Sale that could harm previous owner

[C A Sugg]

A while back I bought a early '80s Chinon kit for a song at a flea market with the idea of reselling it to a basic photo student, after film testing. Well, the students are back and the camera and lenses all work perfectly. Alas, a previous owner engraved his name and SS # into the bottom plate, deep enough that I don't think I could grind it out effectively.
Should I just keep it, considering that letting it back into the wild as found could re-expose someone to identity theft?

Charles

 

[Ian Grant]

He got rid of it knowing it was there, so why worry. Can't you make it worse ie obscure it so it's less recognisable.

Ian

 

[Fotoguy20d]

For that matter, how do you know the marked owner is still alive?

 

[WolfTales]

It still creates the opportunity for theft, a name and a SS#.

Of course you should worry about it. You may end up paying for it as a tax payer if the owner is no longer alive, if not directly, then indirectly in terms of police hours to stop the crime perpetrator etc...

Being indifferent can be just as bad as the crime, too.

 

[Valerie]

Try engraving over it so the numbers are obscured or changed to look like something else.

 

[mgb74]

This is an interesting ethical question since it's very possible or even likely that identity theft wasn't the problem when he sold it that it is today.

Personally, I would take one of those engraver pens and try to obliterate (as neatly as possible) 2 or 3 digits. Or a dremel type tool with a stone. Your local police department might be able to help you do this if they promote "operation ID".

 

[C A Sugg]

Try engraving over it so the numbers are obscured or changed to look like something else.

That sounds like it might work! I'll try that even if I do keep it.

Thanks,

Charles

 

[MattKing]

Change each number into an "8".

Matt

 

[Sirius Glass]

It was the previous owner's responsibility to take care of this. Without the name, date of birth and address this Social Security number is pretty much useless.

Steve

 

[PeteZ8]

It was the previous owner's responsibility to take care of this. Without the name, date of birth and address this Social Security number is pretty much useless.

Steve

With the internet; it's very likely the owner could be quickly surmised from a google search of the name and geographic region the camera was sold in. Chances are an address, and possibly even a DOB might turn up very quickly in a search.

I would just re-engrave the characters to be something else if at all possible.

 

[AgX]

But somenone, most probably the owner, wanted it to be seen. Though in the past without those investigative means of the internet he might have felt much more save about it. So the situation might have changed.

 

[lns]

A while back I bought a early '80s Chinon kit for a song at a flea market with the idea of reselling it to a basic photo student, after film testing. Well, the students are back and the camera and lenses all work perfectly. Alas, a previous owner engraved his name and SS # into the bottom plate, deep enough that I don't think I could grind it out effectively.
Should I just keep it, considering that letting it back into the wild as found could re-expose someone to identity theft?

Charles

You sound like a really good person. Thanks for your efforts to do the right thing.

I agree that you should find some way to obscure the name and SSN before you sell it. The world has changed since he engraved it there. We don't even know if he did sell it knowingly -- it might have been lost or stolen years ago. I'm sure the extra work you have to do will be rewarded with good karma.

-Laura

 

[Jesper]

Your efforts are commendable, but concentrate on making one number illegible (two if there is a control number, I am not familliar with American ssn's).
With just one number missing (or two in case of control number) it is too much effort for any would be identity thieves to bother. It is easier to pick through the paper recycle bins in search for a bank statement or credit card bill (not to mention the Internet).
No sense in letting a good camera rot.

I do not agree that the risk belongs to the previous owner. We are not perfect and it could well have slipped the mind of the owner that the number was there (we don't even know that it was sold by the owner). If we care, we can hope that others do the same to us when we need it.

 

[DLawson]

With the internet; it's very likely the owner could be quickly surmised from a google search of the name and geographic region the camera was sold in. Chances are an address, and possibly even a DOB might turn up very quickly in a search.

This is where it gets insane that we take knowledge of a SSN as anything close to proof of identity. The state of issue is absolutely indicated by the first 3 digits. The second two are a block, which will indicate the range of years of issuance (and maybe a local SS office location). That's all publicly available. Nothing there tells the age of issuance, though sometime in the '70s it became common to do so at birth.

It should never have been used for anything other than an accounting number.

 

[Sirius Glass]

This is where it gets insane that we take knowledge of a SSN as anything close to proof of identity. The state of issue is absolutely indicated by the first 3 digits. The second two are a block, which will indicate the range of years of issuance (and maybe a local SS office location). That's all publicly available. Nothing there tells the age of issuance, though sometime in the '70s it became common to do so at birth.

It should never have been used for anything other than an accounting number.

Again, what he said.

Even the complete number without the name, ... as I listed above ... pretty much useless. It is then a 9 digit number which is somewhat random.

Steve

 

[resummerfield]

I wouldn't worry about it.

A year ago I decided to look up my high school class of about 100, and paid a 24hr. membership fee to several "people finders" sites on the internet, the white pages lookup, etc. I easily obtained all the birthdates, all the full names and current addresses and, in several cases, a ss number. All in a few hours searching in one evening. It's scary what can be obtained on the www these days.

So since the info is already out there, don't worry about it.

 

[resummerfield]

Another thought...... Most of these genealogy sites have a link to the Socal Security Death Index. Key in the persons name, and if that person is deceased, the SSN will come up.

So what I'm saying is that anyone can obtain the SSN of a deceased person.

 

[eli griggs]

Use a good metal epoxy to set a thin plate of brass over the area in question, OR, tape off the area with a couple layers of tape, a mold of sorts and use some JB Weld to fill-in the area.

Eli

 

[winger]

Having spent many hours restoring serial numbers on guns (criminals file them off in hopes they can't be traced), just take a diamond tip scribe and make a few numbers look like something different. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes and will defy attempts to restore what was originally there (if anyone ever cares).
While our SSNs were only supposed to be used by the social security office, they have become pretty common identifiers - which I think is wrong considering the amount of info someone determined could get. I just would choose to not add more to the pile of info like that out there.

 

[Perry Way]

It was the previous owner's responsibility to take care of this. Without the name, date of birth and address this Social Security number is pretty much useless.

Steve

With freedom comes responsibility. The person who engraved the camera exercised their freedom. Responsibility remains with that person. You cannot transfer legal liability to subsequent owners. That makes as much sense as claiming the original owner owes you money after you try to fix this problem through grinding it off and finding that in doing so it ruins the camera.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Another thought...... Most of these genealogy sites have a link to the Socal Security Death Index. Key in the persons name, and if that person is deceased, the SSN will come up.

So what I'm saying is that anyone can obtain the SSN of a deceased person.

Yes, you can get the name and SSN of someone, but they have to be willing to die!

But given an SSN and no name, it is very hard to find the name or anything else.

Steve

 

[DaveOttawa]

A while back I bought a early '80s Chinon kit for a song at a flea market with the idea of reselling it to a basic photo student, after film testing. Well, the students are back and the camera and lenses all work perfectly. Alas, a previous owner engraved his name and SS # into the bottom plate, deep enough that I don't think I could grind it out effectively.
Should I just keep it, considering that letting it back into the wild as found could re-expose someone to identity theft?

Charles

I say give to one of your students as is and let them enjoy it - knowing it is an object with some history. I am going to assume your students aren't known crooks!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

But given an SSN and no name, it is very hard to find the name or anything else.

Steve

You don't even need the exact name. Someone with a name vaguely similar to mine somehow got my SSN a few years ago and applied for all sorts of vehicle loans and credit cards, and it's taken an enormous amount of time to clear it all up, and then since some of these accounts have gone to collection and the chain of information isn't always perfect, they still come back occasionally. And there's some information on my credit report like this other guy's addresses that I can't even get rid of, because it's not obvious where they came from. So say I have to check some bank information by phone, and the bank wants to do a security check based on my credit report and asks me, "which of these four addresses have you lived at?"--there might be addresses on my credit report that I don't recognize, because they're not my addresses--major headache.

The guy was prosecuted eventually and got at least three months. It's possible that he was prosecuted on other charges as well that I don't know about, since the banks would have been the victims in those cases.

 

[Sirius Glass]

You don't even need the exact name. Someone with a name vaguely similar to mine somehow got my SSN a few years ago and applied for all sorts of vehicle loans and credit cards, and it's taken an enormous amount of time to clear it all up, and then ...

David, the name was similar to yours. The person buying the camera has no name to work on.

Not to make light of your situation, which was bad, about 10 years ago a woman inadvertently transposed two of her Social Security numbers resulting in my number. By the time I found out, the error had been corrected; she stopped using my number; and I only had to write a letter to the three credit agencies and have her stuff removed from mine. It took one letter and a couple of months and the damage was undone. Again, without a name [I am not talking about a near miss,which is your situation] the SSN alone is not useful to anyone.

Steve

 

[Dave Pritchard]

A while back I bought a early '80s Chinon kit for a song at a flea market with the idea of reselling it to a basic photo student, after film testing. Well, the students are back and the camera and lenses all work perfectly. Alas, a previous owner engraved his name and SS # into the bottom plate, deep enough that I don't think I could grind it out effectively.
Should I just keep it, considering that letting it back into the wild as found could re-expose someone to identity theft?

Charles

Name and SSN.