Ask Headmaster Ken

Hi Ken,

I sent copies of diplomas, certificates and passports to a few recruiters before I realized so much of that information can be sold and used for illegal activity. I am now much more careful about sending these things but I am thinking I may have opened myself up to having my identity stolen.

Are there any steps you would advise at this point I could or should take to limit my vulnerability?

Thank you very much,

matochina

Hello,

I've never heard of a single case of identity theft as a result of sending application documents to China. That is over a period of more than seven years here monitoring forums and answering questions.

Still and all, I understand your concern. I suggest you think of watermarking your documents and obscuring passport numbers on initial application to employers.

You will of course need to send clear copies if you are hired.

Best wishes,

Ken

In order to put your mind at ease, take a look at this very thorough and informative article on identity theft. As you will see, the main purpose of identity theft is usually to commit financial fraud, i.e., run up credit in your name and then stick you with the bill.

If you think about it, that can't happen in China. No Chinese national can divert your credit card bills to their address in mainland China or issue a change of address card to the U.S. Post Office for the purpose of eventually stealing your credit card information.

Many Western people have this terrible fear that their passport information will be stolen and misused, but how is that possible? Can you imagine a Chinese national walking into the nearest American embassy with a digital copy of your passport asking for a replacement with the ultimate plan of entering the United States pretending to be you? Before having the guy arrested, I imagine a good hearty laugh would be enjoyed by all.

The most common abuse of Western credentials in China is in the improper handling of your digital degree: Chinese school owners will keep it, remove your name (perhaps the opposite of identity theft) and use it as a blank template for awarding degrees to Western applicants who don't have a degree. For this reason, I agree with Ken that adding a 50% opaque large diagonal watermark across the digital degree is a good idea. Tell the school owner or FAO that if you are hired, you will provide a clean copy.

You should NEVER send credit card information via e-mail or enter credit card information on websites that are not secured with SSL (where you see https:// in the url). When in mainland China, I never used my credit cards at hotels: always paid cash.

Thank you both for the welcome replies. I've already had part of your answers illustrated very well.

A few days ago a Chinese man with very unclear English called to tell me he was from the State Treasury Dept. and wanted to give me $30,000. I couldn't understand what he was saying until he repeated it a couple times. Then it was so ridiculous I did laugh and he then started to swear at me in English but even then I had to ask him to repeat himself because I could not understand what he was saying.

I guess the identity theft idea came from a post I saw somewhere on another forum saying your identity could be sold to someone here in the US. But if you haven't ever seen it in seven years I'll relax.

Thanks for a great website,

Brenda