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From: wayner@CS.Cornell.EDU (Peter Wayner)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Private Investigator's claims
Message-ID: <1991May15.181651.10629@cs.cornell.edu>
Date: 15 May 91 18:16:51 GMT
References: <14826@encore.Encore.COM>
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eggimann@maxzilla.encore.com (Scott Eggimann) writes:


>I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I'm going to
>do it anyways 8-).

>A friend of mine is a private investigator who tends to make up
>stories a lot.  He tells me that for $58.00/month he can dial into 
>some information data base and get personal information on anybody in
>this country.  I told him he was crazy.

>This information includes:

>Police records (the biggest problem in his story)
>Credit records
>Bank balances (checking and savings)
>Places you've lived since you were born

>And a couple of others that I cannot remember.  I told him that a lot
>of this stuff is personal/confidential information that he cannot
>access.  So you tell me.  Can he access this information?

>Thanks for your time,

>scott

I seem to remember getting a pack of bingo cards from someone.
Included was an 800 number for such a service. The catch was you
had to offer someone credit. I called up and told them I wrote
software and occasionally I wanted to get the software into the
hands of users before the checks arrived. The salesman boomed, "Well, 
that's credit your extending and you qualify!!!"

The cost was $500 initially and some small amount per report on 
a person. They had driver's records and public information from 
49 states. Massachusetts was the only hold out at the time. (Two
years ago.) They also had access to all the credit bureaus. 

It looked to be rather complete. Too bad I didn't have either the
money or the loose morals to take advantage of it.

-Peter

-- 
Peter Wayner   Department of Computer Science Cornell Univ. Ithaca, NY 14850
EMail:wayner@cs.cornell.edu    Office: 607-255-9202 or 255-1008
Home: 116 Oak Ave, Ithaca, NY 14850  Phone: 607-277-6678