"How many times have you had your PII compromised?" Topic

So, how many times have you received an e-mail or letter from a company that you do business with, or from a Government agency, stating that your personal information was compromised by a hacker?

I'm up to 7 now. I received 2 different notices today, both from the Government!

Death to cyber-crooks!

Makes me long for the days of my youth, before computers permeated every aspect of our lives.

Never ever.

Once from Google. As there is nothing of use to me or useful about me in my Google stuff why should I care.

x42

Three over the past four years – all from the bank.

The SAME bank…you'd think they'd do something…

Fortunately, I'm an open book anyway. With lots of blank pages.

Anytime I've received such notices they were phishing expeditions from banks where I have no accounts.

Aren't those emails normally sent by the hackers themselves?

I've had a CC card compromised a couple of times, though the last time was quite a few years ago.

Never had an online warning about my personal information being compromised, well, at least not from a source that I took seriously. I get the occasional "warning Will Robinson" flap from spammers.

I too wish for the pre-computer days. We never needed them, and we sure as hell don't NEED them now, we just choose to use them because we can….

My list of grievances with computers dominating everything:

Top of the list is cellphones, "smartphones", I-pads, whathaveyou, ALL handy-held devices that are turning the human race into cyborgs.

Almost nobody does business, personal or public, without computers, and when they foul up, you are fouled up (see my Emissions code rant).

Everything has to have a 'puter attached to it, either hardware or software-wise or both. Guns are next, if the antigunners ever have their way.

The way things are going, even people will be computerized, at birth.

The 'puter world is fast becoming the "REAL" world. Look at CGI: kids and other segments of the population with less than half a brain think that because it's in the movies it must be possible if not real.

People can't live without their 'putters, that's why the top of my rant exists. At home, everybody has to have his/her own Net connection, so in effect we have a house of "X" number of people all living alone with Facebook or whathaveyou. Physical communication, interaction or awareness of the others is rudimentary or nonexistent.

Driving is like maneuvering around a bunch of drunks.

The language is changing so fast that I am no longer in touch with a growing portion of terms and expressions that have entered the lexicon of daily use. Not long from now, I will be mostly unintelligible to the vast majority of "human beings", and they already are mostly speaking a different dialect from my own, and talking about things I either have no interest in or have no knowledge of, mostly trivia about people and events and activities that are utterly pointless or useless or both.

I would welcome, almost, real kids playing real games together and getting on my front lawn so that I had somebody to shout, "Get off my lawn, you brats!", to.

ID theft is the looming terror of the modern age.

Gov't intrusion is irreversible.

If your life oughtn't to be an open book, you are screwed.

If your life is pure enough to be an open book, you are still screwed, because "they" will get you for whatever they can anyway, "they" will make it up if they have to and "they" have the database to warp however they want to.

"You" don't exist unless "they" say so. And "you" are the "you" that "they" say you are.

"Forget all you know, or think you know." Your education is yet future and it will be given to you.

It will only get worse….

My phone is smarter than I am. My TV set remote just laughs at me. How much worse can things get?

All of the legitimate 'compromised' notices I've received
have been mailed, as in USPS, not e-mail.

I receive probably a dozen or so e-mail notices/year,
most of them easily spotted by spelling or grammatical
errors and sent to the appropriate institution's fraud
department.

Cerdic, Ed:

Yes, I've had the same concerns about phishing. When I receive an e-mail from a company I actually do business with notifying me of a compromise, I click on links in the e-mail. I go to the company's public website and see what is has to say. Or I call them from contact numbers on the public web site.

'Three over the past four years – all from the bank.

The SAME bank…you'd think they'd do something…'

If it was your bank, perhaps an idea for you to do something – like, change banks?

Though usually when I can emails they aren't from from my bank anyway.

Top of the list is cellphones, "smartphones", I-pads, whathaveyou, ALL handy-held devices that are turning the human race into cyborgs.

I suggest that you are overstating the case. Are you a cyborg because you typed this on a computer? I don't feel like I'm one because I'm reading and responding on an iPad. How would we otherwise have our discussions? We live thousands of km apart.

You have the opportunity to donate your phones and computers to good charities if you are oppressed by them. Give that a try..

We never needed them, and we sure as hell don't NEED them now, we just choose to use them because we can…

… or you could just not use them.

When I was at school wa-ay back in the 20th century, they said one day computers will make everything faster and more efficient.

They lied