Identity Theft and You

Has anyone here had any experience with having their personal information stolen and used to open fraudulent credit card accounts? Earlier this week I received 2 credit card application rejections in the mail for cards I had never applied for. I immediately contacted the card companies and let them know what was happening. I also called the FTC ID Theft hotline to report the issue and the three main credit bureaus to put an alert on my file. Today I got an approved card in the mail from Macy's, and when I called to cancel it, the representative from their fraud prevention dept. was very helpful. She let me know that the person had already come in to a store and used the card once to purchase $40 worth of stemware (really? stemware? I don't even...), and had tried to use it again but was red flagged. It doesn't strike me as very smart to show up in person to use a fraudulent credit card, but that's apparently what they did. The fraud prevention officer was even able to give me the location of the store on 813 Dulaney Valley Rd in Towson MD. From what I've read of Paleocon's exploits, Maryland is quite the hive of scum and villainy so I'm not really surprised.

Anyway, does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing that could give me some pointers? I'm expecting a few more card letters in the mail, as I imagine several attempts were made before I became aware of the situation and was able to flag my credit.

You said you flagged your credit reports but did you review them for any other bad activity?

Just trying to imagine Nomad shopping at the Towson Macy's. Hmm.

LeapingGnome wrote:

You said you flagged your credit reports but did you review them for any other bad activity?

Yeah this would be my first suggested step as well. Fortunately, credit agencies move a bit more swiftly nowadays. I was a ID theft victim back in the mid-90s, and it took months for the entire scope of the damage to be known. It turns out one of my Army "buddies" stole my wallet from the barracks, then used my military ID to wrack up thousands in charges, including stealing a new truck. It also didn't help that I was overseas and not able to stay on top of it as well as I could have stateside. Long story short, my nightmare resulted in my credit being f'ed for several years.

Not trying to worry you since I'm kind of a worst case scenario. It didn't help that he used my military ID, which opened a whole host of options than just a stolen credit card. You may want to get a lawyer if several fraudulent accounts have been made. In my experience, you often don't find out all the damage until the collections company comes after you because the bill is several months late. And when that happens, you're guilty until proven innocent.

Oh, one final thing. You may want to get a police report. That helped me dispute charges, although don't expect the guy who stole your credit to ever be caught or do hard time if he is caught.

Thanks for the input. I did file a police report and order my annual free credit report from all 3 agencies. I'm not super worried at this point, but I do wonder how my info was breached.

You might also want to sign up for credit monitoring for a few months. It's much cheaper than my retainer would be to get involved in an identity theft case.

Another way to prevent this is to pm me your social security number. You know, for safe keeping.

I put an indefinite security freeze in with all my Credit Monitoring bureaus. In Massachusetts it's five dollars per bureau to add or lift a freeze. Basically whenever I want to apply for credit I need to talk to the bureaus ahead of time and pay 15 bucks to lift the freeze from my reports for a defined range, or for certain companies. Once the date range ends my credit is frozen again (note this is not like a bankruptcy freeze, it doesn't affect credit scores.)

Considering I don't apply for credit very much it's cheap protection. Not many people even know it's possible to do that.

I should note that in a lot of jurisdictions you can place a freeze for free if you have been a victim of identity theft. Since you filed a police report that would apply to you if your jurisdiction allows.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I put an indefinite security freeze in with all my Credit Monitoring bureaus. In Massachusetts it's five dollars per bureau to add or lift a freeze. Basically whenever I want to apply for credit I need to talk to the bureaus ahead of time and pay 15 bucks to lift the freeze from my reports for a defined range, or for certain companies. Once the date range ends my credit is frozen again (note this is not like a bankruptcy freeze, it doesn't affect credit scores.)

Considering I don't apply for credit very much it's cheap protection. Not many people even know it's possible to do that.

That's actually a feature cool enough to consider!

My concern is that if the perps know enough information about you to submit a new credit card application, they might also be able to freeze/unfreeze your credit profile! :O

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
imbiginjapan wrote:

I put an indefinite security freeze in with all my Credit Monitoring bureaus. In Massachusetts it's five dollars per bureau to add or lift a freeze. Basically whenever I want to apply for credit I need to talk to the bureaus ahead of time and pay 15 bucks to lift the freeze from my reports for a defined range, or for certain companies. Once the date range ends my credit is frozen again (note this is not like a bankruptcy freeze, it doesn't affect credit scores.)

Considering I don't apply for credit very much it's cheap protection. Not many people even know it's possible to do that.

That's actually a feature cool enough to consider!

My concern is that if the perps know enough information about you to submit a new credit card application, they might also be able to freeze/unfreeze your credit profile! :O

You get a PIN as well as a password.
They would need to hack the bureau and get both the PIN & password in addition to your personal info.
There is a way to get a new PIN if you forget it which I suppose a thief could leverage but I believe you would already need to know your past credit (ie they ask you stuff like, what bank gave you a credit card in 2001?).

But then again, most thieves go after low hanging fruit. That's a lot of effort to go through and a lot of prior knowledge needed.

Nomad wrote:

Today I got an approved card in the mail from Macy's, and when I called to cancel it, the representative from their fraud prevention dept. was very helpful. She let me know that the person had already come in to a store and used the card once to purchase $40 worth of stemware (really? stemware? I don't even...)

Well, I have a big party coming tonight, so I need those extra glasses!

Grenn wrote:

Another way to prevent this is to pm me your social security number. You know, for safe keeping.

I sent mine to Grenn and I've not had a problem since last Tuesday!

[size=2]I take paypal, Grenn.[/size]

Hope it all works out, Nomad!

I did a little more checking about the security freeze - in order to receive a new PIN you need to request one by mail along with another $5.00, at which point they will send the new PIN to your mailing address.

So, in order to compromise that, either the thieves would have had to hack the credit bureaus electronically to get your current PIN or they would have to know you have a freeze, ask for a new PIN and then intercept your mail to receive the PIN. Is it guaranteed protection? Of course not, but it's a far sight better than anyone just being able to ping your credit any time they want.

Good info, thanks.

Grenn, I'd be more than happy to PM you my social if it means you will stop PMing me awkward pics of you and Duoae in various stages of undress. Also, I don't believe a butter churn or a fire extinguisher were meant to be used like that...