With all the financial and personal paperwork required for a Retirement Visa, "Non-Immigrant O Visa", is anyone worried about Identity Theft?
Do we all think that the Thai Immigration Dept handles all this paperwork securely?  I'm talking about the beginning phase where you must get a 90-day Visa to start, all the way through to extending an existing Retirement Visa each year.

• immigration officers coming out to your residence and taking pictures of your bank passbook along with your country passport
• all the paperwork handled down at the Immigration Dept

 

I don't at all and wonder when we will start seeing some of this personal data sold for nefarious purposes.  What recourse will we have at that point?

 

I've been hacked back home twice now and all they culprits needed was an old check (where we used to have SSN, phone and address printed).  Yes most of us have gone paperless now, but you best get rid of all old paperwork securely.  I'm not sure what it would take here in Thailand to be able to acquire a new debit / credit card linked to "your" bank account.

 

Edited July 23, 20196 yr by HaoleBoy
typo

 

 

 

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

 

 

All this previous data did not include your bank passport number, and it was still leaked.

37 minutes ago, HaoleBoy said:

What recourse will we have at that point?

As passports have a 'Property of the Govt' clause it would be interesting to see if complaining under GDPR actually works, given they (the Govt, as owners) have technically lost the data.   

Tongue-in-cheek perhaps, but would give the Sir Humphries something to flap about.

In a word to answer the fishing post from the OP

NO

Any recent cases of a retired farang in Thailand getting shafted? No, didn't think so. 

I find it hard to imagine that George Thompson, retired ex postmaster second class from Newcastle is now the subject of an Interpol investigation concerning multi billion drug and human trafficking charges.

When tracked down by the  TVF news team sleuths. George replied geet lush until presented with the allegations then muttered .ayup our kid wadafukyouonnabout. Promptly had a heart attack and fell of his bar stool. TVF news team reported this as yet  another case of falling from heights in Pattaya and it was speculated that his wife/gf/ladyboy friend may be complicit as she/she/it was nowhere in the area so obviously had run away up country. Case closed.

13 hours ago, HaoleBoy said:

With all the financial and personal paperwork required for a Retirement Visa, "Non-Immigrant O Visa", is anyone worried about Identity Theft?

Yes. That is why one of many reasons I put 800,000 baht into the bank in Thailand five years ago when I arrived. They only see one piece of paper from the bank and my passbook. They both have the same info.

 

Yes that is a lot of info about my Thailand bank, but no USA social security numbers, no addresses in the USA, no bank names, account numbers... zero USA stuff. And the Thai bank account is not linked to a ATM card.  

 

 

 

 

13 hours ago, HaoleBoy said:

I don't at all and wonder when we will start seeing some of this personal data sold for nefarious purposes.  What recourse will we have at that point?

Recently a lot of local expats had been receiving telephone calls from a new 'Visa agency' springing out of the woodwork, pertaining to get extensions from either Khon Kaen, Roi Et, or Ubon, with no financials required.

Ultimately I also received the same call, the agent knowing my name and the Province I was located in.

Puzzled, I asked where they obtained this information.

Khon Kaen Regional Immigration office!

Forget your identity and privacy, you are in Thailand now !

 

18 hours ago, HaoleBoy said:

Do we all think that the Thai Immigration Dept handles all this paperwork securely?

Yes, they put it in a nice pile on their desk.

 

Sorry OP, what is your point? Some of think yes, some think no, will you sleep better when you see the answers? And do you really think that "going paperless" is a safer option?

Thai Immigration frequently recycle paper with private data on the other side.

5 hours ago, plfomylo said:

Forget your identity and privacy, you are in Thailand now !

 

Forget those things if you live on planet earth now,

On 7/23/2019 at 8:52 AM, HaoleBoy said:

I'm not sure what it would take here in Thailand to be able to acquire a new debit / credit card linked to "your" bank account.

 

Passport and bankbook at the bank branch where you opened the account. if not then it would be the banks responsibility.

On 7/23/2019 at 10:45 PM, Tanoshi said:

Recently a lot of local expats had been receiving telephone calls from a new 'Visa agency' springing out of the woodwork, pertaining to get extensions from either Khon Kaen, Roi Et, or Ubon, with no financials required.

Ultimately I also received the same call, the agent knowing my name and the Province I was located in.

Puzzled, I asked where they obtained this information.

Khon Kaen Regional Immigration office!

Did you report it ?? i would have.