Are You Doing Enough to Protect Your Identity? - AARP
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[Don]
Okay, I've got something
that just blows my mind.
[chuckling]
I do everything possible
to make sure
that my identity isn't stolen.
I even cut out
my mailing address
to where nobody
can even get that,
but Chase AARP credit card,
they sent me my bill—
they did this a long time.
It just blows my mind.
I can't believe it.
It's like a bad dream.
They put on the outside
card member statement enclosed.
It comes from another state,
and anybody can see
that you've got
your statement in there,
but they put all sixteen numbers
of your credit card on there.
That's your member number.
They don't put just the last four.
They put all sixteen.
[male host 1] Of what?
[Mark] Of the member number?
Or the credit card number?
[male host 1] The credit card
number or your member number?
[Don] It's the same thing.
[Greg Marchildon] No.
[Don] They put just my credit card—
just what's on my credit card.
All sixteen numbers.
Comes in the mail.
On the outside of the mail it says
card member statement service.
[Mark] Yeah.
>>It's from AARP credit card
from Chase.
[female host]
We can look in to it.
[Greg Marchildon] Yeah, Don,
we would certainly want—
we'd certainly want
to look into that for sure.
I don't think that
there's any indication at all.
Your member number is certainly not
the same as your credit card number
and I think you point out
a very important thing.
While a lot of credit card
companies will send statements
that will say on the outside
of the envelope
statement enclosed, it could
also be an insurance statement
or any other kind
of bill that you're paying,
because there is so much
junk mail that is coming
in the mailboxes these days,
places that you owe money
to want to differentiate.
You are making a good point
that that can raise—
somebody can be able
to go through your mail
and quickly determine
where the good information is.
In fact, we were talking
about this in the meeting
earlier today, Mark, where
if they get into that mailbox
without a lock on it,
they'll leave the junk mail behind
but they'll take
the valuable stuff that will
help steal somebody's identity.
[Mark] They don't even
know it's been stolen.
>>That's right.
>>The other thing, remember that, Alice,
in a clip you showed earlier,
that even though you think
that your credit card number
is X'd out—mine comes
and I'm like, "Oh my whole
card number isn't there, it's X'd out."
Actually it is still there
because they have to know
that number to pay the bill, right?
It's just buried down below
in a coding system that she knows.
[Greg Marchildon] Right.
[Mark] It's all about shredding.
It's all about locking mailboxes.
I a lot of people are going
paperless where they just don't
have the—not everybody
wants to, I realize that,
but if that statement at the end
of the month doesn't come
because it's online
and you're online
and you've got password
encoded access to it,
that's a lot safer.
[Greg Marchildon] And we're seeing a big
generational gap here too, Mark.
We're seeing people
over fifty significantly
now signing up for things
like online banking
and being able to get access
to their credit cards online.
>>Uh-hunh (affirmative).
>>And you're seeing younger people
far more comfortable with technology,
people over fifty a little less so.
[People 50+:
42% Have Not Set Up Online Access]
And being able to do this
can make a huge difference
to be able to protect your
own identities, so we're starting
to see some striking differences
between the generations here.
We have to figure out a way
to close that gap and make
technology not seem
so off-putting
to people in mid-life
and retirement.