Anyone else been a victim of identity theft?

[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.