[Wikipedia-l] Re: Where ends the responsibility of Wikipedia? (personal information of people)

Tue Jan 31 22:34:26 UTC 2006

Fred Bauder schreef:
[cut]
> I suspect the same thing  could happen to a Belgium citizen.
> 
> Could a person armed with your identity card open up a line of credit 
> without you knowing it.? Could they get a "lost" identity card issued 
> in your name to them?
> 
> Fred

I asked some one who works at the bank about this. It is not as save as
I was thinking.

In Belgium you have now 3 types of ID-cards

- the new electronic ID-cart. Contains a chip with secured information.
With the card and your personal pin code you can identify your self
legally. Used for things like your income tax declaration.

- the old ID-card, plastic. Not electronic. The replacement of all
ID-cards by electronic ID-cards is in progress but it takes time to
replace them all.

- the 19th century-style ID-card ; only paper with a picture physical
attached on it with a seal on it. Used for foreigners en refugees. Those
will also be replaced soon by the electronic ID-card but it is not yet so

Situation in Belgium for KBC (major Belgium bank);

To open a bank account;
- if you use a stolen ID card there no systematical check of that card
is stolen or not. Lists of the ID-numbers of stolen cards exist but are
not normally used to check the status of a ID-card.

- if you have an electronic ID-card the information of the chip is
read-out. This contains your name, date of bight, address, national
registration number and a photo. The function that the card supports to
identify yourself with the pin code is not used. The only benefit that
you with the electronic ID-card is the you can be sure the the card and
the information is valid. Of the person using that card it that person
you can not be sure.

Fake cards; so long the card is made good and is non-electronic the bank
can not check them of the are real. There is not check of the
registration numbers are valid and of those match of those on the card.

But if your able to open a bank account you will not be able to max out
your credit and disappear. New customers do not get credit. And the
system that is common is some countrys that you do not have to pay your
credit card bill at the end of the month but only the interest is not
commonly used and only given if the bank really knows that you can pay
for it. Not for a guy who just opened an account.

If you try to get a loan the bank receives the information of all loans
and credit lines that this person has by any Belgian credit company. And
also of the are paying them back or not. So it is not possible to get
several loans on the same person.

So it is not so good as it could be. The total roll out of the
electronic ID card, and if the function of the pin code is used should
make it safer.

-- 
Contact: walter AT wikizine DOT org
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