The Glade 4.0

So I got my new credit card today, and called the number to activate.

Normally, I just enter the info over the phone and the creepy cyber lady tells me "Thank you, your card has been activated, blah blah blah" and I hang up.

But I knew things did not bode well when the voice told me to hold on the line and that "for quality control purposes," my call may be monitored.

So then, the actual human operator picks up. He speaks English, but with a very heavy accent (to the point where I have to block out all other noises to understand him). He's obviously reading from a script, but he then proceeds to try to sell me every friggin' bonus program under the sun. He even tries to sell me this one program (some credit score protection/look-up jobbie) three consecutive times, only changing the wording slightly. I politely refused all of them, and finally got confirmation that my card was activated and was let off the leash.

I'm a very patient person, but after 12 minutes on the phone for something that should take like 45 seconds at most, I was about to the point of saying "Look, I don't want any of your extra ****, just activate the damn card already!"

Yeesh . . .

Indian call centers need something to do, though..

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Being an identity theft victim, I was about to comment that you should appreciate the extra security of a random QC check where they actually confirm you are you in person, so to speak.

As that seemed to not be the case and they wanted to bombard you with extra offers instead, I feel your pain.

My original point stands, though. Next time a cashier, teller, credit card phone rep., etc wants to "inconvenience" you (not you, Rodahn, the general "you") by taking a little extra time to verify who you are, compare that little inconvenience against the large inconvenience of cleaning up after the ID theft has occurred.

Sorry for the public service announcement. You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread already in progress.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Credit Cards are evil.

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Haha... We just got an e-mail from the school where I work.... The laptop with all the payroll records was stolen, so someone has the SS #s and personal info of every graduate student, faculty and staff member at the university.

We're getting complementary identity theft protection services

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Definitely use it. It is what clued me in to the additional accounts the ID thief opened. It saved me a bunch of headache.

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

Yeah, I plan on it.

Kinda easy to manage, since I have no open lines of credit in my name Anything that pops up has to be something someone else did.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I dunno. I charge most things, pay it off every month, and end up getting $250 back every 4-6 months or so.

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The Dude abides.

Neph ya'lls place is behind the times. At our University, all laptops containing ANY personal identifying data of any student or faculty has to be encrypted.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

I didn't say ours weren't encrypted.

But encryptions aren't that hard to break. We actually think it was stolen by someone just for the laptop, but they're not taking any chances.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Not that hard to break? I can't remember the one we were using but whatever it was, if someone forgot their password the only thing we could do was wipe the whole laptop. It started with a 'P' I think.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Pointsec ?

LK, "not that hard to break" is a relative thing.

The expertise and resources to do so aren't worth securing for a lost password. But for identity info that could be sold/abused for serious money? It's crackable, or you have to assume it could be.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

This. If you lose your password, it's not that they can't get you in, it's just that its easier to wipe and set you up a fresh computer.

If someone wants to get in, they probably can, given the time and resources.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

I think it was PGP, Midgen.

Kaffis, that makes more sense...I suppose there are people that are willing to go to great lengths to un-secure certain types of data.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth