A friend of mine is going through a really tough time…identity theft. The odd thing is that the thief actually called the bank to change address information. They knew the Social Security number, name (obviously), address, phone, account number and the Mother’s maiden name.
I think the Mother’s maiden name thing needs to be abolished. Why? For many women it is not a secret anymore. They hyphenate their name so it’s public knowledge. It didn’t used to be this way but it is now. I’m not saying a woman shouldn’t hyphenate her name but until banks change their ways inadvertently they are making it very easy for their kids’ bank accounts to be hijacked.
I started thinking about this and I think I’m going to call the bank and see if I can change this to anything I want (and make sure I remember it). Something one would not think of as a last name…something only I would know.
The question I have is: what if the person doesn’t correctly state the maiden name but knows everything else. Will the information be released?
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