How did people in the past prevent identity theft? I mean before the photos and new secure technology on identity documents were available?
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The concept of “identity theft” rather than impersonation and fraud is relatively new. Impersonation has always been a problem, but not as much of one before the widespread availability of credit cards and such. Credit card companies created the idea of “identity theft” to put the burden of dealing with it on the person being impersonated.
The old Mission Impossible TV series seemed to perpetuate the myth that identity theft required sophisticated tech (creating latex masks on the fly, etc) but the movie “Catch Me If You Can” illustrated how hilariously easy it was.
The concept of “identity theft” rather than impersonation and fraud is relatively new. Impersonation has always been a problem, but not as much of one before the widespread availability of credit cards and such. Credit card companies created the idea of “identity theft” to put the burden of dealing with it on the person being impersonated.
The old Mission Impossible TV series seemed to perpetuate the myth that identity theft required sophisticated tech (creating latex masks on the fly, etc) but the movie “Catch Me If You Can” illustrated how hilariously easy it was.
Until the 1970’s it was hard to get a credit card, and the credit limits were a lot lower than they are now, so if someone stole your card they couldn’t do as much damage with it as they do now. Major transactions (like for furniture) would be done by check and the store would grill you, and phone the bank to verify your account. If there was any suspicion, you would be declined. It wasn’t like now, where its considered to be a basic right to use your credit card.
Banks were also very picky about who they gave out bank loans to.
And there were no bank cards. You’d do transactions at your local branch, so there was a greater chance the teller would notice something when something is off.
Also, you couldn’t automatically use a credit card if you travelled. If you wanted cash overseas you usually used traveller’s cheques, again with a limit on the amount, plus the clerk checking your signature, passport, etc. If you went to a foreign bank to get cash from your home account, you’d have to go through a grilling and maybe wait 24 hours while they checked.
I’m guessing there was a big boost in fraud in the 1990’s with electronic banking becoming common. Before then, it could happen but the technology wasn’t there to do it easily. Everything moved more slowly so there were more checks on what you could do with your ID.
EDIT: typos
Back in the olden-times of the 70’s-90’s, when you used a credit card, they used a “ka-chunker” (as everyone seemed to call it) a heavy device that you set the card in and laid a 2-part paper form (originally with a carbon paper layer, a thin sheet of black carbon, before self-carboning forms were developed) over it. You swiped a heavy platen across the mess which made a “ka-chunk” sound, and gave the card and the form back to the purchaser.
That’s why credit cards had/have raised numbers and names – the platen “bruised” the carbon paper and imprinted the card data physically on the paper. The customer signed the stacked form, and then you tore off a copy as the buyer’s receipt of the transaction.
It was important that you not just toss the customer copy, since it had your full CC number and name on it. I had a friend who’d troll through the airport and dig those out of the trash and use them to purchase stuff, somehow (I think he’s been in jail forever, kind of an idiot). That was really a primary form of ID theft, and the solution was to physically protect those sheets and destroy them properly.
Other ways were if someone got hold of your checkbook, they could write checks at places not hardcore about IDs; if someone intercepted or stole a check made out to you, they could endorse it and cash it (happened to me when I forgot my jacket with a check in the pocket); some people would go to churches and find birth and baptism records of people who had died young without a social security number, get those birth certificates, and create fake IDs with them. It was much more about gaining access to paper documents back then.
I don’t think they did. If you read old spy novels, one common method used to get a false identity is to find a birth certificate of a child that died soon after birth, and use that to apply for a passport, etc. I don’t think this would work now, and maybe it didn’t work back then, but this method is brought multiple times in old novels.
I think our modern conception of “identity theft” is largely a product of telecommunications and interconnected security and tracking systems; the credit reporting, the criminal databases, the social security system, etc.
In the old days, a fraudulent charge on a credit account was probably a one-off thing; it didn’t follow that the swindler would then be able to apply for more credit in your name, or impersonate you in public, or try your social media password on some big bank websites, etc. Those systems weren’t so standardized and interconnected.
But in a world of interconnected databases and authentication systems, detailed personal information on even Joe Nobody can be a juicy target, even for someone on the other side of the world.
Until the 1970’s it was hard to get a credit card, and the credit limits were a lot lower than they are now, so if someone stole your card they couldn’t do as much damage with it as they do now. Major transactions (like for furniture) would be done by check and the store would grill you, and phone the bank to verify your account. If there was any suspicion, you would be declined. It wasn’t like now, where its considered to be a basic right to use your credit card.
Banks were also very picky about who they gave out bank loans to.
And there were no bank cards. You’d do transactions at your local branch, so there was a greater chance the teller would notice something when something is off.
Also, you couldn’t automatically use a credit card if you travelled. If you wanted cash overseas you usually used traveller’s cheques, again with a limit on the amount, plus the clerk checking your signature, passport, etc. If you went to a foreign bank to get cash from your home account, you’d have to go through a grilling and maybe wait 24 hours while they checked.
I’m guessing there was a big boost in fraud in the 1990’s with electronic banking becoming common. Before then, it could happen but the technology wasn’t there to do it easily. Everything moved more slowly so there were more checks on what you could do with your ID.
EDIT: typos
Signatures were much more important. You spent time in school actually practicing/crafting your signature.
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