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Identity theft

junkman_56

junkman_56

cigar smokin' caver
Joined
Jan 26, 2005
Messages
2,857
I got home on Monday of this week and found out I was the victim of identity theft.
Earlier that day my wife had tried to use our Visa card and it was rejected. Strange…
She called the credit card company and found out that someone claiming to be me had canceled our Visa card on Saturday and had a new one issued.
The person calling in had my credit card #, the 3 digit number on the back of the card and the last 4 digits of my Social Security number.
SOB, OMG…
Well that kicked off a flurry of activity on our part. We had that card canceled, and new cards issued.
They will be delivered via UPS with a signature required for delivery.
We contacted the credit agencies and placed monitoring on our credit reports that will email us daily monitoring any activity.
We also signed up for fraud alert with all of our credit cards. Any new activity has to be authorized by us before it can be completed.
We checked our bank accounts and they are fine.

So far no “unknown” charges have appeared on our credit reports or on our credit card statements.
The fact that someone out there has my Social Security number and has attempted to use to acquire credit really sucks.
It means that from this day forward I can never let my guard down.
I will always have to closely monitor my accounts and my credit.

I have no idea how this person acquired my info, but they did.
If you have not checked your credit reports in a while I would suggest doing it.
We got lucky we caught this early before any damage was done.

The bomb I got from Infinity on Monday was the only bright spot to an incredible stressful evening.
 
Ugggg.....Bad news for sure. There's only so much you can do to protect yourself nowadays I guess, but I think I need to hook up my personal shredder and start there. I guess you never think it's going to happen to you until it's too late.

Hope it all works out.
 
Holy crap. Stuff you read about never thinking it will happen to you.

Glad you caught it in time.

Brian
 
Contact the agent that handles your homeowners insurance and see if you have any identity theft coverage. Some policies have it automatically , some allow you to purchase a rider. If you do not have it see if it is available.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and really no one is immune to it.
 
Damn, Carl, that really sucks. I hope you caught it in time to foil the bastid(s).

My ebay account was hijacked about a month ago, but that's small beans compared to what you're going through.
 
Thanks folks...
So far no damage has been done, but that does not mean that they won't try again.

Keystone_Raider, thanks for the suggestion about the rider to our homeowners policy.
I will be checking into that.

One more thing, Always shred any mail or documents that may have any personal info before you throw them out.
I have been doing that for years.
 
Good to hear you guys were pro-active in getting to this. Makes you wonder were all your info is getting passed on from.
 
Damn it Carl... couldn't you have at least waiting till I had received the 20 boxes of Opus X and Padrón 1926 Maduros I ordered! :sign:

Really glad to hear you caught it in time bro, a lot of people don't, and its a serious bitch trying to replace your loses.
 
Good to hear you caught it in time, Carl. ID theft can really be devastating if it isn't.

A tip for you and others, www.lifelock.com - I don't know how much they really do to prevent ID theft, but you're backed by a $1 million guarantee if you are victimized. For something like $9/mo I'm definitely a member. I've seen ID theft hit too many people.
 
Keystone_Raider said:
Contact the agent that handles your homeowners insurance and see if you have any identity theft coverage. Some policies have it automatically , some allow you to purchase a rider. If you do not have it see if it is available.

Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America and really no one is immune to it.
Click to expand...

It's $3.75 a month with the insurance company I work for. ;)

Best investment ever.
 
Happened to my wife and I whilst on holiday in the UK a few years ago. We went to make a purchase, and it came up declined. We called the bank to find out our Visa check cards were both locked down.

Someone had somehow gotten our information, then proceeded to make one small "test" purchase in the US. Then get this, our daily spending limit before this..... we had to call the bank to get approval was set at $800.00. Someone managed to call after the "test" purchase, and change it to over 3k daily.
They took out over 6k in a period of two days before the bank/Visa caught on. The big charges showed from somewhere in Korea (can't remember North, or South).


The bank could not give the instant refund that they do these days until an investigation was conducted in about five days time. Good thing we had a good stash of cash with us. :cool:

We did get all of the money back, and had to open a new bank account. The bank took care of everything, new checks and all. I have a friend in the mortgage buisness that checks my credit now and then just to be safe.
 
That sucks... good luck getting it sorted out.

I had my credit card number compromised once and they charged up several thousand worth of products on it. The companies they had ordered from called me, though, to confirm the purchase. Ugh... nope, wasn't I. I called the credit card company and set them up to monitor it, but the charges never appeared. Got lucky, I guess. Was weird getting several phone calls about my "recent purchases", though.

Musta been a newbie identity thefter. :D:D
 
Sorry to hear about that Carl. Had the same thing happen to me several years ago. One thing to fix is removing the fraudulent address from your credit profiles. I didn't get that done quick enough ant the Bastid ordered a new card the day after I caught the fraud. Fuggin POPO wouldn't even go the address as "no actual money" was stolen or fraudulently obtained!
 
Locking your credit seems like good advice. Had some experience with this at the corporate level...latop theft with lots of personal data on the employees. I had my credit locked for a year.

We attended several security classes. One thing I learned was to never "sign in" to any of my important web accounts from a computer that I don't own.

Hope this turns out ok for you.
 
We need to bring back hanging! These lowlifes are a scourge to society, a noose is too good for bastids. :angry:
 
I got a call monday also. Someone tried to purchase a ring for 7k which my bank declined. This was on my debit card. I pulled my bank account up and over the last two weeks they milked 2k out of it. Since I have been working so much I haven't been watching my account online.

I asked how this could happen the guy told me one of the biggest is using your card for fastfood in the drivethru. They will write the card number down along with the date and the three digit number. Then make online purchases. Well I used my card all the time for stuff like that.

I'll never let my card out of my sight again.
 
gtphale said:
I got a call monday also. Someone tried to purchase a ring for 7k which my bank declined. This was on my debit card. I pulled my bank account up and over the last two weeks they milked 2k out of it. Since I have been working so much I haven't been watching my account online.

I asked how this could happen the guy told me one of the biggest is using your card for fastfood in the drivethru. They will write the card number down along with the date and the three digit number. Then make online purchases. Well I used my card all the time for stuff like that.

I'll never let my card out of my sight again.
Click to expand...

Damn Steve, I'm sorry to hear that.
I hope you can get some of it back.

Make sure you check your credit reports and make sure there is no activity you were not aware of.
Checking your credit report is free. You can do it once a year at no cost.
 
junkman_56 said:
Checking your credit report is free. You can do it once a year at no cost.
Click to expand...

Make sure you go to Annualcreditreport.com and not the "free" credit report dot com website. The "free" site lures you in and enrolls you in a monthy charge system that you have to cancel or opt out of and tries to sell you all kinds of other crap. The Annual site also deals with all three credit agencies.

---John Holmes...
 
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