Lea77,

You wrote, I would be in trouble if you asked me to remember all my old addresses, let alone other peoples!

I think they only keep a certain number of them; but I know for a fact that they keep them for more than 7 years - which makes sense because they're not derogatory.

For myself, I lived at the same address for 18 years. However, the CRAs insist I had other addresses during that same time frame. Since then I've changed addresses twice. Maybe these wrong addresses will roll off by the time I retire...

As for remembering them - I just have to remember the name of the street. The identity verification systems ask multiple choice questions, which makes it easy to guess correctly. In fact anyone that knew me intimately (ex: aj485) would probably be able to guess all of the correct answers - which arguably means these systems aren't particularly good at detecting fraud by close friends and family members.

- Joel