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Comment by ROllerozxa | Hacker News Reader

> How do they handle identity thefts

By just accepting it as a normal fact of life that you will have some random stuff ordered in your name sooner or later with an invoice you'll have to dispute. Happened to a relative of mine, police do not care unless they order things above a certain value, without a police report you cannot get free ID protection, and then you'll have to sit for a long time in phone queues trying to cancel a subscription for a streaming service or whatever they ordered while get thrown around by support reps who go "you SURE you or someone in your family didn't order this?"

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I am Swedish and never had this happen to me. Never had random things show up or ordered for me at all. What would the point be, you have to pay or get an invoice? For Klarna they use BankID so only I can order an invoice for myself in reputable shops.

I am in my 30s btw so I was alive before BankID and it was a worse time. Remember my parents paid bills with paper.

The OP didn't claim it had happened to you. What they said is that it is possible to use the information about regular individuals that is publicly available to cause harm, and there are no attempts to stop this.

It is possible but it is not widespread.

Go back and edit your original comment because it is irrelevant and misleading.

No, I don't think I will.

There are plenty of reports online about how identity theft is becoming widespread in Sweden. The fact that something didn't happen to you is not evidence.

https://ocindex.net/assets/downloads/2025/english/ocindex_pr...

https://swedenherald.com/article/biometric-data-to-stop-fals...

That is absolutely not a normal fact of Scandinavian life. Gross exaggeration and misrepresentation.

That sounds rather unacceptable.

It basically never happens. I don't know where the GP got their story from.

Yes, I don't think anyone truly wants it to be like this. But it's just what happens.

You of course cannot access and empty out someone's bank account this way, you're safe in that regard. But you need to dispute the invoices as soon as possible to show that it is fradulent, so you don't end up needing to actually pay for it. Or get debt collectors after you.

^ Never had this happen in my 30 years here so YMMW

So don't take this poster by their word.

Not saying it DOES NOT happen as it is a system not made for the internet. But widespread? It is not.

Never happened to anyone I know either.

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