Comment by velavar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by velavar | Hacker News Reader

Too many finance companies depend on National ID number, date-of-birth and Driver's License numbers to verify the identities of applicants for bank accounts, loans, credit cards etc. At this point, assume that all your personal information is out there. There are some steps you can take to make it a little more secure for yourself. In an ideal world, the fintechs and banks would protect you better, but we do not live in that world.

* If you are in the US, go to one of the credit bureau sites (Transunion/Experian/Equifax) and sign up for a fraud alert. You'll need to provide your current phone number and what this does is this: no fintech/bank is supposed to create an account or issue credit in your name unless they have verified the activity with this phone number.

* If you have previously been a victim of fraud, sign up on one of the aforementioned bureaus for an Extended Fraud Alert.

* Isolate your email tied to your finance accounts from regular email that you give out on website signups, doctors' offices, etc. Only your bank/brokerage needs to know that this email exists

* If you can afford to, pay to track leakage of this information on the dark web or password sharing forums

* Use a password manager

* Use 2FA on all your accounts and use an authenticator app if possible. It's not ideal but it's better than the SMS/email 2FA

* If your telecom provider supports it, ask them about how you can protect yourself from sim-swapping and porting. Add a PIN to your phone provider account if you can.

Wait, why should I take steps to prevent some random asshole defrauding a bank?

I am not the victim, nor a participant in fraud in that situation, the bank is. Maybe they should follow some steps and not give out money to randos that walk in and ask for it?

I get what you mean but sometimes it's really difficult for a bank to tell if it's really you or someone pretending to be you. Funnily enough, if we all "walked in" physically to a bank, it would be much easier for them to tell :). But now, they have to rely on phone numbers and emails and SSNs to tell them if it's really you. They don't have much of a choice - would you have any suggestions on what they could use?

Going to a branch physically is impractical these days - how many of us have even been to a branch that houses our brokerage or 401k accounts for instance? And so many mainstream Fintech apps like Stripe and Robinhood don't even have branches.

1. It's not my job to tell a bank how to not get defrauded. That's their problem.

2. If they are stupid enough to lend/send money to random people over the phone, that's their problem.

3. If they don't have enough branches open to support in-person services, which forces them to turn to over-the-phone work, that's their problem.

There's many other things they could do. Snail-mail identity confirmation, partnering with FedEx or another bank whomever to attest identity, etc, etc. It's not my problem if they are too cheap to operate branches, and too lazy to do any of those things, just like it's not my problem if you keep a chest of gold coins in your unlocked shed, and then go on to tell everyone about it!

> That's their problem

And yet, it's totally your problem.

All of our opinions on whose problem it should be, are worth nothing.

Because of credit reporting agencies subsequently telling lies about you and affecting your ability to obtain credit in the future.

But you already knew the answer.

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