A little bit of mail fraud
Downstairs
where we pick up our mail from our individual locked mailboxes, there
is a basket where you put the mail that is delivered to you but is not
for you, such as the mail for the previous resident. The mailman will
then pick up this mail and do whatever they do with it. The thing is
just a basket instead of a proper mailbox, so I can't help but wonder
whether such laxity would allow many kinds of fraud. One time I got
this letter from the Ontario Ministry of Health, addressed to some
Chinese guy but sent and delivered to our address. I didn't open it, of
course, but wrote "nondeliverable - no such person lives here" on it
and put it in the basket.
For example, suppose I fill in one of those ubiquitous applications for a credit card under some made-up name like "Bob Mobert" and use the address of some other apartment in this building. Whoever lives in that apartment will then receive the letter that contains the card, and dutifully put it in the basket. I can just pick this letter up from there and enjoy my new credit card for a month or so. Repeat with another made-up name and another real apartment number. If I don't get greedy but will do this only a few times so that whatever computerized fraud detection system they have won't detect a pattern, I don't see any possible way that I could possibly be caught. I could just sit in my confortable armchair and watch through the window the cops hauling off the other guy, ending his loud protests of innocence with a swift swing of the billy club. I can already see this scene playing out in my mind in style of the fantasy cutscenes of Scrubs, so that I kind of look like that janitor character while the guy being hauled off looks like J.D. (For some reason, in this cutscene I am also holding some kind of big colourful and decorated drink in my hand, presumably paid for with this stolen money.)
What am I missing here? Could stealing ten grand from the faceless financial institutions really be this easy? I'm not going to do this, but if I did, I think that I would target MBNA, which many places have claimed to be the most evil one of the credit card companies. A few weeks after we moved here and got our first apartment, their representative actually called us new immigrants and asked for my personal info, including DOB and SIN. Of course, by doing this they enable identity thieves to do the same simply by calling and targeting newcomers. Since I had mistakenly believed that they were calling about another credit card that my wife was getting us, I gave them this info, and then spent the next month worrying about whether the call was genuine and if my financial life here will end before it even begins. So if there is ever anything that I can do to hurt MBNA in any way, please don't hesitate to tell me, since I'm in.
For example, suppose I fill in one of those ubiquitous applications for a credit card under some made-up name like "Bob Mobert" and use the address of some other apartment in this building. Whoever lives in that apartment will then receive the letter that contains the card, and dutifully put it in the basket. I can just pick this letter up from there and enjoy my new credit card for a month or so. Repeat with another made-up name and another real apartment number. If I don't get greedy but will do this only a few times so that whatever computerized fraud detection system they have won't detect a pattern, I don't see any possible way that I could possibly be caught. I could just sit in my confortable armchair and watch through the window the cops hauling off the other guy, ending his loud protests of innocence with a swift swing of the billy club. I can already see this scene playing out in my mind in style of the fantasy cutscenes of Scrubs, so that I kind of look like that janitor character while the guy being hauled off looks like J.D. (For some reason, in this cutscene I am also holding some kind of big colourful and decorated drink in my hand, presumably paid for with this stolen money.)
What am I missing here? Could stealing ten grand from the faceless financial institutions really be this easy? I'm not going to do this, but if I did, I think that I would target MBNA, which many places have claimed to be the most evil one of the credit card companies. A few weeks after we moved here and got our first apartment, their representative actually called us new immigrants and asked for my personal info, including DOB and SIN. Of course, by doing this they enable identity thieves to do the same simply by calling and targeting newcomers. Since I had mistakenly believed that they were calling about another credit card that my wife was getting us, I gave them this info, and then spent the next month worrying about whether the call was genuine and if my financial life here will end before it even begins. So if there is ever anything that I can do to hurt MBNA in any way, please don't hesitate to tell me, since I'm in.
ilkka --
the rate my professors site says that you look like "Arnold" and an "SS Officer". Mind posting a picture?
--gc from gnxp
PS: Good blog, by the way.
Posted by Anonymous | 5:24 AM
Actually, if you read my RMP page carefully, one student comment says that I look like an "SS officer" and then another one says that I sound like "Arnold".
In once posted a photo of me in my old blog's post "Pikkukaupungin henki".
Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen | 7:52 AM
then another one says that I sound like "Arnold".
Ahhhhh, true, but I suppose I (tacitly) figured that he would have picked a different icon had you looked radically *different* from Arnold. I dunno, like Jeremy Irons or John Malkovich or something.
That is, "SS officer" and "Arnold" seem to go together. And as one wouldn't think a priori that a Finnish accent would be comparable to an Austrian one, my inference (retracing the associational behavior that must have been going on in my brain) was that you must *look* like Arnold, and it was this *look* that made him say that you *sounded* like Arnold.
(and thus concludes a lengthy attempt to backsolve why I misrembered the snippet of text...i blame automatic associational compression! :)
--gc
Posted by Anonymous | 10:49 AM
I don't see any possible way that I could possibly be caught.
Well, if they perform a Google blog search on "mail fraud" and "credit card" the whole cunning scheme could potentially collapse on you. But best of luck. Particularly as regards MBNA Canada.
Posted by andy | 12:20 PM
In the United States, when you get a new credit card, you have to give a social security #, and presumably they run a credit check. If there's no credit history, they probably will only give a very low balance card.
Another thing that happens in the United States is that when you are mailed the credit card, it has a peel-off sticker on the top requiring you to call from your home phone. You can call from other phones, but have to answer more questions. They might also not take the verification call if it's a payphone (caller ID can usually tell you this), but I'd imagine you could use a disposable cell phone to cheat the system (although be sure not to call anyone else, since the Police could get a record of who else was called from that number and probably figure out who you were).
Add this to the fact that if you buy something in a retail establishment, they may very well be able to cross-ref the transaction time with a security tape.
I'm not an expert criminal or law-enforcement officer, but I would imagine that a big company like MBNA has probably figured out how some of the easier scams are perpetuated, and has some mechanisms in place to either prevent fraud or at least catch those who engage in it.
Posted by GMR | 1:43 PM
Musliminal messaging in Missisauga:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/011672.php
"MISSISSAUGA, Canada, June 4 — Several of the people arrested by Canadian authorities in a huge counterterrorism sweep over the weekend regularly attended the same storefront mosque in a middle-class neighborhood of modest brick rental townhouses and well-kept lawns."
The fuckers arested were planning terrorist attacks in the area and had purchased three tons of ammonium nitrate.
Posted by Markku | 5:45 PM