Small Business News | February 1998 | Page 4

Small Business Hawaii | Volume 23 Number 2 | February 1998

GUEST COMMENTARIES BY SBH MEMBERS

Identity Theft | Did Time, Do Time | Bad Law Chases Good Behavior

Guest Commentary By Beth Terry, Pacific Rim Seminars

Hawaii residents carry time-bombs in our wallets. We innocently wave around the key to all our secrets and trust that no one will harm us. I remember twenty years ago when I first held that time-bomb: the all desirable ticket to paradise, the symbolic proof that I really belong here: my Hawaii Drivers License. Now I could partake of all the wondrous kamaaina discounts. I could proudly exhibit my membership card if someone mistook me for a malahini.

When I received the coveted plastic in the mail, I was startled when I saw they had used my Social Security number as my ID! I sat there in disbelief staring at the unholy number that I had memorized, protected, and refused to carry in my wallet lest some ne'er-do-well get his hands on it and have his way with my credit rating.

Growing up in California, one learns quickly about the multitude of scams a bustling society can generate. We were repeatedly warned as far back as the 60's not to EVER give out our Social Security number. Indeed, it even states on the card that this number may not be used for identification purposes.

And here it was, my social security number emblazoned in bold letters on a credit-card-style license. What could I do? When I weighed the benefits of membership in the kama'aina club against the relative dangers at that point in my career, I surrendered and got used to it, just as every other resident has done since statehood.

And now, enter the internet. Enter automated phone systems. Enter sophisticated computers and their accompanying hackers. A few of these enterprising folks could do serious damage to this island's teetering economy, armed only with copies of drivers licenses.

We had an example of this loss of privacy and lack of security several year s ago. One of our largest banks had decided to make it easier for you to check your bank balance. You called an automated phone system, punched in your account number and your social security number, and bingo: you had your current balance. The problem? At a party I attended, the guests made a game of pulling other people's checks from their wallets (with social security numbers printed thereon), and on a speakerphone, the person's balance was announced to the room.

Since this was my bank, I made a complaint the next morning. It took them several weeks to re-program the computers and solve the problem with personal pin numbers.

Some people feel that since we use our mother's maiden names as additional passwords, we don't have to worry. Consider our huge transplanted population from the Philippine Islands. A large number of those folks use their mother's maiden names as their middle names. Additionally, when I recently married and went about the arduous task of changing my name, numerous companies required a copy of my marriage license... which contains my mother's maiden name.

If you are not yet alarmed enough to do something, here is a scenario found in the July Readers Digest. A woman who lost her wallet was able to cancel all her charge cards and had not lost a lot of cash, so she thought she was out of the woods. However, as in Hawaii, her drivers license carried her social security number. The thief took the driver's license information and made a new one with her own likeness on it. She then used the social security number and the license to set up new charge cards and lines of credit. Since the thief had a drivers license with a matching photo, no one questioned her. And, since the original owner had good credit, the thief was successful in stealing thousands of dollars, and ruining the original owner's credit in the process. It took months to straighten out the mess.

Here is another nightmare: if someone has your social security number and has succeeded in stealing your identity, all they need is your mother's maiden name, and they can get their hands on your credit report. In that gold mine they will find out more about you than you know yourself, including old credit records from decades ago. They can use all your credit report information to steal even more from you.

The scam artists are out there, lying in wait for opportunity. We should not give it to them every time we write a check, show proof of kama'aina status, get on an airplane, or show our id's in any other way.

Why, as we rush headlong into the information age, have our legislators not done something about this? Is it because something drastic has not happened to one of them to make it a priority? I asked Senator Sam Slom why this situation has not been rectified. He said he tried to lobby for the change years ago and was met with deaf ears. He is willing to put it to the Legislature again, but he needs our support.

Please write to your legislators and ask them to change our drivers license numbers before it is too late. This is far more important an issue than changing the name of our County to O'ahu!!! Do not let our politicians scare us by saying it will cost millions or take years to change. And don't believe them when they say it is crucial for law enforcement. I have checked with the Police Department, and they are not dependent upon our social security number as a means of identification. The Police have many ways they can trace a driver. Removing our Social Security numbers from our licenses is a matter of personal and community concern. If we don't correct this situation now, before the internet and privacy issues explode, it could cost billions in scams, lost revenue, lost credit ratings, not to mention thousands of cumulative hours in aggravation and frustration. Call your legislator now. They are in the phone book, under Hawaii State Government, page 12.

DID TIME? DO TIME!

By Ken Schoolland, Schoolland International Partnership

The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission says that employers cannot discriminate against job applicants by asking about their criminal record. This will, in effect, make criminals out of employers who try to find out if they are hiring an ex-con.

"What? You murdered your neighbor? You hijacked a bus? You beat and raped a tourist? No problem! If you did your time in the Big House, then you deserve a chance to get back into the work force without prejudice! The employer has no rights‹just obligations‹obligations to provide wages, to produce goods and services, and to assume liability. Forget about local customers and the other employees‹and pray that overseas tourists, investors, and journalists don't hear about the rules in Hawaii!"

Well, right on! The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission hasn't gone far enough! They should also prohibit discrimination against, well, against students. Think about it‹teachers shouldn't be allowed to discriminate against students who do their time.

"What? You flunked every course? You punched out the teacher? You burned down the library? No problem! If you did your time in the schoolhouse, then you deserve a chance to get a diploma without prejudice! The teacher has no rights‹just obligations! Forget about those who earned good grades and recommendations! No one should be allowed to see them anyway!"

"What's that? Your job application was rejected because of no grades, no recommendations, no diploma? Your employer committed the crime of asking about your past? That's discrimination! Throw the book at 'em! Lock 'em up! You did your time! Now make 'em do theirs!"

BAD LAW CHASES OUT GOOD BEHAVIOR

By Richard O. Rowland, CLU, CFC, Rowland & Alameida

Here's an example: speed limit signs on the Pali Highway = 45 MPH; Average speed on the Pali Highway = 57MPH (my estimate); Percentage of drivers abiding by speed limit on Pali Highway = 5% or less (my estimate); Percentage of off duty and on duty policemen driving over 45 MPH on the Pali Highway = 100% (my observation); Percentage of kids who learn from parents driving on the Pali Highway that speed limit signs need be obeyed only when policemen with radar guns are operating = 98% (my guess)

How many kids know that speed limits are laws and since there is a need to obey such laws only when someone in authority is watching, thus decide that all rules and laws are to be respected only when one might get caught? What's your guess? Mine is 80% - 90%.

Who decides speed limits? What is the logic (if any) underlying the speed limit decisions made somehow, somewhere, by someone in government?

When you get a speeding ticket and you appear before the judge, he intones that you broke the law. Who made the law? Whose government is this, anyway? If 98% of the public break the law, is the law to be considered valid? Are 98% going to go to jail?

Are you content with the "respect for the law" message being transmitted to your children and/or your neighbors children?

When the law is ridiculous, the persons enforcing it become disrespected, particularly if they are personally, blatantly disregarding the law they occasionally are enforcing. Thus, more and more, we fear our police and view them as antagonists, not friends.

If we continue to accept bad law, respect for society's rules will continue to deteriorate. A society which loses respect is a chaotic society because predictability is the big, big loser in bad law. And that creates a need for more bad law etc, etc, etc.

If this upsets you, please write me a note about what you think we should do to correct the tendency toward bad law. Also, give me other examples of bad law. I'll do a follow up if you give me enough information to do so.

REMEMBER: Bad Law Chases out Good Behavior.

"No society can exist if respect for the law does not to some extent prevail; but the surest way to have the laws respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality are in contradiction, the citizen finds himself in the cruel dilemma of either losing his moral sense or of losing respect for the law, two evils of which one is as great as the other, and between which it is difficult to choose."

Frederic Bastiat