The saga of my computer goes on! This morning I finally decided to order the bits I wanted from a company reccomended by Thom. They seem pretty good and their prices are very resonable. Order placed without a problem and so far, so good.
Then I get an email – “please fax us a copy of your passport or driving licence”. I first checked the date, but april was a long way past. Then I called. 5 minutes on hold to be told, “No, we really mean a copy of your passport or driving licence”. Apparently, this company “always asks when the order amount is over a certain amount.” I can only stop to wonder that people actually comply with this request?!
I’ve ordered good worth a lot moer money over the web before and never had this sort of request. In fact when I mentioned it to Fitz he asked if I was buying illegal arms! (The answer is no just in case of doubt.)
I received another email justifying their policy as “enhancing security” and “reducing fraud”, but it’s the very ease with which we pass out personal details that makes such activities possible. My passport has no details of use to verify a credit card, nor does my drivers licence. If I were standing in front of them, then I’d say it was fair enough, but I’m at the other end of the country.
The second email did contain an offer to accept a utility bill, so i eventually passed that along and hopefully that will be an end to it.
You actually sent them a utility bill?
I had a company that wanted passport and eventually said they’d take a “power, internet, phone, gas or mobile bill”.
I ended up paying a different company more for the same product – no way is any company getting a faxed copy of -anything- of mine. At that, its illegal to photocopy an Irish passport, same for faxing it. Too much information creep in this world – the 3 digit check number on the back of the credit card is enough proof its mine, really.
I sent them a copy of a bill, but all the bits that related me (apart from my name and address) were blanked out.
Information creep is a growing problem for sure.
Its getting to be so much of a problem here – companies wanting three forms of ID and two utility bills to get an account mobile phone, and so on – that the government is fighting it like crazy. Companies are legally restricted from even asking for your PPSN (Social Security) number, and I just heard a state-sponsored radio ad about your right to have your phone number delisted from the phone book. Unfortunately, we still don’t a a TPS or FPS here (I believe you mentioned them on this blog), but we do have an MPS, and my post has gone down about half since then.
Unfortunately, this means companies have to do more and more sneaky work to get you on spamlists and get information from you – I’ve seen application forms with 5 or 6 optout tick boxes, and this epidemic of asking for utility bills…
Huh,
that must be a new thing, they’ve never asked me for anything that silly.
Sorry you got to be the guinnea pig, mate…