DNA Puppy Project
J: Dorian and
Amethyst got a puppy! His
name is Tevye (from Fiddler on the Roof) and he's one of the cutest
things in the universe. He's an Austrailian Shepard, eight weeks old.
He was potty-trained in a day and is already fetching toys.
We had a little campfire
a few nights ago. It was a really nice night for it. here are some
pictures.
  
This week's rant is
about the hypocrisy behind identity theft insurance marketing. Monday
morning a nice lady called me and claimed to be representing Chase
Financial Services, one of my credit card companies.* She wanted to
tell me about the excellent package Chase has for identity theft
insurance, how it covers all sorts of thevery, and it only costs
7-something dollars a month.
"That's a lot," I commented.
Undaunted, she continued reading her script and said Chase would mail a
pamphlet and forms to me.
"Now," she said, "if you can please verify this information we
have--and I want to stress that we are not asking you for any of your
personal information--but if you could just answer yes or no to some of
these questions, we will send you the insurance pamphlet. This should
only take thirty seconds or so." Then she read my address to me, and
asked if it was correct.
My mind reeled. "But," I said, "that is
personal information you are
asking me for."
She repeated that she just wanted to verify that she had the correct
address, and asked again for a yes or no answer.
I said, "That's alright. If you have the correct address it will get to
me, and if it doesn't, no big deal." She sputtered a bit--I couldn't
tell if she was upset or laughing--and then she politely said goodbye.
Does anybody at Chase get the irony of this conversation? One of the
primary methods that con artists use to get personal information from
marks like you and me is to do exactly what this lady was doing. Never mind the
fact that Chase and other banks are legally bound to protect
my personal information anyway
(so their insurance smells of a
protection racket, e.g. "and if youse don't buy our insurance, there's
gonna be an accident for sure...") If this really
was Chase calling me, their efforts to fight ID theft are extremely
suspicious. It's kind of like noticing a lot of little fires
everywhere, and handing out buckets of gasoline to people so they can
dowse the flames.
I called Chase and asked another nice lady if they were really fighting
identity theft by asking people for personal information. She said yes,
they were, but that they were only verifying information they already
have. I felt my words go right over her head as I explained the
similarity between Chase's methods and those of actual thieves. I told
her that Chase's practices get people used to giving out (or verifying)
personal information over the phone, a habit that definitely increases
the risk of identity theft. I added that Chase had a good racket,
because if they continued to train customers to give out personal info,
well, they'd be selling a lot more insurance later on. "Doesn't any of
this sound bizarre to you?" I asked. She said she understood and would
take my name off of the call list for the ID theft coverage. Oh well.
What a strange world we live in. Whoever is in charge of Chase's
security department should be ashamed but I kind of doubt that they'll
ever get it, or care if they do. Chase only has incentive to increase
the numbers of fires, because they're selling the gasoline.
*[The author admits he has increased his security risk by posting the
name of his credit card company, but feels it is a necessary risk to
further his cause. His debt to Chase Financial Services is a temporary
setback, and he hopes to pay up and close his account soon. It's too
much of a security risk.]
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