At work today, I encountered a woman who went to great lengths to explain to us that she had heard that one ought to hand over one's credit card face down to foil people with camera phones who might snap a picture of the card to steal the account information. By the way, if the glare is right, you can read the credit card numbers in reverse by looking at the back of the card.
Here's an article on www.snopes.com that goes into greater depths on this. When I first heard this, I grabbed Elie's camera phone and tried it out. Granted, his was a middle-of-the-line camera phone a year ago and quality has improved, but I had to hold the camera about four inches above the card before I could get an image that might have yielded information if blown up properly--quite a lot of work for one credit card number. In short, as Snopes also explains, the current level of technology makes card number theft by phone unlikely, though don't discount it in the future as the resolution and features of camera phones gets better.
Snopes goes one step further in investigating the problem. According to them, technology is adequate to snap shots of open checkbooks from 3-5 feet away. Credit cards only have card numbers, names, and expiration dates, but checks have the checking account number to the place where most people keep the bulk of the funds they use to live on, bank routing information, name, address, and possibly phone number, and I've encountered people who seem to think they should print their social security numbers on their checks (a colossally bad idea). As with so many of these paranoia-spreading rumors, there are much bigger related worries one can have if one insists on being worried about something. I heartily recommend checking www.snopes.com out before you get too uptight about anything you hear via mass-forwarded email (and definitely before you send it to me).
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OK people, here's how identity theft works: someone who wants your identity somehow manages to get your full name, your social security number, the place of your birth, and your mother's maiden name. With that information, they can gain access to almost all your personal and essential information. Yes, as this post said, a person could gain access to a checking or credit card account by the methods used (theoretically), but keeping an eye on your monthly statements can curtail any extended problems fast enough to stop any permenant damage. The major stuff you are warned against is access to EVERYTHING via your personal information (what this lady was concerned about was standard theft, not identity theft which is literally what the name implies: the theft of your identity). Now here's an interesting fact: did you know that less than 10% of identity theft happens as a result of digital information? That's right. The big paranoia everyone has about identity theft over the internet, while there, is quite overstated at this time. In the future, I'm sure digital identity theft will become much greater a problem, but for the meantime, most of your ID theft happens the traditional way: someone is going through your trash and taking your info from your garbage. So my advice: don't worry about camera phones or electronic debiting or ebills. Just don't let yourself get "phished" on email, and buy yourself a really good cross-cutting paper shredder. --Elie
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