People stealing identities nowadays is a pretty scary and real thing.
You’d imagine that with technology getting better and better, there would be someone sitting in some kind of basement, typing some random codes into a computer and stealing credit card information.
Or perhaps whipping out their phone on the streets and using Bluetooth or some delta ray resonance matrix to gather a net of information from phones within a 50m radius.
Seriously, look at this deep fake video and tell me everything above isn’t possible:
Although, to actually steal someone’s identity is actually really simple.
When my boss isn’t around it’s pretty easy to just walk into his office and pretend to be him. That’s actually how we randomly got the budget to buy Oppa and drumstick pillows, or #FastFoodFridays.
(It’s a petty crime I know.)
But here’s an even more realer example that uses a simple technology: CTRL C + CTRL V.
Man Pasted Own Photo Over Someone Else’s IC
Yep. You don’t need some kind of device with ionic artificial network capabilities. All you need is the will and Microsoft Paint.
A 34-year-old man, in particular, had posted online advertisements renting out vehicles. In the process, he got identity card information from the people who responded.
Guess what he did with them? CTRL C, CTRL V his own image on the IC images, and then used them to apply for bank loans, rent, telco services, and rent cars.
Yeah, he was even renting cars, so it is probably safe to assume that the original advertisement was created specifically to phish ICs from people.
Arrested On 14 Oct 2019
Between Dec 2018 and Sep 2019, victims sent reports to the police of someone using their identities for transactions without their knowledge or approval.
Obviously, this is all illegal.
The man will be charged in court on 16 Oct 2019 with cheating by personation and faces a jail term of up to five years and/or fine if convicted.
(Wait, I’ll be fine right?… right…?)
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Reminder: Companies Cannot Anyhowly Collect NRIC Details
You can read more about that here, but know that you don’t need to provide them anymore from 1 Sep 2019 onwards except in very specific cases.
The other things this identity collection includes birth certificate numbers, foreign identification numbers, and work permit numbers.
Note that the law still requires you to share them in certain cases, like checking into a hotel, signing up for a new phone line, when visiting a pre-school or real estate matters.
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