At work I'm always watching our user experience (UX for the tech crowd) get better. Tweaking, redesigning, constantly focused on making the site more trustworthy, usable, efficient, etc. So I was shocked to find literally the other side of the UX coin: http://Optoutprescreen.com.
Optoutprescreen is the phishing-like site set up by the major credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and Innovis Data Solutions where consumers can opt-out from getting credit card solicitations. These "firm" offers of credit are not only a huge risk to consumers who spend too much and can't resist borrowing more, but also are an open door to identity theives, where someone could easily open a credit card in your name and destroy your credit (how? everything they need is right there in your trash! one place, one envelope!).
Congress recognized this danger and, after much lobbying (on both sides - which shows how bad this is for consumers, that this law actually passed over the cries of the credit agencies) the Fair And Accurate Credit Transactions Act went into action in 2003, revising the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require a way for consumers to opt out of receiving these unsolicited credit offers that's included in the soliciations.
I've never actually opened one (I feel that because it's a felony offense to open someone else's mail, it's better to leave the envelopes sealed in the trash - not that an identity theif would care that much) so I've never seen this. But I stumbled on it today from the DMAChoice website, where you can opt out of receiving junk mail - catalogs, ValuePak (whatever that is), etc.
It looks like a scam. They ask for all of your information - date of birth, social security number, it's ridiculous. Why do they need it? They just need your name and your address! But, they've clearly figured out that the sketchier and more illicit this site looks, the less likely you are to put this key information in. You'll "abandon" - and the credit offers can keep coming.
I'll admit to being skeptical when I found the site, but I clicked through from DMAChoice.org which is a well known site for the Direct Marketing Association, with clear branding, a good user experience, and obvious ties to real companies. So I realized what optoutprescreen (what evil genius came up with that URL, anyway?) was doing - purposefully trying to sketch me out of opting out, and I ignored it.
Still when I sent it onto my wife, she was horrified by it and asked if it was a forgery - apparently, other people have too. Just take a look at wikipedia.
Amazing what kind of bad UX smart people can create when they're motivated by evil.
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