The whole point of an identity check is that they know exactly who you are. If you tell them who you are and you fail the identity check, you can’t simply create a new account because when you go through the identity check for a second time you’ll still need to tell them exactly who you are, at which point they can match the new account to the original failure.

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polack 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

So I’ll just automate failed verifications for everyone I want to lock out?

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handoflixue 10 hours ago | parent [-]

An empty account and an account with a year of history have very different weights in this - most people already have an account tied to their legal name, paid for with a credit card in that same legal name. Throw in some geo-location, browser fingerprinting, etc. to disambiguate the surprisingly rare case of two customers with the exact same name.

For a paid product, it's really not that hard to already have a fairly solid idea of what's going on - this just ensures that a responsible adult has gone through a clear process of signing off on the identity for this specific service, rather than a kid with their parent's credit card.

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caymanjim 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> to disambiguate the surprisingly rare case of two customers with the exact same name

I see you have an uncommon name.

My first+last are shared by about 20,000 people in the US. From 2005-2020 I was unable to check-in for airlines online or even at the kiosk at the airport. I had to wait on line for baggage check-in despite never checking a bag, and they'd take my ID into the back room and delay me for 15 minutes and whisper and glare at me the whole time. Thankfully I can finally fly like a normal person again.

When I worked at a large company, there were four other people with the same first name, middle initial, and last name.

There is nothing surprising or rare about two customers having the same name.

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kshacker 6 hours ago | parent [-]

No me, well me too but not that bad, but my wife. Sometimes in the 200x era on green card, she will always get called for secondary inspection. Oh you entered this airport on this date. How are you re-entering without going out. "Well we did not. Not traveled for a year." But you did. All bags searched, more q&a and then they let her go. A couple of times they mentioned that the other person with the same name had the same date of birth. But the passport / green card number had to be different, no? I guess it took them that half hour to figure out and maybe the 200x AI matched by name and date of birth :)

But the sequel: a few years later I get a bill from a hospital for copay for delivery/childbirth. I call to contest ... we did not even live there any more, did at some point of time but years apart ... but they are adamant that my wife gave birth, at that hospital, on that date, in that city, and maybe she never informed me :) it was almost that weird. I don't act on it and give them a statement that it is not me/my family. Then another bill (or a final notice) a couple of years later. And then finally something clicks ... I used to work in a team where when I moved out, someone replaced me and his name was also same as me. Reach out to him, and his wife's name is same as mine, and they lived in the same city we lived in.

So someone somewhere fat fingered the wrong account when searching by name. He acknowledged the account (and childbirth) and paid up. I unfortunately did not ask him about his wife's date of birth to solve the immigration mystery.

My suspicion has been at my past employer's HR or legal department mixing up files

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thwarted 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's rich that the cohort that sees identity verification and real names policies as necessary and meaningful also doesn't seem to understand the first thing about identity and names.

	▲	inigyou 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It just has to chill your speech. It doesn't have to not mess up your life, as long as it chills your speech.

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miki123211 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

AFAIK, many governments use name+surname+DOB as the unique identifier for a person, E.G. when looking up somebody who doesn't have any documents on them, or initiating a document recovery process if you've been robbed and don't remember anything else.

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inigyou 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

If I told them who I was and then failed to verify that, they don't know who I am because they think I'm lying about who I am. Otherwise what stops me DoSing Sam Altman's account by saying I'm him and then failing to verify?

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JimDabell 11 hours ago | parent [-]

> If I told them who I was and then failed to verify that, they don't know who I am because they think I'm lying about who I am.

They know who you claim to be. It’s not like they just delete all information about you when you fail verification. They are perfectly capable of seeing that two separate accounts are both claiming to be the same person.

> Otherwise what stops me DoSing Sam Altman's account by saying I'm him and then failing to verify?

For Sam Altman in particular? The fact that he’s the CEO. For people in general? Do you have their passport / driving license, and other details needed to attempt the verification process?

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inigyou 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Of course not, that's why I fail verification as them. If I had their passport I'd pass verification as them.

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charcircuit 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

>Do you have their passport / driving license, and other details needed to attempt the verification process?

You do not need real documents if your goal is to get the person locked out by using fake documents.

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fragmede 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Fun fact, if you're celebrity you get a special customer support phone number at most major corporations EG Apple because "Hi I'm Taylor Swift" gets tried a lot.

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miki123211 5 hours ago | parent [-]

How do they get the customer support number to that celebrity?

E.G> when Taylor Swift wants to call Apple right now, how would she know what number to call?

Incidentally, https://people.com/pope-leo-was-hung-up-on-by-bank-customer-...

	▲	tmp10423288442 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I presume you get connected somehow when opening up a high-value account at a participating bank. If that account has some sort of concierge service, I presume that’s how special numbers for other companies might be distributed. Pope Leo is not that rich, and had lived outside the US for many years (he came up in the church hierarchy of Latin America), so it’s not that surprising that he ran into this situation.
	▲	inigyou 39 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Link: 403 Not Allowed