Identity Theft, Anyone?

Thought your personal information is protected from prying eyes and would-be scam artists? Think again! PC World has the lowdown on a new public records data service:

Zabasearch.com lets anyone search for information about U.S. residents. The site will give you any available street address and phone number for free. While address and phone number searching isn’t new, the site can dredge up phone numbers and addresses of people who are otherwise unlisted in any other phone directory.

Additional fees, which start at $20, get you what the company calls a background check–everything that it can find about the person you specify. Online background checks aren’t new, either. But many companies that perform them say they provide data only to qualified clients–potential employers, insurers, and landlords, for instance. Zabasearch will sell data to anyone who is willing to pay.

The company doesn’t make it easy to remove personal info from its site. You have to send Zabasearch a snail-mail letter requesting the removal of your records. It takes two days for your details to disappear; and even then, if Zabasearch spiders find new records about you from a different source, the company can’t promise that your personal details won’t show up in future searches.

Though the risks to your privacy are serious, they aren’t Zabasearch’s fault. The larger problem is that local and state governments have been publishing public records online for years. If you’re concerned about your privacy, you should, for now, send a letter to Zabasearch. But the most effective way to protect your data in the future may be to send a message to your elected representatives urging them to limit the amount of confidential information contained in public documents posted online.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that there is a Heaven’s Gate connection to Zabasearch:

You remember Heaven’s Gate. Thirty-nine members of the Southern California cult committed suicide together in 1997. They apparently believed this would allow them to rendezvous with a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

The bodies of the cultists, who had funded their activities with computer work, were discovered in a mansion near San Diego by a former Heaven’s Gate member, Richard Ford, who’d been sent a videotape by cult leaders explaining their rationale for mass suicide.

At the time, Ford was working as a Web designer for a Beverly Hills computer company owned by ZabaSearch’s Matzorkis. About a dozen cult members reportedly had worked for Matzorkis at various times.

Matzorkis couldn’t be reached for comment by e-mail or through Zakari.

But according to news reports, he drove Ford to the mansion to check on the cult’s circumstances. He reportedly waited in the car while Ford went inside.

“They did it,” Newsweek quoted Ford as saying as he returned to the car.

“Did it smell?” Matzorkis was quoted as replying.

It was Matzorkis who subsequently insisted that the San Diego Sheriff’s Department be notified.

Zakari, who was working with Matzorkis at the time, served as Ford’s lawyer after the bodies were found.

Neither Matzorkis nor Zakari was a Heaven’s Gate member.

Nevertheless, Matzorkis quickly negotiated a deal for ABC to make a TV movie about Heaven’s Gate. It never got off the ground. He also gave numerous interviews to reporters about finding the bodies.

Well ain’t that ducky?

At least some of us aren’t going to take Zabasearch lying down…

Filed under Homeland Insecurity, Technology |