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From: rv01%harvey@gte.com (Robert Virzi)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 800 Numbers, Voice Mail, and Privacy
Message-ID: <74661@bu.edu.bu.edu>
Date: 13 Feb 91 14:51:21 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 113, Message 8 of 10


David Gast writes:

> If you call 1-800-544-7544, you can get complete information about the
> fund holdings in Fidelity Funds of anyone whose social security number
> you know.  The WSJ points out that the Chairman of Fidelity has a
> publically available SSN (from the SEC) and that it begins with
> 029-24.  Peter Lynch's SSN begins with 018-34 and his SSN is also part
> of the public record.  The story did not mention the complete SSNs.

I tried this and it is not exactly true.  In addition to someone's
social security number, you also need to know their account number.  I
don't know how Fidelity assigns account numbers, but I would imagine
that this scheme offers significantly more protection than the
four-digit PINs used by banks.

Is this a change in the security of the system, or just poor reporting
on the part of the WSJ?


Bob Virzi    rv01@gte.com   ...!harvard!bunny!rv01