Rock Chip Repair Stand VS Personal Information
October 12, 2015 4:39 PM Subscribe
On the spur of the moment, I swung my car by one of those Free Rock Chip Repair stands in a mall parking lot. Part of the process was taking a phone call from a rep from the Rock Chip company, who had to run my insurance to see if it could be covered. He said that he needed my date of birth and the last 4 digits of my SSN (in addition to my address, phone number, email address, insurance info, etc), or he couldn't check my coverage. I was wary, but gave it to him. Should I have not?
It seems like with your DOB, last 4 of a SSN, plus their email, phone, and street address, someone could compromise your identity pretty extensively. Am I being ridiculous and paranoid, or is it actually risky to hand out this level of personal information to a phone rep for a pop-up rock chip repair stand? This was at the Capital Mall in Olympia, WA., and my insurance is through Geico. Thanks!
It seems like with your DOB, last 4 of a SSN, plus their email, phone, and street address, someone could compromise your identity pretty extensively. Am I being ridiculous and paranoid, or is it actually risky to hand out this level of personal information to a phone rep for a pop-up rock chip repair stand? This was at the Capital Mall in Olympia, WA., and my insurance is through Geico. Thanks!
Response by poster: Thanks, yeah, I really should have looked up the business name and included it in the question. This is the business: 5 Minute Rock Chip Express -- the domain their email came from goes to an Under Construction page. They have pretty dismal Yelp reviews, but I don't see anything related to my immediate concerns.
posted by churl at 5:18 PM on October 12, 2015
posted by churl at 5:18 PM on October 12, 2015
Best answer: They probably need your SS and DOB to prove to the insurance company that they are really dealing with you and not trying to file a fraudulent claim.
posted by COD at 5:29 PM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 5:29 PM on October 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks TenaciousB and COD, both answers helped. My insurance company says the same as COD, and that they've never heard of identity theft related to these kinds of services, just crummy hard-sell techniques etc. Caveat emptor but I don't think I need to set off the klaxons on this one. Cheers!
posted by churl at 12:56 PM on October 15, 2015
posted by churl at 12:56 PM on October 15, 2015
« Older To Redirect, or To NoIndex, that is the question..... | Moving from Seattle to Shoreline? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
That does seem like they were asking for TMI, especially the SSN. I'd find out if you can sign up for credit monitoring, because you're not being paranoid.
posted by TenaciousB at 4:52 PM on October 12, 2015