[65805] in Cypherpunks
Re: SSN database scam?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Byrd)
Wed Sep 18 14:41:49 1996
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 14:16:51 -0400
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: Jim Byrd <byrd@ACM.ORG>
One thing people forget is that Lexis-Nexis is hardly the first company to
offer this kind of service. Several years ago, there was a controversy when
Lotus planned to offer this kind of information on CD-ROM.
The main competition of Lexis-Nexis, West Publishing Company ("Westlaw"),
offered this kind of service before Lexis did. The last I heard, it was
possible to get SSNs via Westlaw. I don't know if this is still true.
I checked with a friend of mine, and got this response: "Westlaw offers
access to several databases (including its PEOPLE-CB and INFOAM databases).
They provide a person's "Credit Bureau Header," which contains social
security number, previous address(s), telephone number(s), spouse name, date
of birth, related names/aliases, and the date the report was filed."
I happen to work for Lexis-Nexis, but I don't speak for the company. I work
in a very different part of the company, and don't know the people involved
with P-Trak.
