up about some fraudulent transactions and then they'll mail me a new card and take the fraud off my bill. A problem can be simultaneously incredibly acute for an unlucky subset, structurally really problematic, and also on average have very low impact. Those problems generally don't decide elections.

electrondood 1y ago
I periodically receive OTPs I didn't request, because malicious actors are trying password stuffing with really old credentials of mine from data breaches. It's relatively frequent.
- kgwxd 1y ago
  Yeah, but the consequences of things like that, if they succeed, are rarely anywhere near the level Nord VPN and Life Lock would have us believe.
Supermancho 1y ago
I traveled to the Caribbean on a cruise. I figure one of the staff found my wallet, which had my original Social Security Card in it. Years later, I find a letter from the IRS about unpaid taxes on income over the previous 3 years. My SSN had been used for fraudulent filings, despite my residence always having been in California. There was also the discrepancy of overlapping tenures at cleaning companies across the eastern seaboard and overlapping tenures at tech companies on the west coast. I talked to the IRS and I got audited (naturally). My income tax returns were withheld for about 7 years plus the 3 that had fraudulent filings. One day, I got a check from the US Treasury for all the back-returns plus interest. It was worth, I guess. Some individuals had also tried to get various loans, phones, etc in my name but my credit was sub 500 at the time, so they were denied. I kinda got lucky and unlucky at the same time.

ivape 1y ago

[flagged]

EGreg 1y ago

"As a European..." https://qbix.com/blog/2023/06/12/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-industry-where-this-regularly-happens-2/ https://qbix.com/blog/2023/06/12/no-way-to-prevent-this-says... https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/25/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-industry-where-this-regularly-happens/ https://qbix.com/blog/2021/01/25/no-way-to-prevent-this-says... So it happens everywhere

cycomanic 1y ago
I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but non of your links refer identity theft in Europe (Turkey might be considered Europe in some geographic definition, but when people talk politics/law they typically mean the EU).
southernplaces7 1y ago
That silly little phrase gets smugly mentioned on this site so often that it should be labeled a parody of itself. As a European myself, I can't generalize shit about people from my enormous multi-ethnic continent of several hundred million inhabitants and dozens of states, mini states and assorted autonomous regions. It's full of contradictions, problems, social disasters, bureaucratic fuckeries, authoritarian nonsense, simmering brands of racism/xenophobia and other assorted crap that varies widely from one little part of its landscape to another, sometimes drastically. Many other Europeans on this site should consider climbing down from their imaginary pedestals of moral superiority. Very little about either past or present day Europe (insofar as you can generalize about it at all) merits such a sense of superiority, at all. It all comes with trade-offs. Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels.
- Aeolun 1y ago
  > Reading some HN comments from "As a European" types, you'd think they were already living in a wonderfully socialist version of the singularity, and it got built right next to the Pearly Gates, where it daily receives the airy blessings of winged angels. Hearing stories about the US, that is indeed how it feels. I pretty regularly read unironic stories of people that literally lived on the street because of some random misfortune. I just can’t imagine that happening in my home country (e.g. socialist paradise), and I’m inclined to believe much of western Europe is the same.

quantified 1y ago

Identity handed to Musk's businesses, along with all of the personal history there, is mind-boggling. But MAGA doesn't care, and all the enabling congresspeople will just say "omg, we didn't know that we should care". I suppose it's not as bad as believing/promoting the lies that got the US into two wars in Iraq, but it's still bad and sort of feels like it goes into the same bucket.

RajT88 1y ago

You would be shocked how Blase people are about it. The credit card companies block a transaction and issue a card replacement and everyone feels OK again. I have had a couple of PayPal alternatives accounts opened using my email address. Still feel on edge about it. Holy shit. The only thing which gives me a modicum of peace is I get free credit monitoring from the Equifax boondoggle.