My anecdote story about this is as someone with all of their credit frozen and generally best practices for password security (password manager, no reuse, offline only vault for important things) I ended up getting caught up in a ghost student loan scam. More info/background here https://www.equifax.com/business/blog/-/insight/article/ghos...

I failed to realize that I needed to secure a studentaid .gov account someone was able to open in my name with data breach information.

Thankfully my credit was frozen so I didn’t need to untangle an actual loan, but it would have been a huge legal mess otherwise.

I guess my fear is what account am I going to miss securing next that leads to a giant life ruining problem? If I didn’t setup credit freezes someone else could have with the info in the breaches. I didn’t even think to secure a studentaid account I didn’t know existed. In theory having those credit bureau accounts frozen should be enough, but anyone with enough information on you can likely recover them regardless.

To me the whole experience really drives home how much of a joke the security on a lot of this is. Anyone who seriously sets their eyes on you can just totally ruin your life if they’re dedicated enough.

Though most people doing this its much more effective to take advantage of people who don’t know any better. Credit not frozen, loan accounts not made or secured, etc. Pwning 20 people doing nothing will always be better ROI than trying to PWN one person with their stuff in order. Until you piss the wrong person or they think you’re worth the effort.

I guess I can see how you can view it as not your problem. But there are only so many grandmas to scam. The whole problem space to me metaphorically is everyone’s door is wide open, grandmas is just a straight shot to get in. Mine? Well I have some ball bearings, calipers, and a moat but the doors still open. It’s not like someone is going to rob my open house instead of grandma. I only have to dodge all the traps when I leave and come back but that’s whatever.

The whole thing is absurd. We have doors and locks and better ways to do this and instead we just live like this?