Amateur Radio and Identity theft

[loosecannon]

this may have been brought up before, but i feel it is a valid issue that warrants some discussion.

one of the local CBers here in town has been interested in getting his ham license, but brought up the concern of his personal info being out there for the taking.

this thought intrigued me enough to see what could be found out about a person base solely on googling their callsign.

i picked a local ham that i sort of know from the radio, and happen to know his call. that used to be all i knew about him.

just by searching his callsign, i was able to get his full name, his address, and even a google maps picture of his house including his tower.
using this info i was able to find his myspace page, through which i was able to find out some of his family members' names and addresses.

this is as far as i went because i started to feel like a stalker. LOL
i have no doubt, had i continued, and maybe been willing to pay the money, that much more info could have been obtained.


the reason i bring this up is because of the fear and concern over identity theft these days.

is this a concern of perspective hams? long time hams?

maybe none of this matters, maybe it does.
i would just like to hear some opinions from hams about this.
is this talked about often on the ham bands?

thanks for any and all responses,
LC

 

[packrat]

LC,

Yes, being a ham makes it easy, but you can get all of that info on anybody nowadays if you look around online. Try googling your name someday. I was recently trying to contact an old friend I had not seen in years. I spent a little time online, and without spending any money, I found her, her mom, her moms address and last 10 address, birthdate, phone number. Scary world out there. :angry: Good thing most crooks are still STUPID and LAZY! ( for now)

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

You can only find what someone allows you to find.Having a callsign does not make it any easier for someone to steal your identity than having your name and civic address in a telephone book. As for what you can glean off of sites like facebook etc., that is up to whoever posts info there. I am far more worried about my kids being on "social networking" sites than I am about them having a ham callsign.

 

[Nursecosmo]

Any potential hams need not worry about compromising their personal identity by having their name and address listed on QRZ, ARRL or any of the other call sign lookup sites. They are already compromised simply by being alive. anyone can lookup the dope on anyone else with nothing more than a name or a phone number or an address or even a relative's name. all matters of public record are available on line (income reported to IRS, address, judgments, place of employment, family names, criminal record, Vital Statistics, etc) with a 30 second search. If one wants to pay for the information, there are sites which will provide info of a private nature as well (unlisted cell phone #, medical records, email accounts with passwords, bank account numbers etc). There is literally no one in the whole country who is not on the grid for public review.

 

[loosecannon]

i understand about the ease of obtaining info about someone regardless of ham status. if you have a name and address, someone can find it.

upon thinking more about this, im wondering how it affects what you say to someone on the air?

does it make you more careful about what you say to someone in a heated "on air" debate? knowing that the guy on the other end may be local, unstable, and at the moment very angry at you?

we all know that in the CB world, people love to "hide behind their mics" and can do just that because there is no record of their handle associated with their home address.

im certainly not offering up the opinion that being a ham is somehow more dangerous than not; its just that i am on the outside and wonder if this is something hams talk/worry about.

with so many CBers bringing their dialogue and old habits with them when they join the ham ranks, good ol' CB justice might also come along for the ride.

oh yeah, just in interesting factoid: the owners of Twitter are the guys who owned the biggest spamming operation in the world before the law changed.
they are the ones who used to fill your inbox with porn ads.
does that bother anyone else?
i just wonder what they might be using all that info for.
hmmm...
LC

 

[packrat]

They now sell the information to the people who call you during supper.

 

[mackmobile43]

this may have been brought up before, but i feel it is a valid issue that warrants some discussion.

one of the local CBers here in town has been interested in getting his ham license, but brought up the concern of his personal info being out there for the taking.

this thought intrigued me enough to see what could be found out about a person base solely on googling their callsign.

i picked a local ham that i sort of know from the radio, and happen to know his call. that used to be all i knew about him.

just by searching his callsign, i was able to get his full name, his address, and even a google maps picture of his house including his tower.
using this info i was able to find his myspace page, through which i was able to find out some of his family members' names and addresses.

this is as far as i went because i started to feel like a stalker. LOL
i have no doubt, had i continued, and maybe been willing to pay the money, that much more info could have been obtained.


the reason i bring this up is because of the fear and concern over identity theft these days.

is this a concern of perspective hams? long time hams?

maybe none of this matters, maybe it does.
i would just like to hear some opinions from hams about this.
is this talked about often on the ham bands?

thanks for any and all responses,
LC

Hams do not fear mortal men, they are self-policing if you didn't know it already and freely give out their personal info.

 

[mackmobile43]

You can only find what someone allows you to find.Having a callsign does not make it any easier for someone to steal your identity than having your name and civic address in a telephone book. As for what you can glean off of sites like facebook etc., that is up to whoever posts info there. I am far more worried about my kids being on "social networking" sites than I am about them having a ham callsign.

Your picture is all over the internec and news stands across the nation.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

Your picture is all over the internec and news stands across the nation.

I pity the poor fool that has to look at it. :laugh:

 

[kd-5-bgt]

If someone wants my idenity they can have it and all the bills that go with it....but they would just bring it back after finding that I am in worse shape than they are :tongue:

 

[Wire Weasel]

One way to limit location identity via ham call sign is to have a PO Box. The FCC allows you to give a po box as your mailing address. That is what I have done. And the "automated locator" that QRZ-google uses to shows locations via call sign is somewhat wacked out as it shows me miles and miles away from where I actually am. One would think it would show the location of the post office but it doesn't even do that. Miles and mles away from there too.

As to people posting all sorts of personal information on places like faceslap and myturd...well....I pity the fools :laugh:

 

[loosecannon]

wire weasel, i think the PO box idea is a good one, and more hams should do it.
heck, the post office needs money anyway!
LC

 

[Beetle]

When you get a ham license, your name and address (even if it's just a PO Box) become public information. When you're on the air, you're required to identify using your FCC-assigned call sign at specific intervals.

Yes, anybody with a computer can Google that call sign, or look it up on WWDX or QRZ. So what? I've been identifying as K7KBN for almost 51 years. I've sent many thousands of QSL cards around the world, each one bearing my address. I have ham license plates on my car.

Ham radio is no place to be paranoid about one's identity.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

The way I look at it is live right, don't be an asshole on the air, and behave yourself like an adult and you have nothing to worry about by pissing someone off. That goes for the internet too.