Just called eBay customer service to unlock my account because I was traveling in China, it seems.

The rep starts to ask me information, to verify my identity, that is on a "public database" as she said. I asked, which database? "I can't tell you that" she says.

She proceeds to ask me 5 questions where the answers would be on my credit report, past addresses, Driver license info but also SS info. I ask her "are u in the US?", "no", "where?" "in Asia"(!) (read: Philippines)

I'm waiting for a few hrs to call and get a hold of a supervisor in California. Right now I think all calls would go to the PI.

And then we wonder why identity theft is skyrocketing. You got ebay? then your credit report in in Makati somwhere.

Would be interesting to see if this is in their privacy policy.

Public databse for verification gives reps (anywhere in the world - if licensed) multiple choice questions that you have to answer and evaluate. They don't have access to your credit file. Thanks for coming out, tho.

Big companies like Ebay have call centers all over the world, especially those countries with good English language capability like India and the P.I....been several times that I called a U.S. customer support number and ended up talking to a customer support rep in India....I think the last such call was a couple years ago in call I made to Microsoft....I could easily tell from his accent he was probably from India and when I asked he freely said he's based in India.