What to do about that other Cole Watts? Yesterday's tale of Identity Theft.

So I became a victim of Identity theft, yesterday.  Yes, you read that right.  I came home yesterday from my Internship and found out that I was now the owner of six cell phones attached to family plans with both Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Thankfully, I was able to call and cancel AT&T's plan almost immediately, and I am still waiting to hear fromVerizon Wireless.

I micro-blogged the whole event starting with this tweet, and followed it up until my eventful return from the police department.  As I was tweeting my friends at JHP Advertising, they sent me their sympathy and I said thank you, and went on to tell them that my bank account's safe but my social security numbers are another issue entirely.  These thieves used my Social Security numbers to order the phones and if they're smart enough, they will realize they that they can use these numbers to order anything at all.

This got me thinking about just how important our social security numbers are to us and our future.  Now that we have decided to become a digital society, paper money is becoming irrelevant.  Though it is easy to go to an ATM these days, few people actually carry around cash or any coinage.  With debit and credits so easily to be stolen is it not time that we implement some kind of retinal scans, or the fingerpriting devices that we see in the movies.

Though these thoughts of simply being a number in the system are scary, being a victim is scarier.  Now, I have to worry about myself and my future, because I am a victim and this can only make me wonder where our current future will take us.

Where will the banking industry take us, in order to protect our security?  Are we going to have chips in the back of our heads that serve as our bank accounts as well?  Let me know.