Anyone else been a victim of identity theft?

[Greg Bernhardt]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

I thinking of signing up at http://www.lifelock.com Anyone have opinions of that service?

 

[Evo]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

I thinking of signing up at http://www.lifelock.com Anyone have opinions of that service?

Oh dear, if they have your soc sec# there is a lot they can do, open bank accounts, get credit cards, take out loans, buy cars...

I believe that you already have the service that notifies you of any time your credit is checked?

Not familiar with lifelock.

Ick. Maybe they're more honest now?

Lifelock Agrees to Pay $12 Million to Settle Federal, State Charges

Settlement bars company from misrepresenting its supposed identity-theft protection service

LifeLock, Inc. has agreed to pay $11 million to the Federal Trade Commission and $1 million to a group of 35 state attorneys general to settle charges that the company used false claims to promote its identity theft protection services, which it widely advertised by displaying the CEOs Social Security number on the side of a truck.

In one of the largest FTC-state coordinated settlements on record, LifeLock and its principals will be barred from making deceptive claims and required to take more stringent measures to safeguard the personal information they collect from customers.

While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it, said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2010/03/ftc_lifelock.html

The article is taken from the US Gov website.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/03/lifelock.shtm

 

[Borg]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

I thinking of signing up at http://www.lifelock.com Anyone have opinions of that service?

Immeadiately contact [STRIKE]all three[/STRIKE] one of the credit bureaus and file a fraud alert. I'll try to get more details but this is the absolute first thing that you should do. From what I've read in the past, Lifelock doesn't do much more if you're a victim of fraud.

 

[turbo]

I'd hate to be a victim of identity left!

I have left a lot of situations over the years, but never my identity.

 

[PAllen]

It's happened to several acquaintances of mine, fortunately not me (worst case was a former teacher of my daughter's who opened a boutique clothing store; the store website was hacked and all business accounts accessed). This provoked me, after resisting an 'overly worried' approach to life, to get shredder and shred all mail, documents etc. that contain any identifying information besides name and address.

Beyond that, I can only agree with the suggestions so far.

 

[Borg]

Here's the link to the government's https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp" link on the right has this info:

How do I request a "fraud alert" be placed on my file?
You have the right to ask that nationwide consumer credit reporting companies place "fraud alerts" in your file to let potential creditors and others know that you may be a victim of identity theft. A fraud alert can make it more difficult for someone to get credit in your name because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect you. It also may delay your ability to obtain credit. You may place a fraud alert in your file by calling just one of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies. As soon as that agency processes your fraud alert, it will notify the other two, which then also must place fraud alerts in your file.

* Equifax: 1-877-576-5734; www.alerts.equifax.com[/URL]
* Experian: 1-888-397-3742; [url]www.experian.com/fraud[/url]
* TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; [url]www.transunion.com[/url]

An initial fraud alert stays in your file for at least 90 days. An extended alert stays in your file for seven years. To place either of these alerts, a consumer credit reporting company will require you to provide appropriate proof of your identity, which may include your Social Security number. If you ask for an extended alert, you will have to provide an identity theft report. An identity theft report includes a copy of a report you have filed with a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency. For more detailed information about the identity theft report, visit [url]www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/[/url].
[/QUOTE]

 

[Borg]

It is also a good idea to regularly check your credit. Anyone can check their credit report for free once per year per bureau. Instead of checking them all at once, I check one of the three every four months. However, if you file a fraud alert, you may be allowed more. From what I read, it allows you to get a credit report immeadiately even if you already had received one that year. The links in the FTC identity theft section have lots of good advice. The best advice is to strike back fast and hard - they will keep using your info otherwise.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/freereports/index.shtml" site above

FTC info about http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/".

Another thing that I would think about is whether you might have had personal information stolen from someplace like Sony. If that's the case, there could be multiple people with your information.

Good luck Greg. Hopefully you caught this early.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Thanks all! I've placed a Fraud Alert on my file. Hopefully it was just a quick hit and run.

 

[AlephZero]

The most worrying thing they can do (and probably will, if they are serious fraudsters) is change your address, so you don't receive any mail that makes you suspicious.

Of course they won't change it to THEIR real address - most likely, to some property that is long-term unoccupied. After all, they don't plan to pay any of the bills themselves either.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I have. I used to be Warren Buffet until some lowlife took off with my identity.

 

[jtbell]

A long time ago, when I was a grad student, someone who lived briefly in the apartment next door to me used my name to sign up for service with the electric company, and I started to get his bills. When my office-mates told me that a big beefy guy had been looking for me, I thought, "uh-oh, a bill collector!" Fortunately it was just one of my students looking for help with homework. And the electric company apparently believed me when I wrote to them explaining that I was in apartment 2B, not 2A.

(As I recall, the electric service for my apartment was in my roommate's name, not mine.)

 

[DoggerDan]

I never give out my birthdate or SSN unless it's absolutely required by law, as in a bank account. Used to be everyone would ask you for this information, but most organizations are realizing it's none of their business, particularly with SSNs.

 

[DaveC426913]

The irony here of course, is that Greg is actually on a slow boat to China, with no internet access, and has been for a week.

So the thief has not just signed up for a phone service but also hacked into his PF account and is now posting about it.

What we should do (and I know Greg will thank us when he arrives back home) is ban this imposter.

He will, of course, protest loudly that no, he really is Greg, but we will not be fooled by that.

 

[rhody]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

I thinking of signing up at http://www.lifelock.com Anyone have opinions of that service?

Can't say for sure Greg, I had a long time friend who I know longer associate with who swears by Lifelock. I have had two minor incidents, with debit card charges, the safest thing to do, is to have a debit account with say 200 - 500 bucks in there, that way they can never get at an account with more. I have been lucky too, but as the world's economies get worse this will happen more often, of that prediction, I am sure.
Amex is good too, but many business no longer accept it. I bought some expensive jewelry in Jamaica a few years back with Amex. I am so glad I did, use Amex if you can for anything you buy from a foreign country over the internet. They will credit you right away if they try to charge you for something you didn't buy. Amex handles it all, and your card is credited.

Borg,

I have been told if you check on your credit score without justifiable cause can lower your credit rating, is there any truth to this, or is it as they say, "an old wives tale" ?

Rhody...

 

[Danger]

I'm ambidextrous, so I'm half safe; I've been the victim only of "identity right". So far, my left is okay. (And people thought that I was nuts for keeping two separate bank accounts... )

edit: Greg, you bastard... does owning this site really make you feel comfortable with editing your thread title to the detriment of we who were deriding you about it?

 

[256bits]

The latest victims, it was reported in the newspaper recently, are children. As a child has no use of their SSN until about 16 years of age the theft will most likely go undetected for years, at which point they find their credit rating has gone way south.

In fact, a 6 year old received a credit card in the mail a few months back in Montreal area. How to protect - I have no idea except to try to keep personnal information safe and secure as possible. And do not make a text list on your computer in Excel or likewise progams of personnal information if that computer is internet connected as bots look for that stuff.

 

[humanino]

Oh I am glad our Overlord got this cleared up before the thief realized His true powers !

 

[Danger]

Oh I am glad our Overlord got this cleared up before the thief realized His true powers !

 

[Borg]

Borg,

I have been told if you check on your credit score without justifiable cause can lower your credit rating, is there any truth to this, or is it as they say, "an old wives tale" ?

Rhody...

Rhody,

My understanding is that it doesn't affect your score. You might be thinking of credit checks done by a business such as when you apply for a car loan. Those do affect your score and they show up on the report in a separate section.

BTW, I have seen occasional pings from companies that I do business with. I have called them on those occasions and have been given various excuses for why they do it. However, if I see a ping from a company that I've never done business with, I would immeadiately contact their fraud department.

Borg

 

[Lisa!]

hmmm...so that's why I've lost all of my PF PMs!

 

[DoggerDan]

I'm ambidextrous, so I'm half safe

So if you flail both left and right, we're all ok.

My Earth 2 just said, "Security alert."

Ok, so,

 

[DaveC426913]

Ok, so,

Ooh. Dan just dropped out.


Dibs on his TV!

 

[G01]

I know what it feels like, Greg. I actually just had my debit card stolen and used for some $300 dollar purchase in Hong Kong. Luckily my bank was able to refund the money to me.

It was a very disturbing experience, and I still feel uneasy about the whole thing.

 

[Danger]

So if you flail both left and right, we're all ok.

If what you mean by "flail" is the same as my definition, then we are not all ok. The rest of you are, but not me. Do you have any idea of how frustrating it is to not be able to use your other hand and pretend that it's a stranger? Not even a coloured condom full of gummy worms can make the illusion believable. (Don't ask me how I know that. )

 

[mathwonk]

5 years ago I received a dun for a bill owed to dish network, by a man with my same first and last name, but of a different race, age, and living in a different town. The collection agency claimed that he had used my SS# to establish the account and I needed to send them a lot of personal information to clear this up, which I refused. It turned out he was still then living at the address where the service had been ordered and installed 65 miles away from my home.

After a lengthy hassle, I learned that my name had not been used to establish the account, but had been added to the account by the collection agency. How they got it I do not know, but apparently this sort of thing is easy to do. The police advised me that these collection agencies do not care who they collect from, and by threatening my credit rating they hoped to scare me into paying it.

I am a very tough and persistent customer however, and eventually reached the home office of dish network in colorado to get the truth. At every level every single person I spoke to claimed falsely that the SS# had been on the original application for service, until a supervisor in colorado actually looked at the application.

Last spring, 5 years later, I began again receiving robocalls every morning about this same bill, from a new collection agency, again claiming that because my actual SS# was on the account it meant I had applied for the service. These negotiations are especially tricky because they claim you need to tell them your real social security number so they can compare it to the one they have, and these are people who are trying to cheat and defraud you, who are asking you to trust them with your SS#.

Although I had considered the matter ended in 2006, luckily I was able to recover the diary I had written at the time of this experience, and again called colorado and used the name of the same supervisor who had "settled" the matter before.
Again they claimed they had not given my SS# to the collection agency, while the agency claimed they had indeed obtained it from dish network as part of the account. This time I complained to the state consumer protection agency who said there was nothing they could do unless I filed a claim so I did. Then I got a letter from the agency suggesting I contact dish network to resolve the issue!

I was assured by dish I would not hear from this again. We will see. Needless to say I do not patronize dish network, but with several billion in sales yearly they apparently do not worry much about the rights or concerns of individuals. (I do not recommend giving your personal information to lifelock, after googling them for reliability ratings, and finding the same hit Evo did.)

 

[Danger]

It's amazing how quickly unjustified debts go away when you tell the collector (the bigger and burlier the better) that you did not survive two black ops tours in Cambodia just to be intimidated by a pissant like him, and then mention that you know where his children go to school (use their names).

I know... I'm a stinker...

 

[mathwonk]

I also survived two years working in a boston meat market in southie, carrying 75,000-100,000 pounds of beef a day on my shoulder, but that was 45 years ago and wouldn't convince anyone today. My cane is a giveaway.

 

[turbo]

I'm not sure how they got my name and number, but I keep getting calls from a collection agency that recovers delinquent student loans. My name is definitely not a common one, and I never took out any loans, since I paid my own way through college, plus I have been out of school for almost 40 years. I screen them out with caller ID, but still, it's a PITA to have a collection agency nagging you. I should probably file a harassment charge with the DA's office to see if I can get the calls to stop.

 

[Planeguy67]

We've been using Lifelock for several years now. So far, so good. There were some recent changes in the last year or so that changed the way Lifelock protects the identity of its customers, but I am not familiar with the details.

Under Lifelock, I've tried a couple of times to open up a credit account and was told there were "fraud alerts" set and I would have to answer some questions before they could extend me the credit. Good, that must frustrate the heck out of an identity thief. Also, once a year, they send me a letter and instructions for checking that nobody is using my daughter's SSN (she's 4).

I've also heard everything LL does can be done by you for free, but for $10 a month per person, I prefer having somebody take of the this "free" stuff for me so I don't have to sweat it.

BTW, a more common problem I have seen personally, and with some of my friends, has been thieves stealing credit card numbers. It's a lot simpler than stealing somebody's identity and still gives them mostly what they want, i.e., free stuff they don't have to pay for. However, banks and credit card issuers are usually pretty good at identifying the stopping their runaway shopping sprees.

 

[G01]

I also survived two years working in a boston meat market in southie, carrying 75,000-100,000 pounds of beef a day on my shoulder, but that was 45 years ago and wouldn't convince anyone today. My cane is a giveaway.

Southie, huh? It's very rare that a black ops tour in Cambodia is one-upped so easily...

 

[Danger]

Southie, huh? It's very rare that a black ops tour in Cambodia is one-upped so easily...

He just scared the hell out of me...

Please excuse the exploding clam. We really need a wider assortment of smilies.

 

[turbo]

Southie, huh? It's very rare that a black ops tour in Cambodia is one-upped so easily...

You should have grown up in my little town. 3 older guys that used to beat me up regularly are still in prison. One is in for life for the ax-murder of a drinking buddy. Total population of that town was less than 600, so it's not like there were a lot of people near my age. I learned early that it's OK to fight dirty if you are set upon by one or more older kids - in fact it's the best way to get them to give you a wide berth and pick on softer targets.

 

[Danger]

it's OK to fight dirty

There's no such thing as "dirty". In the words of one of my literary heros "To fight fair is to fight by someone else's rules." I'm now wondering why a literary hero would not have used the proper term "fairly", but that's beside the point for the present.
When I was a kid, the only Oriental-type of martial arts known was courtesy of Kato on the Green Hornet TV show, portrayed by some unknown who apparently went on to make a couple of movies. The next instance was Billy Jack when I was in high-school.
Anyhow, the first thing that I realized, and have lived by ever since, is that a .44 Magnum beats a black belt any day. (Although I found that very unwieldy and far prefer a .45 ACP.)

 

[turbo]

There's no such thing as "dirty".

If I thought I might be accosted by any of those guys, I'd put sandy dirt from the roadside in my pockets. Dirt in the eyes, well-placed kicks, and run like hell. If I could get a good lead on them, they'd never catch up. I had to remember to turn out my pockets before tossing my pants in the laundry hamper, though.

 

[DaveC426913]

There's no such thing as "dirty".

Strange. I have often though the same thing.

When young, I used to imagine myself saying "If you wanted to follow rules, you should have taken that up with me before taking a swing at me."

I never understood the idea of a bully picking a fight with me and then expecting that I'd uphold some contract of fair fighting. (The contract to uphold was already there: don't fight. You broke it.)

 

[ThomasT]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

Were you able to find out how the phone account was opened? Is there any possibility that it was just a mistake (eg., a digit or two in the SS# gotten wrong in the application)? I would think that large companies check to see whether a particular name matches with a particular SS# on an application. Was your name used also?

... if they have your soc sec# there is a lot they can do, open bank accounts, get credit cards, take out loans, buy cars ...

I don't see how this can be done with just a SS#. Banks and car dealers require photo identification as far as I know.

 

[Borg]

Were you able to find out how the phone account was opened? Is there any possibility that it was just a mistake (eg., a digit or two in the SS# gotten wrong in the application)? I would think that large companies check to see whether a particular name matches with a particular SS# on an application. Was your name used also?

I don't see how this can be done with just a SS#. Banks and car dealers require photo identification as far as I know.

It could have been done any number of ways. They could have used a different name and made up an SSN that just happened to belong to Greg that the company tracked to him, they could have used a fake ID with their own picture on it, etc. I know that car dealers will often photocopy the ID for later reference if they do get scammed. Bottom line is that theives will do whatever they can to steal with whatever they have available.

 

[BobG]

I just found out someone in my city signed up for phone service using my SS#. I owed $120. I got it cleared up, but it's scary. What else can they do!?

I thinking of signing up at http://www.lifelock.com Anyone have opinions of that service?

Doing this in your city was kind of dumb. It works better if they steal the identity of someone in a different city.

Someone did this to my daughter - probably getting it from an exercise she participated in when she was in the National Guard. A gas company in Alabama finally located her real address in Ohio trying to collect on months of unpaid gas bills for an apartment in Alabama in a town with a large military population.

The thief used her social security number, but used her middle name as her last name. That slowed things down as far as the utility companies tracking down my daughter and realizing someone else had used her info. There's a good chance they never caught up with the original thief unless he was foolish enough to be still be living in the same apartment or use the same identity over again.

She was fortunate that the laws regarding reporting identity theft had changed about a year or two before hers was stolen. She was able to report it to her local police department (the old method of reporting credit card/identity theft was to file a police report in each and every state where the thief used your credit card/identity). It was still a hassle in that the law was fairly new and the local police department initially refused to accept her report (one thing that convinced them was finding out their own website was directing residents that they should file a report with the local police department instead of the state the theft occurred in).

Having already filed the report helped speed things up when the Alabama electric company came after her a few months later for unpaid bills.

 

[mathwonk]

One the agencies I deal with and trust, of necessity, just informed me my soc sec number was publicly available on their website, inadverdently for the last 9 years. so that may explain my case.

 

[BobG]

The college I was attending decided to try to lure back students that had attended the college within the last two or three years, but dropped out for some reason. The promotional mailing required one of the staff to sort through the student records to find likely candidates, and then to e-mail out a flyer to the prospective students they were trying to lure back.

One mistake. Instead of attaching the flyer to the e-mail, they attached the file with the student records, including personal info such as SS#, address, phone numbers, etc.