I am sure you have had a time in your life when it seems like everyone gives you advice.
It might be graduation, marriage, the birth of a child, a change in jobs or something
that prompts the people around you to offer advice. Most of the time you are forced
to smile pleasantly, act like you are going to take the advice, and then wait until
the giver of the advice is out of earshot to mumble to yourself about how
you wish people would leave you alone. Occasionally you really need advice and go
looking for it. One of those cases might be if you thought that your personal information
had been stolen. You would expect that the government that had issued the identity
claims would have the best advice on how to fix the problem.
I read an article about the web page at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/nimmanual/NIM39140.htm that
will tell people in the UK how to handle the case of their National Insurance Number
has been abused. (The original article likened the National Insurance Number to the
US Social Security Number but whether they are similar or not isn't really important
here, just that someone thought you should have a way to report/fix fraud of the National
Insurance Number.) The web page has a title that boldly proclaims:
NIM39140 - National Insurance Numbers (NINOs): Format and Security: What to do
if you suspect or discover fraud
You can see from the formatting that there are several paragraphs and bullet points
that should give you the information that you need. However each and every paragraph
and bullet point is replaced by the text:
(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information
Act 2000)
This leaves you wondering what you should do if you suspect or discover fraud. I haven't
looked around to see if there is any information on another web site or if you are
just stuck going back to the people who always give you advice and asking for some.
This time, however, you will need to listen closely and follow their advice.
Read the complete post at http://www.grokdev.com/Blogs/scott/2008/06/24/AdviceMayNotAlwaysBeFree.aspx