ID Theft Incident and Resources

This blog entry is partly to share what I think is a fascinating story along with some very useful information. Mostly though, this entry is to preserve the following links for my own later reference.

The story of Publius Ovidius and how he was alerted to someone using his identity and then personally tracked them down and led the police to them.
     - Part One
     - Part Two (naughty word alert)
     - Possible further updates at his main site.

A very informative website from the FTC - Consumer.gov's ID Theft Info

This particular story hit home with me because at the end of part two we find out the method used by the bad guys to get the information and it happens to be one of our biggest pet peeves that credit card companies do. (Contrary to online promises, these checks are often sent to card-holders without being requested; sometimes despite explicit requests not to send them.)

Update: A few more related links that just provide further proof that the weakest link in personal security is usually the person.
BBC News: Passwords revealed by sweet deal [April 2004]
SearchSecurity.com: Security no match for theater lovers [March 2005]
Washington Post: DNA Key to Decoding Human Factor [March 2005]