My daughter had an experience with this sort of thing recently. She and her husband applied for a loan and were turned down based on her credit report. It wasn't HER credit report! After some investigation, it was discovered that a young lady close to her in age had been using her Social Security number for the last 4 years. She had open arrest warrants in a neighboring county. The girl claimed that she had lost her SS card and the SS people gave her this number over the phone. Of course, they deny having ever done that and offered my daughter a new number! This would wipe out the bad information, butit also wipes out her good work record and she'd loose credit for it! Ironically, my daughter and this other girl actually worked for the same employer for a short while and their payroll people didn't even catch it! To make a long story short, The SS dept refused to prosecute, the county detective said there was nothing they could do, the girl got away with it, and my girl had to make some choices that effect the rest of her life and noone else's. Yes, BE CAREFUL what info you give! Lynn Murray --- Carole Dutton Malisiak <malisiak@midohio.net> wrote: > Hi to All, > > Ancestry.com had my name and parents for several > generations listed on their web > page. I asked them to remove it and they did within > 2 to 3 weeks. There was no > argument, no disagreement. I did not want it there. > They took it off. > > ROOTSWEB on the other hand WILL NOT REMOVE my living > family members. They > REFUSE! I am mad. Even if information is available > elsewhere, why make it easy > for the con artists to rip you off and steal your > identity, open bank accounts > in your name, buy things and charge it to your name, > then not pay; and ruin your > credit rating (and make you pay for their > purchases?) Genealogy is about DEAD > relatives--not living ones!! > > Do not send your gedcoms with the names of living > family members to > anyone--because you do not know what they are going > to do with them or who they > will pass them on to AND you have no idea what some > recipient down the line will > do with your information either. Just protect > yourself as much as possible and > keep private information private. > Carole > -------------------- > Mike Dunton wrote: > > > > Several of us have been recently talking, offlist, > about privacy issues. I > > am personally a big advocate of protecting > personal privacy. It is my > > belief that privacy is the foundation, if not the > cornerstone, of all other > > personal freedoms. Anyway, that said and getting > off of my soap box :) here > > is an article out of a genealogy newsletter that I > receive. > > > > Mike > > ============ > > > > - Another Privacy Invasion? > > > > I normally do not get too concerned with the issue > of personal > > privacy. However, this week I found a new Web site > that concerns > > me. > > > > AnyBirthday.com allows you to search a free > database of well over > > 135 million records for the birthdate of almost > anyone in the > > United States. I went to that site and started > testing it. Not > > only did I find my own date of birth, I also found > the birthdates > > of almost everyone else that I tried. Of course, I > did try to find > > the exact birthdate of my great-great-grandfather > who was born > > around 1810. Unfortunately, this site doesn't have > records back > > that far. Most of the records contained in their > database are for > > living individuals. > > > > I find it a bit disturbing that my own birthdate > along with about > > ten others that I checked on are available to > anyone who wants to > > know this information and has access to the > internet. Does this > > seem a bit scary and invasive to anyone else? > > > > You can look for birthdates at: > http://www.anybirthday.com > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > About the author: Dick Eastman is the forum > manager of the four > > Genealogy Forums on CompuServe. He also is the > author of "YOUR > > ROOTS: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" > published by > > Ziff-Davis Press. He can be reached at: > roots@compuserve.com > > > > Subscription information: To subscribe to this > free newsletter, to > > cancel an existing subscription or to modify an > existing > > subscription in any way, go to: > > > > http://rootscomputing.listbot.com > > > > If you want to see the current issue as well as > back issues of the > > newsletter, look on the World Wide Web at: > > > > > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/columns/eastman.htm > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com