Identity breach

robatwork

It's fantastically easy for someone to take an extra case off a carousel and walk through customs with a cover story. In the very unlikely event you are stopped an innocent look and a "Oh God sorry, my wife/son took that case and I didn't even notice! So so sorry." Or gamble the £20, put your case full of not much on and grab a similar one at the end. 

Surprised this doesn't happen more, or maybe we don't hear about it. 

There should be a better system to match people up with their luggage. As every case is barcoded/QR'd and a sticker put on your passport, it wouldn't be that difficult to implement a check. More inconvenience but a quick scan while walking through customs would probably have a deterrent effect on smugglers too. 

p00hsticks

robatwork said:

It's fantastically easy for someone to take an extra case off a carousel and walk through customs with a cover story. In the very unlikely event you are stopped an innocent look and a "Oh God sorry, my wife/son took that case and I didn't even notice! So so sorry." Or gamble the £20, put your case full of not much on and grab a similar one at the end. 

Surprised this doesn't happen more, or maybe we don't hear about it. 

Surely 999 times out of a thousand though, all they're likely to end up with is a suitcase full of dirty clothes. 
The chances of them coming across a suitcase with contents like the OPs must be miniscule -
If you're going to steal, I can think of many more lucrative things to take than hold baggage at most airports....

robatwork

p00hsticks said:

robatwork said:

It's fantastically easy for someone to take an extra case off a carousel and walk through customs with a cover story. In the very unlikely event you are stopped an innocent look and a "Oh God sorry, my wife/son took that case and I didn't even notice! So so sorry." Or gamble the £20, put your case full of not much on and grab a similar one at the end. 

Surprised this doesn't happen more, or maybe we don't hear about it. 

Surely 999 times out of a thousand though, all they're likely to end up with is a suitcase full of dirty clothes. 
The chances of them coming across a suitcase with contents like the OPs must be miniscule -
If you're going to steal, I can think of many more lucrative things to take than hold baggage at most airports....

I reckon 50 out of 1000 are jammed with ciggies. This case would be the motherlode for a malicious thief, agreed. But as a crime with plausible deniability? Few easier. 

born_again

EmsyB12 said:

Can’t believe I’m having to ask this….but my Dad had his suitcase taken off the carousel at Heathrow yesterday by someone else either accidentally or purposely. He (& I can’t believe this part) has a document in his case with all his account numbers, passwords, PIN numbers, pension details, copy of passport, secret words, you name it apparently it’s all there. He’s ringing his banks but he’s worried that with all that info someone could easily pretend to be him and get accounts up and going again. Does anyone have any experience of this or what he could maybe do? He’s 74 and I’m worried about his health dealing with the stress. It could be an innocent mistake and person hasn’t realised they have wrong case and like most people would do nothing if they saw all this info but you can imagine that my Dad has worst case scenario head on and needs to be prepared. Thank you if anyone has any helpful advice.

Something that does not appear to be mentioned. Is that anything like this, should have been in his hand baggage.

Hindsight is great 🤷‍♀️

[Deleted User]

Taking a case which isn’t yours is most unwise, it could be full of drugs!

AndyTh_2

Band7 said:

lr1277 said:

Band7 said:

lr1277 said:

If there is no one at 'home' to keep a copy, what are people supposed to do. Keep a copy in their suitcas I think was the suggestion.

This might have been good advice in pre-Internet times. Nowadays, it’s very easy to keep vital data securely online

Not entirely. I am sure you are aware of the lastpass data breach in December. You may feel at ease with the breach, but it does make me somewhat uncomfortable.

Details here:

https://blog.lastpass.com/2022/12/notice-of-recent-security-incident/

As a satisfied Lastpass user for over a decade, I am a lot less worried about hackers getting a view of my encrypted data than about even the idea of putting my details in cleartext into a suitcase that I might never see again

Lastpass wasn't fully encrypted btw, urls, names of entries and some extra fields were left unencrypted and therefore give attackers enough information to start with either social engineering (e.g. phishing you with targeted information about you and a specific website) or attempting to use previous breach passwords with your email address on said websites to try and breach your accounts.

This was one of the worst breaches of a password manager ever and there are not many to name.

Some other password managers don't make this mistake though and encrypt everything.

Band7

AndyTh_2 said:

Band7 said:

lr1277 said:

Band7 said:

lr1277 said:

If there is no one at 'home' to keep a copy, what are people supposed to do. Keep a copy in their suitcas I think was the suggestion.

This might have been good advice in pre-Internet times. Nowadays, it’s very easy to keep vital data securely online

Not entirely. I am sure you are aware of the lastpass data breach in December. You may feel at ease with the breach, but it does make me somewhat uncomfortable.

Details here:

https://blog.lastpass.com/2022/12/notice-of-recent-security-incident/

As a satisfied Lastpass user for over a decade, I am a lot less worried about hackers getting a view of my encrypted data than about even the idea of putting my details in cleartext into a suitcase that I might never see again

Lastpass wasn't fully encrypted btw, urls, names of entries and some extra fields were left unencrypted and therefore give attackers enough information to start with either social engineering (e.g. phishing you with targeted information about you and a specific website) or attempting to use previous breach passwords with your email address on said websites to try and breach your accounts.

This was one of the worst breaches of a password manager ever and there are not many to name.

Some other password managers don't make this mistake though and encrypt everything.

I was not affected, and I have never contemplated replacing my Lastpass sub.

Band7

Lastpass have now published a detailed account of the security breach. I continue to be a satisfied Lastpass user.

flaneurs_lobster

Band7 said:

Lastpass have now published a detailed account of the security breach. I continue to be a satisfied Lastpass user.

Only taken them eight months. And no, I'm not going to bother reading their latest version of events, it's no longer of relevance because I've dumped them.

jimjames

robatwork said:

p00hsticks said:

robatwork said:

It's fantastically easy for someone to take an extra case off a carousel and walk through customs with a cover story. In the very unlikely event you are stopped an innocent look and a "Oh God sorry, my wife/son took that case and I didn't even notice! So so sorry." Or gamble the £20, put your case full of not much on and grab a similar one at the end. 

Surprised this doesn't happen more, or maybe we don't hear about it. 

Surely 999 times out of a thousand though, all they're likely to end up with is a suitcase full of dirty clothes. 
The chances of them coming across a suitcase with contents like the OPs must be miniscule -
If you're going to steal, I can think of many more lucrative things to take than hold baggage at most airports....

I reckon 50 out of 1000 are jammed with ciggies. This case would be the motherlode for a malicious thief, agreed. But as a crime with plausible deniability? Few easier. 

But in order to access it and find the 950 cases that have nothing of value still means you need to fly somewhere to clear security as well. Not the quickest of thefts.