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Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
Sprint opened an account in your name then gave the phone(account) to someone else. Therefore Sprint stole your identity. Sue Sprint, ...
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I started this thread in 2000. Identified are two necessary functions. However, even in The Cellar, the overall concenus was that this is really not a serious problem.
One, we use driver's licenses for a function they were not intended. To identify yourself. Therefore even the 11 September attackers were using counterfeit NJ licenses to get onto planes.
Two, we use Social Security numbers, again, for a function they were not intended - identity. Again, we have no system so that you can even prove who your are. A system that empowers the little guy at the expense of a big system now intended only to protect the big system.
Third, even the lady who was then in charge of Passports got on Nightline (maybe 1999) crying out the absolute need for protection from this crime. She was talking to an American who would not hear facts because too many will only respond emotionally - after they have personally suffered from the crime.
A US Passport being a most desireable target for counterfeiting. A task so easily accomplished that the Clinton administration was part of the raid on a gigantic al Qaeda document counterfeiting operation in Albania. The counterfeit passports were said to be so good as to be undetectable.
Four, we return to two functions identified in that earlier discussion. You must have a means so that you can prove who you are AND the same system must also make it possible for you to discover that others have stolen your identity. Both functions are under your control. Screw those who decry it cannot be done; therefore it will not be done. That is the neanderthal thinking that always creates failure.
I expect a majority here to still be opposed to such needs using various reasons such as, "It cannot be done", or "Government will use it to screw us." How many people need we screw before even the neanderthals admit a solution is required.
An unavoidable problem with this solution is that it requires a central database. This function cannot be accomplished with many independent, private databases. If done using separate databases, then a potential victim cannot verify his identity is secure. It is essential that every America be provided with (not required) to have a system so that he can prove who he is AND can verify his identity has not been compromised.
How many godwulfs need occur before we, the people, stop being our own worst enemy - and admit we must innovate. An 'identification and verfication' system has become necessary and inevitable. Simply a question of how many neanderthal victims happen before logic overrides our misplaced emotional fears. Every American should have the right to both identify himself AND to protect his own identity. No such system exists or is even being proposed. That would require innovative thinking in a government who is too busy planning unilateral attacks on Iran and North Korea.