At first it was odd when it happened, but I thought nothing of it. It was 8pm, Tuesday evening, I’d just got home and I received a call from someone claiming to be Australian Census Bureau. He said that he needed to verify my census form as some of my answers “were not legible”.
This was odd for two reasons, firstly the census was some time ago, almost a year – I’d since moved house and changed phone numbers. How on earth did he get this number? Secondly, as I recall, save for one or two questions, wasn’t it like a multiple choice form where you coloured in the appropriate dots?
Then things took a peculiar twist. He stated that he needed to first ‘verify my details’ and asked me for my address and date of birth. I was half way giving my date of birth before I stopped. I said wouldn’t it be better if he gave me the details and I’d verify them as correct? He countered that my date of birth which was one of the answers that was not legible on the form.
That’s odd, how would he be able to verify it then? So I immediately asked him to pass me to his supervisor in order to verify that he was from the ABS, he agreed and pretended to transfer me before promptly hanging up.
At that point I thought nothing more of it, though perhaps a little foolish for not twigging on earlier.
Then a few days later, I got a call from my credit card company, the lady asked
Did I ask for a replacement card? Yes, in fact almost two weeks ago.
Did I get? No, I still haven’t received it.
Did I make the following transactions yesterday … ? No, can you please list them again.
Someone had been spending up big on my credit card! When did the spending spree begin? Wednesday, the morning after I had that phone call. It seems someone had stolen the replacement card, activated it and went wild. And perhaps I, wittingly, had been the victim of fraud. Though unfortunately for my fraudulent fiend, my credit limit was embarrassingly low and they hit the limit a lot quicker than they anticipated (in a record 2 days!).
But even once they hit the limit and I cancelled the card, they had the gall to ring up the credit card company and complain about why the card had been declined. And it seems the guy knew quite a bit about me, leaving the credit company guy a little edgy about exactly which one was the real card-holder and which one of us was the fraudster!
But it’s got me thinking, with all that information out there about people and so many networking sites, it’s probably not too hard for someone to find out my date of birth, address, home phone number and the like which would make the fraud a whole lot easier. We give out this information too freely and share it too willingly. It makes us sitting ducks for fraud.
The Australian Law Reform Commission is currently reviewing Australian privacy laws including a data breach notification system and introducing a new statutory cause of action where an individual�s reasonable expectation of privacy has been breached. (The full Discussion Paper is here.)
While the merits of these reforms may be strong, I can’t help but feel they are looking for solutions once the horse has bolted. Perhaps the onus needs to be me and you to take more steps to protect their our own privacy.
- Not giving our details to any one professing to be from a bank, government agency or other organisation without proof they are calling from that organisation (perhaps offer to call them back instead).
- Collecting credit cards and important documents instead of having them posted to you.
The American Electronic Privacy Information Centre has a top ten “privacy self defense” list which suggests paying for cash, avoiding loyalty cards and opting out of marketing lists / information sharing arrangements when you buy services/goods.
The Canadian Privacy Commissioner has a useful fact sheet on protecting your online privacy that suggests:
- participating in chat or discussion groups under a pseudonym.
- Being discreet. Don�t provide personal information unless absolutely necessary.
- Using a disposable email address that can be discarded.
I’m sure there are other great ideas out there, but once again life has given me the test before the lesson and I think I’ve flunked!
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