Now THIS is scary

Over on AVG Blogs, Roger Thompson blogged about what happened when he was traveling and his credit card was declined because he hadn’t alerted his bank he’d be traveling. In order to get his card un-suspended, he had to answer some security questions for the bank’s Fraud department. And that’s when it got scary. Roger writes:

Ok, so that’s a pain, but at least they’re looking out for me, so I answered all the questions… “Last four of social, please”… “What accounts do you have with us?”… “Mother’s maiden name?” etc.

Here’s the scary bit… The guy says, “And now, sir, just a couple more questions, please. This is from publically available information. What age-range would best describe this person?”, and he proceeded to ask me about my _daughter-in-law_…. Using her maiden name, and she’s been married for nine years!!!!!

Now I answered the question correctly, and they un-suspended the card. I paid the bill, and headed for the airport.

I had one question thundering through my mind.

How did the bank associate me with her??????????????????????

I _refuse_ to believe it was “publically available information”.

We have no connection on _any_ bank accounts, or legal documents.

She hasn’t used her maiden name for nine years. I’d have been less suspicious if they’d asked me about her married name.

She’s _not_ a big computer user.

The _only_ place we connect as far as I’m _aware_ is that she’s a friend on Facebook!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I’m not accusing Facebook of _anything_, but one wonders…. I can’t believe Facebook would sell our data, so … is someone “harvesting” it?

Read more on Roger Thompson’s blog.