Census, id theft

whiteonion

Hi I'm worried that if I fill in the census it might be used by dishonest people in some sort of ID theft scam. Is this a real possibility?

ID theft is something that worries me more these days than getting mugged on the street and with all the personal info you give in the census is it not possible for people to forge id cards or make purchases in your name?

gibraltar

whiteonion wrote: »

Hi I'm worried that if I fill in the census it might be used by dishonest people in some sort of ID theft scam. Is this a real possibility?

ID theft is something that worries me more these days than getting mugged on the street and with all the personal info you give in the census is it not possible for people to forge id cards or make purchases in your name?

As this is something that worries you so much you will have researched ID theft quite a lot so you will be something of an expert I'm sure. so you can give everyone more information.

Perhaps to ease you fears you should post the specific questions from the census for that are causing you such worry.

robtri

from an ID theft aspect, feck all use is the census..

as above, any particular question concern you???

keithc83

Tbh the census does not give any info that would be of major use to ID thieves. There seems to be more issues with that because of all the information people give on social networking sites and they do target those. But very highly unlikely any info on the census can be used. Like the other posters said though are there any particular questions you are worried about filling out?

Richard tea

whiteonion wrote: »

Hi I'm worried that if I fill in the census it might be used by dishonest people in some sort of ID theft scam. Is this a real possibility?

ID theft is something that worries me more these days than getting mugged on the street and with all the personal info you give in the census is it not possible for people to forge id cards or make purchases in your name?

Simple. Make it up. I think the only real bit of info I put on my form was the house occupants.

heyjude

keithc83 wrote: »

Tbh the census does not give any info that would be of major use to ID thieves. There seems to be more issues with that because of all the information people give on social networking sites and they do target those. But very highly unlikely any info on the census can be used. Like the other posters said though are there any particular questions you are worried about filling out?

I would have thought that information like your full name, address, date of birth, occupation, educational attainments, job and your employers name and address would all be pieces of information that would be of use to ID thieves, but I'm sure that we can all rest assured that if someone's identity was to be stolen, the CSO would deny that the census was the source of the information breach, because all information given is the census is guaranteed confidential by law :rolleyes::rolleyes: , not that breaching confidentiality laws would concern thieves that are already engaged in identity theft anyway.

Why, for example, do they need your exact date of birth rather than just your year of birth ? and don't say its to avoid duplication as they already have your address and name(and what are are the odds of two people with the same name and year of birth, living at the same address). Unless that is they are going to send me my horoscope

I thought the purpose for introducing PPS numbers was so that you didn't have to continue giving all your basic information every time you are in contact with a state body and yet here we go again.

Brown Bomber

gibraltar wrote: »

As this is something that worries you so much you will have researched ID theft quite a lot so you will be something of an expert I'm sure. so you can give everyone more information.

Perhaps to ease you fears you should post the specific questions from the census for that are causing you such worry.

WTF?

Did he say something to offend you?

Toby Take a Bow

heyjude wrote: »

Why, for example, do they need your exact date of birth rather than just your year of birth ? and don't say its to avoid duplication as they already have your address and name(and what are are the odds of two people with the same name and year of birth, living at the same address). Unless that is they are going to send me my horoscope

I thought the purpose for introducing PPS numbers was so that you didn't have to continue giving all your basic information every time you are in contact with a state body and yet here we go again.

The point of the census is to get an accurate assessment of all the people in the state so that they can plan ahead to what needs and services need to be addressed in future policy documents. Whether you believe that, or whether you believe they will actually act on that information is another matter. The date of birth gives a more precise measure of what problems affect people of certain age groups, I would think. Putting your PPS number on the form (if that's what you're suggesting they should do) would be an actual infringement of right to privacy, I would think, as they would have to cross reference your PPS number with the census form, which I don't *think* they can do.