A New Taipei City man who has “A123456789” for his national identification number on Friday thanked law enforcement agencies for “leaving him alone,” after having been summoned for years for crimes committed by people who unwittingly used his number and stole his identity.
Hsieh Tiao-ken (謝條根), 63, said that he has had to visit police stations and prosecutors’ offices more than 100 times for crimes he did not commit due to his peculiar ID number.
Government agencies used to provide “A123456789” as the ID number in instructions showing people how to apply for a new ID or National Health Insurance card until 2005, when the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) reported Hsieh’s story and government officials learned that it was someone’s number.
Photo provided by a reader via CNA
With the popularity of the Internet, he increasingly got caught up in identity theft cases, Hsieh said, citing fraudulent e-commerce sellers who used his ID number to register on shopping platforms.
His number has most often been misused in the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) ticket-booking system — possibly because people would use his number in a “trial run” to see how the Web page worked, but then forget to cancel the ticket reserved under his number when buying a ticket under their own, Hsieh said.
The sheer number of times that he failed to claim booked tickets drew the TRA’s attention, Hsieh said, adding that during one period, his record was receiving one or two notices or warnings per week from various agencies.
The worst time was when a teenager falsely reported his ID number to police after paying for sex, which infuriated his wife and almost touched off a “family crisis,” he said.
His identity has been stolen so many times that his credit rating has been destroyed, making it impossible for him to get a bank loan, Hsieh said, adding that he even had to use his wife’s name on his mobile phone contract.
However, three years have passed since he received an agency notice or warning, because most of those in charge know that he is a long-time “victim,” instead of a “repeat offender,” he said.
New Taipei City Household Registration Service director Yan Yao-ming (顏耀明) said that people whose ID number ends in 4, or contains three or more 4s, can apply for a new number.
In Mandarin, the pronunciation of “4” is similar to “death.”
Although Hsieh does not qualify, the government could make a special exception for him, as his number has obviously caused him considerable trouble, Yan said.
However, Hsieh has declined the offer, saying that at his age, he has made peace with his ID number, and changing it would involve the ordeal of needing to update it on too many documents.
“I might as well just stick with it, but I also hope that people would stop using this number,” he added.
Lawyer Huang Sheng-wen (黃勝文) said that people whose credit rating suffers as a result of identity theft can show proof of their innocence to judicial authorities and get back what they are legally entitled to.
Additional reporting by CNA
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