Identity Theft

[Brendon]

As if my own bk is not enough to deal with in trying to rebuild credit, the only saving grace for my wife and I was the fact that she didn't bk, only I did because the business was in my name and done before we were married.

Over the past coulple of days we have discovered that her credit has been compromised by ID theft, so far to the tune of about $32,000 in the last 10 days. She has (or had) excellent credit as the thief opened accounts with $5,000 to $10,000 limits over and over again. We don't know how the thief got this information. We will get this taken care of, but just a warning to everyone to please safeguard your information and don't trust anyone.

And, we will find this person. She was dumb enough to open a discover card at Sam's club. We got the card in the mail, with her picture on it....thanks for that. I hope she enjoys the $6,000 worth of crap she bought at Sam's club.

[jetset]

That's horrible. I am sure you will get everything taken care of, hopefully with no long term effects to your wife's credit score.

Any idea as to how this happened?

Unfortunately our SSN is used all the time by companies to identify us, and even though those companies may be reputable, the employee's their paying $7.00 an hour to take our phone calls can be shady.

Off the top of my head, verizon, my cable company time warner, and even the utility companies, all have every piece of information of mine. All it takes is having your call answered by the wrong person and all of a sudden this type of thing happens.

I worked for a large bank in the fraud department prior to my current job. We would monitor fraudulent purchases made online...if something was fraud, we would flag the delivery and the billing address, as well as the card number, so it would be detected again in the future. One thing I noticed - a lot of fraudulent purchases came from the same address, with different apartment numbers. It was determined that the culprit went dumpster diving at an apartment complex and hit the jackpot.

These are just a few ways someone can steal your identity, or even get the information to use your current cards you opened.

I make sure to shred everything that has my name on it before throwing it away. Even if it doesn't have any account information or personal information. Sometimes all these scumbags need is a name to get started.

Hope everything turns out okay!

js

[Flamingo]

As if my own bk is not enough to deal with in trying to rebuild credit, the only saving grace for my wife and I was the fact that she didn't bk, only I did because the business was in my name and done before we were married.

Over the past coulple of days we have discovered that her credit has been compromised by ID theft, so far to the tune of about $32,000 in the last 10 days. She has (or had) excellent credit as the thief opened accounts with $5,000 to $10,000 limits over and over again. We don't know how the thief got this information. We will get this taken care of, but just a warning to everyone to please safeguard your information and don't trust anyone.

And, we will find this person. She was dumb enough to open a discover card at Sam's club. We got the card in the mail, with her picture on it....thanks for that. I hope she enjoys the $6,000 worth of crap she bought at Sam's club.

That is horrible. They will get her as very few people get away with it anymore. However, your wife now has a mess on her hands and will cost you guys bucks now trying to get her credit cleaned up. As the times get worse, people will get worse as to theft and will steal what they can and try to get away with it. We have had major car thefts in and around our neighborhood starting right before and contniuing after the holidays. The problem was most people were leaving their cars unlocked in their driveways and that is almost always the reason for identity theft - we are not onguard as to our documents and mail.

Become shred happy. Destroy anything financial related or account related with your name and number on it. Don't put it in the trash whole. Don't put your bills in the mailbox (check in the envelope) with the red flag up for the postman to pick up. People troll for those little raised red flags. If you have a mailbox that doesn't lock, get a locking one now or a P.O. Box to protect incoming mail. Think of your new debit card sent to you by your bank just sitting there in yoiur mailbox all day while you are at work. Also get on the no junk lists and decrease the amount of mail you receive. Most sites online are pretty safe as to your information but always be careful which sites you go to when you purchase something. If it doesn't feel or look right, don't do it.

Once a thief, always a thief and if they get jailed, they will eventually be out and back at it. Always protect yourself and be one step ahead of them.

[FLBK7]

I'm so sorry this happened to your wife. I've never experienced identity theft per se, thanks be to God, but my debit card number was stolen at a restaurant once, and with that, a new card was made and used to the tune of nearly $2,000 -- all in one weekend. My checking account (which had my direct-deposited paycheck from the day before) was emptied, and my credit union then started covering the overdrafts from my savings account!!! I only found out when on Sunday night, I went to the ATM to get some cash for the week's spending money at work and saw that my checking didn't have a single penny in it. I immediately called the number on the back of my card and explained what happened. They immediately canceled the card, and said I would get my money back because I had reported it so quickly. It took a week to get a new card and 2 weeks to get my money back. It was a very scary experience and ever since then I have become maniacal/paranoid about checking each of my accounts online once a day. I check my checking, my savings, and all my credit cards. It only takes 5 minutes.

A former employer (Blue Cross Blue Shield) also notified me that my employee information "could" have been compromised due to a data theft incident they had. They provided free credit monitoring for a year to all those affected. Fortunately, nothing happened.

Be careful when you go out to eat and want to pay with your debit or credit card. Don't let your card leave your sight!

[Brendon]

So far we have filed reports with the local police and the police where the actual theft happened. With today's digital age, they can tell where and what time the purchases were made and they will begin reviewing tape to see who is doing this. Also, they will be able to see what documents were used to open these accounts. They were all store cards like Macy's, Saks 5th avenue, etc. Today we got a nice handwritten note from the saleslady at Saks thanking the thief for the business...Apparently the thief has nice taste, she spent $3,500 at Saks...

I am using this forum to rant and rave, but it was so helpful throughout my bk I thought I would vent some more on here. Thanks for the kind words.