Cyberspace Isn’t Necessarily Functional

Alarmed as many of you were by the recent news of a gazillion Social Security numbers leaked to the dark web, I decided it would be wise to sign in my identity theft plan.

Actually, two accounts. One runs through January and the other next May,  offered by separate providers who had already fumbled away my sensitive information.

Trouble is, I couldn’t sign in to either account. Finally, I called the customer service number.

The woman I talked to was helpful and said she would send links to change my passwords. After adding a letter or number to my existing passwords, I tried to sign in again.

Except I couldn’t. The new passwords, which I were sure were right since I had set them up minutes earlier, didn’t work.

Try, Try Again

Concerned over the potential for fraud, I called again. This time, I told the customer service agent I wanted to place a freeze on my credit account to prevent thieves from gaining easy access.

That’s when I discovered the company I was talking to wasn’t really the credit agency, but an affiliated subcontractor. To institute a freeze, I would have to call a different number.

I did so and handled the whole thing by automated voice commands. Later, I received email and text notifications that a freeze had been placed on my account.

I breathed a sigh of relief, though with modern lax standards of verifying identity, one can never be sure of safety.

After all, once someone in Colorado Springs tried to open a new cell phone account using my identity. Fortunately, that got cut off at the pass by another identity theft protection plan then in place.

Though that happened long ago, I still shake my head and wonder why a clerk in Colorado didn’t automatically reject an application purporting to come from me, who lived 1,300 miles away.

Lacking Cyberspace Expertise

I confess to being somewhat of a Neanderthal with cyberspace technology since I didn’t grow up with it. Everything I’ve learned the past 35 years has been basically done “on the fly,” asking other writers or grandchildren for insights when encountering headaches.

And yet I wonder why the people who deal with computers for a living don’t seem to have a firm grip on things, either.

Two other examples that happened just after my frantic calls to the credit bureau involved a federal agency and a not-so-serious situation.

The first was the U.S. Census Bureau. They had sent me their American Community Survey a little over a month ago. It being a quiet Saturday, I went to my laptop and completed the survey.

In late August another official-looking Census envelope arrived. For quality assurance purposes, they wanted me to answer a few follow-up questions.

I went to the hyperlink they listed and logged in with the user ID. And then…nothing. The computer froze. After four more tries, I closed the browser. May never go back.

Ironically, that was the same day I was unable to get into our local newspaper’s online college football contest. I had registered two weeks earlier and noted the password I used so I could get back in later to make my picks.

However, when I went back the system said my password wasn’t any good. I acquired a “reset” link, entered a new password, and everything seemed to be okay.

Except it wasn’t. The “submit” button didn’t budge. Finally, I made it in using a different browser. Unfortunately, I missed the first week’s contest because of the hassles. Good thing I’m only doing this for fun.