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  1. #1
    terrysfamily
    Guest

    Default Will people never learn

    I am on facebook as are a lot of my friends. Some of my friend have started to go along with a new posting which says.
    Place of birth! Everyone please play. It will be interesting to learn where all our FB friends were born. Copy, paste and then put where you were born at the end.
    I have told my friends to delete what they had put. I explained that I didn't know the exact year they were born but that they have given the day and month in their profile and now I have the area. To prove it I found their birth registrations and told them that if I was less than honest I could get a copy of their birth certs and run up debts in their name.

    The reply was don't go giving people ideas.

    I said PLEASE....people already have these ideas that's why I'm pointing it out and I don't want my friends to get scammed.

    Pleased to say they listened and have now deleted them.

    Some people shouldn't be allowed out on their own.

    Terry

  2. #2
    jac65
    Guest

    Default

    Hi

    I smiled when I read this, I do think people give far to much information on Social Media, either by posting exact details, or by posting snippets over a period of time, but surely the answer to the point Terry made is to restrict access to non-historical birth certificates as is the case in some other countries such as Australia. I know certificate state that they are not evidence of identity but is that the case in reality?
    No doubt people will jump up and down and say that the law allows it, true, but my point is, why should my 3rd cousin twice removed be able to have a copy of my birth certificate (I was born in England) simply because they need it for family history purposes, after all who is to say that they won't scam me, I'm sure a lot of fraud is also committed by family members or aquaintences who have some knowledge of you.

    Andy

  3. #3
    Mutley
    Guest

    Default

    Within 5 minutes on a well known free search site I found a child that had died at two years old, born the same year as me, in the same district with the same first name. I then found the birth, the brothers and sister and the marriage of the parents.

    For not a lot of money, armed with half a dozen certificates, I could obtain a new identity without many changes to my own original one and not a worry that there were other records, passport or driving licence etc around.

    It is all too easy and just a bit scary.

  4. #4
    David Benson
    Guest

    Default

    Many years ago - in the 50's I think - Len Deighton, the writer, informed the Home Office that he could walk around a graveyard and choose a name of a dead infant, born about the same as himself, note the DOB, fill out a Passport Application, enclose a photo of himself and be issued with a nice new British passport. They never checked if the person named on the application had died - they just issued a Passport. Things have changed now, but not until a lot of years had passed.

  5. #5
    Knowledgeable and helpful
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Wakefield, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    626

    Default

    I see paranoia is rife.

    First anyone can purchase anyone else’s birth certificate in the UK it means nothing.
    It is not proof of identity and is of little use to scammers despite what the Day of the Jackal makes out.

    The majority of ID theft comes directly from those nice handy big brown wheelie bins all those idiots who think green place outside their houses every fortnight or so.
    Bin diving is by far the most productive form of intelligence gathering if one wishes to perform ID theft.

    If you really want to be safe shred all papers and documents and mix them with kitchen waste, do not use bin bags as these provide a useful implement to carry contraband in tip the mixture straight into the wheelie bin and add liberal amounts of water to produce a good slurry.

    If you have room burn the waste paper and documents in the open to ensure complete combustion, don’t worry about adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere it will not increase global warming (history proves that fact at a time there was the highest carbon levels in the atmosphere the UK went through a mini ice age).

    As to opening a bank account try it. I had to jump through hoops to open an additional account at a bank I had been banking with for 30 years.
    PS there is an image of my birth certificate on my website
    Cheers
    Guy
    As we have gained from the past, we owe the future a debt, which we pay by sharing today.

  6. #6
    Mutley
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by David Benson View Post
    Many years ago - in the 50's I think - Len Deighton, the writer, informed the Home Office that he could walk around a graveyard and choose a name of a dead infant, born about the same as himself, note the DOB, fill out a Passport Application, enclose a photo of himself and be issued with a nice new British passport. They never checked if the person named on the application had died - they just issued a Passport. Things have changed now, but not until a lot of years had passed.
    I am not sure they have.
    There are so many people with the same name that I don't think they have the resources or the time to check. How often do we, in this hobby, not know if a certificate is the right one?

    My birth certificate has different first names to every other document issued in my life. It is not illegal and I have never been questioned about it. My parents just decided they did not really like the name they had originally given me and changed it!!
    Mutley is much more preferable.
    Even someone who knows me would not know which birth certificate was really mine.
    People can change their names and they do, for various reasons.

    I suppose it depends on why one wants to do it.
    To scam or make a profit or commit theft - illegal reasons.
    To just quietly disappear and start a new life with a new identity and lie low.

  7. #7
    MarkJ
    Guest

    Default

    I have a "creation certificate" rather than a birth certificate. My dad was a bit odd, Dr Frankenstein

  8. #8
    Colin Rowledge
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MarkJ View Post
    I have a "creation certificate" rather than a birth certificate. My dad was a bit odd, Dr Frankenstein
    Please explain the term - I'm curious

  9. #9
    MarkJ
    Guest

    Default

    A joke, Colin. Frankenstein, the Mary Shelley story, revolves around a "creature" created by Dr Frankenstein. I thought to myself - I wonder if the creature would have a "creation certificate" as it was created rather than born. Then I applied the humour to myself.

    (I do actually have a birth certificate in reality!)

  10. #10
    Colin Rowledge
    Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MarkJ View Post
    A joke, Colin. Frankenstein, the Mary Shelley story, revolves around a "creature" created by Dr Frankenstein. I thought to myself - I wonder if the creature would have a "creation certificate" as it was created rather than born. Then I applied the humour to myself.

    (I do actually have a birth certificate in reality!)
    I'm glad, Mark, --- stupid me!! Humour has left me high and dry today and I am taking the comments and posts on here seriously.

    Colin

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