It may sound a stupid question but ... how do the agencies trace you ie NI numbers, bank details etc? How far can these people reach into your private life and find you ? I am not working at the moment but am due to do so in a week, can I be found by paying tax etc ? I do not have bills etc in my name but would like to know how they go about finding people. Thanks for your help

-- Alison Jenkins (topbanana07@hotmail.com), September 25, 2001

Answers

I think the DSS is the major leaker of information that you might have thought was between you and the Government. In my opinion, the information you supply when you sign on for benefits appears to show up in pre-lit reports (that repossessees obtain by using the Data Protection Act) rather than the information that you supply to the Inland Revenue.

I would have thought that information you supply to the National Insurance people would also be made available to private eyes/tracing companies.

The reason I think that the DSS and possibly the NI are leakers is that they don't pay their staff particularly well, and many staff are demotivated. So they are easy pickings for ways of making extra income, basically.

Bear in mind that the lowest level of admin in the DSS - and I presume the NI - have access to the details you enter on any form.

The DSS will necessarily have more info on your earnings and assets than pretty much any other department. Consider how many questions you answered on various benefit claim forms.

The NI, on the other hand, asks fewer questions and its staff are mostly concentrated in Newcastle so they probably don't sell info to private eyes/tracing agents in Poole or Cardiff.

About four years ago, the Inland Revenue - which shares data with the NI people - acknowledged that it had leaks and sought information that would help it stem them. I don't know if that is still true.

So the DSS is probably the biggest leaker.

Lee

-- Lee (repossession@home-repo.org), September 26, 2001.

tracing people

I too believe that it is the DSS that leaks info. I feel that when I get all the data that my pursuers have on me I will find out and I will not stop until I do. The reason for this is that when the initial postcard wanting to deliver a parcel to me arrived it came to my new address with no name on the postcard. When I telephone them they asked if I was Mr. So and so to which I replied NO. They then told me that the previous address they had tried to deliver it to was the address of the repossessed property from over seven years ago. I found it strange because I had moved five times since then to my current address and four years ago I changed my name by deed poll. I have not applied for any credit since so the only way they could have made the connection is through the DSS. I have just joined the labour party as an official member and I am going to pursue this one till I get the facts and then the shit is really going to hit the fan.

-- (tooscaredtosay@shittingmyself.co.uk), September 29, 2001.

This is curious indeed - but rather than the DSS leaking like a sieve I think you may have individuals within it selling profiled case lists. These are claimants who have been or are to be investigated or who fit a profile dreamed up by the local office. Allegedly.

-- Too scared to say (iwasduped@yahoo.com), September 29, 2001.