A while ago in an overzealous mood I opened an account with one major financial institution. After doing some basic transactions and with some amount in there, I did what comes very naturally to me. I forgot the user ID and password. This is only because I got all ambitious and deviated from my usual set o passwords.
I tried a bit, and then gave up, thought ah well, it will come back to me and I went about my business. This was in March 07.
This morning I saw the institution’s ad in Fortune and realized “oops, oh darn that a/c – let me go check and see what it’s been doing.” So I come to work, try various logins and realize that but of course my memory isn’t suddenly gonna get perfect after all these days. So I call Customer Service. After a few tries talking to a robotic voice, I finally managed to get a human to talk to.
He asked me for:
Social
Name
Address
DOB
Done. I was in. Just like that. Tada.
Now if I weren’t such a nice sweet straight-as-an-arrow simpleton and were actually quite simply devious, imagine what all I could really do. 😈
More importantly, think how much leverage your HR has over you, or your doc’s office. Hmm.. All the more reasons to be nice to them eh?