posted on March 25, 2002 08:16:27 PM new
Yeah, right. The information one is asked to provide here could lead directly to such "secret" banking information as a mother's maiden name and a wealth of other data -- all of which could make establishing "new" identities in America easy as pie. No boob on earth would bother to go to every nook and cranny in the USA gathering up 172 million baby pics. (Which, btw, WERE NOT required when *I* was born in the 1950's, nor when my nephew was born in the 1970's!)
Only the birth of a baby is a matter of public record, and is usually published (and forgotten) within days of its occurance. Even this sort of "research" would've been less time-consuming than "gathering-up for your benefit for FREE" nearly 200 million baby photos by NURSERYPHOTOS.COM
Whatcha wanna bet that this "STRIVE TO, L.L.C." (operating as "NURSERYPHOTOS.COM" -- out of law-abiding New Jersey, no less! ) is nothing more than 100 or even 500 randomly rotated baby pics on a site whose real mission is to gather reliable information for free that can then be further developed to steal or create identities?
posted on March 26, 2002 07:26:09 AM new
If you would key any fictitious name and date into this site, you get a cute pic of a monkey. It was a joke. At least it WAS a joke.
posted on March 26, 2002 04:14:34 PM new
And it's still a joke, Alwaysbroke, because scads of people will enter "true" information into that site's form expecting to get in return a likeness of themselves they wouldn't even begin to recognize were it to lunge at them out of their morning bowl of cornflakes. But the nefarious (and perhaps damaging) "information-gathering" aspect of this (and others, so it seems) "friendly" website should, imo, be taken seriously -- lest the "entrepreneur" behind it makes monkeys of us all...
posted on March 26, 2002 05:04:53 PM new
Pat, I'm bewildered. Why would anyone go to the trouble of setting up a web site for such "nefarious purposes" when the same information (and more) could be obtained by simply reading birth announcements in old newspapers? (By the way, the site does not ask for mother's maiden name.)
posted on March 26, 2002 07:42:17 PM new
I can see it. The info collected this way is linked to someone who is alive - owns a computer - careless enough to give the info out easy.
Looks like a profile of a person who would likely have a positive current credit history and not catch on quick when you run an ID scam on them.
Old newspaper announcements the person could be dead - they could be a minimum wage drone - and they could be a cop or prosecutor.
posted on March 26, 2002 08:23:41 PM new Irene, I know the site doesn't ask for mother's maiden name, but what it does ask for is information one couldn't even get from published birth announcements.
1) You give your full name at birth
2) You give the name of the hospital in which you were born
3) You give the town/state in which you were born
None of that is information that's "just floating" out there on the web, and I'd speculate that, armed with such information, one could easily ratchet-up a notch (in secondary newspaper, public records files searches) and uncover such valuable information as a mother's maiden name.
Call me paranoid but I think anyone fool enough to enter legitimate information into a site like this is potentially setting themself up for utterly untraceable identity theft. Not that it matters if one can actually trace identity theft in this country right now. Our laws haven't kept up with either technology or high-tech con games, and it's the law-abiding citizen who pays the price for that (and their own) ignorance.
Gravid understands what I mean. I think. Perhaps that should concern me more than anything else...
posted on March 26, 2002 08:34:35 PM new
I had someone spoof my compuserve address and use it for spam. They used an 800 number to harvest the suckers and the first day I got 600+ flames demanding I stop spamming including 3 or 4 death threats.
I was able to search using PHRASES repeated in his spam and found 12 companies for phone cards - porn - pyramids etc. Just from the phrases as a start at the end of the day I had his current address for house and business, military record, bank used,college attended, and social security number. He had left his SS on a server in England 7 years back when he was a newbie responding to someone elses spam and it was still there after all that time. Once the mistake was made it was long lasting.
posted on March 26, 2002 08:44:22 PM new
Heh, remind me to never go overboard in offending you, Gravid.
This company that runs nurseryphotos.com is called strive.to
Its primary business seems to be promoting its own "ezines" and harvesting viable (as in spammable) email addys as a result:
Ezine: Strive.To Know Your History
Publisher: Strive To, L.L.C.
URL: http://strive.to
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 800-380-3690
Fax: 212-504-7977
Topic: Historical happenings each day
Circulation: 15000
Frequency: 5 days a week
Price: Negotiable
Description: This daily newsletter (5 days a week) explains what
has happened in history on each day.
Last Modified: 06/28/00
---------------------------------------------
Ezine: Strive To Quotes
Publisher: Strive To, L.L.C.
URL: http://strive.to
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 800-380-3690
Fax: 212-504-7977
Topic: Quotes
Circulation: 20000
Frequency: Five days a week
Price: Negotiable
Description: Three famous quotes delivered each business day!
Last Modified: 06/28/00
