sort of creepy- how do they know?

[dreamer]

My difficult child has decided to try to work. SHe tried once a few months ago, at our grocery store in the bakery but then got super embarrassed due to a major panic attack.
SO she applied to our brand new super walmart.
the first step of application process is done online. So first off it asks for a pin, before you can even get to the appl? so she was using the computer by customer service desk, and she called over to employee, what do I put for a PIN? they said try last 4 of soc sec. Nope. no good. so she tried birth year. It worked! How did it know since she had not signed up etc? if it simply accepted what she chose, why did it not acept the first thing?
THEN---------she FREAKED. after she gave her birth year she claims it came up with her name filled in, and her address, and her cell phone....etc. Her cell is not in her own name- it is in mine, part of a family plan set up.............
HOW DID IT KNOW the answers?

 

[hearts and roses]

Because, thanks to the Privacy Act, we have no more privacy...Big Brother is here and he's paying attention...he knows all and records it and gives it to places like Walmart.

I wish I were kidding.

You know when you're checking out and the cashier asks you for your Zip or Phone number? It's for a couple of different reasons. The first one is to track you and your spending habits. The other is so they know where to build their next store. They record your personal data. Ever notice how now when you return something to a store, they no longer need your originally used credit card to credit your account - nope. They just bring up all your original data, including the credit card you used, by waving the wand over your receipt. Every time you use a credit card or make an online purchase that information is being recorded and shared with other company's databases.

 

[dreamer]

I could see if it was me.....cuz yeah I pay by check etc and I am "well established" etc in so many "systems" etc....but Buffy has no bank account, no credit card, does not shop herslef (has no money of her own) and her cell, along with her sisters and brothers are all in MY name........not hers.
ANd the thing about the PIN was super weird, at first we thought she had to assign a PIN to access and fill out the application....but - guess not. she asked person at service desk who said try your birth year. Thats as far as my dtr got. and it began telling HER who she was? scary.

 

[kris]

<span style='font-size: 14pt'> <span style='font-family: Georgia'> <span style="color: #663366"> actually there is a pretty easy way to get the answer....at least walmart's answer. call customer service & ask them. i will ask jarrod who now works at sam's club & see what he thinks.

kris </span> </span> </span>

 

[donna723]

I think Wal Mart IS the new "Big Brother"!

:wink:

It could be that the first PIN she selected, the last four digits of her SSN, had already been used by someone else, so it wouldn't take it. I don't know how it came up with all the other information though, especially the cell phone number! I know that when my son was hired for a new job, they ran his numbers through one of the credit bureaus and came up with practically his whole life story! Unfortunately, that's how we found out that his dad had apparently "borrowed" his SSN a few times to run up some bills that he never paid, and it came up with half of his fathers life story too!! :mad: But anyway...

I am, admittedly, the least technically "gifted" person on the face of the earth, but some of the stuff they do now freaks me out too! The Wal Marts that run your check through some magical process and then give the check back to you ...! Did it just mysteriously zap the money right out of my account??? :shocked: Do I just have an "honest face"? :smile: Did they already know who I was and what I was going to buy when I came in the door...? :cool: :cool: :cool:

 

[JJJ]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: donna723</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I think Wal Mart IS the new "Big Brother"!

:wink:
The Wal Marts that run your check through some magical process and then give the check back to you ...! Did it just mysteriously zap the money right out of my account??? :cool: :cool: :cool:

</div></div>

Yes, basically that is it. They treat it as an elctronic debit and they take your money immediately. No bounced checks for them :smile:

 

[donna723]

I don't remember it showing up on my bank statement as an electronic transfer ... maybe I just missed it. This was not the Wal Mart I usually go to.

The one I usually shop in doesn't do it electronically, but they no longer ask for ID when you give them a check! I have it out and ready, out of habit, and they tell me they don't need it! Must be my "honest :smile: face" again!

 

[hearts and roses]

At our Walgreens, we don't even have to sign the receipt when we use our debit card anymore! Once they scan my card, it shows all my info and past shopping history...I asked. It IS scary how all these databases have all of our personal data...banking info, etc. I don't like it.

And the grocery stores recently started using the electronic tranfer with my checks - checks are becoming obsolete!! I don't want my check handed back to me...what am I supposed to do with that??

 

[Marguerite]

Donna, you said, "The one I usually shop in doesn't do it electronically, but they no longer ask for ID when you give them a check! I have it out and ready, out of habit, and they tell me they don't need it! Must be my "honest face" again!"

The thing is, all the store wants is to be paid. They really don't care if it's counterfeit or not because if it IS fraudulent, the bank's insurance will cover it.

We've been told in Australia that if we are fleeced by a scammer (either an email scam or a skimmer on the ATM) that the bank will reimburse us what we've lost, as long as we didn't actively participate in the scam. So if I get an email asking me to log ono to a site that looks like my bank's, and type in my PIN, they will reimburse me (they used not to, if you gave your PIN to someone who then robbed you). They will only NOT pay up if I wrote the scam. Then, of course, I would be prosecuted instead.

Insurance pays for it all. And we all pay for the insurance, in higher bank charges, higher account-keeping fees and lower interest rates.

And Donna, if that's a forged cheque you're passing, they WILL find you and take it out of your hide later. And it won't be Walmart you're dealing with, it will be the insurance company's debt recovery people and the law.

These days it's almost impossible to not have a computer file on you spread like a rash over the networks. Anonymity is long dead.

Marg

 

[donna723]

I personally prefer my little small-town neighborhood grocery store ... everybody knows everybody else ... they know where I live and they know where I work and their kids probably went to school with my kids and they probably know the whole family history all the way back to great-granny - and they NEVER ask for ID because that would be kind of silly here!

:smile:

 

[SRL]

I just paid $78 for new checks and it was pretty painful when the Walmart clerk handed it back to me. It's time for a debit card--no way am I paying for that waste.

 

[Hound dog]

This is why I don't use checks or credit cards at stores. Actually I very rarely ever use a credit card, and checks are only for paying bills. We don't have a debit or bank card.

I'm also "rude" and refuse to give out my phone number or zip code when asked at a cash register. You would simply not believe some of the reactions I get from some cashiers because I refuse to give out this info. :faint:

I do my best to dodge big brother whenever I can. :wink: :rofl:

 

[dreamer]

I understand how they can take a check without needing my ID anymore.becuz my name, address, phone etc are in the computer systems. I also understand how they do electronic checks, same way they can accept check payment over the phone, now- yes, it is very similar to ATM transaction, and yes, I hate it, too that I pay for checks to have them simply hand them back to me. Another part is they did not make it clear at first that when they process the check that way- that you do not have to fill them out, which I would have much appreciated knowing when I was so ill, becuz writing was so difficult for me......

But what was so eeerie was---my dtr was not previosuly in the computer there, and the ONLY info the screen had asked for was a PIN, and she did not HAVE a pin........she gave last 4 of soc sec to try that, as per the service desk employee, but it denied her access to the application so she tried her birth year. SHe had NOT given the terminal any other info at all........and she HAS no PIN floating around for any purpose, she has NO accounts, nothing, nothing in her name, nothing. So she gave her birth year as a PIN to get the application to fill out and the computer spit back HER name, HER address, HER cell number.......BUT she has NEVER ordered anything, has no bank account, no credit cards, her cell is in MY name. She does not even have a drivers license or anything. And she had not preapplied, or registered a PIN previously or anything.....thats why it creeped me and her out.

Several months ago the grocery store where my easy child works began a new way to pay in checkout......you put your thumb on a pad and it deducts the total amount from whatever account you have previously set up for payment, whether it is your checking account, savings account or a credit card......when you put your thumb on the pad it takes the money (or makes a transaction) to pay for your groceries. This grocery store is a large national chain, but I think it uses different names in other areas? I am not sure where else they have made it possible to pay this way.

II live in a relatively small town, we have 18,000 people, and we are on the outskirts of major metro chicago....we are on the very very outter edge. Yes everyone hhere knows everyone else....but- small mom and pop businesses do not usually survive here. So even tho we are small, we are bound by the formal technicalities of a large city where people mi9ght not know each other becuz the large corporations rules.And all the towns around us are much smaller- 200-1000 people and none of them have any stores at all, so they all also shop here (or since my town has so little shopping, we ALL travel to the east towards the more metro area and then of course, no, people do NOT know each other cuz we are from such a LARGE geographical area)