It has been a crazy couple of weeks.

[barberad]

A few weeks back I was purusing my hotmail and hit the inbox button. I recieved two emails. One said something to the effect of "Thank you for ordering a credit report from creditreport.com", the other was a welcome to netflix email. Doesn't sound too strange except the fact that I hadn't done either of those things. I contacted the creditreport one and told them no thanks not interested in their spam. They replied with that I had infact ordered one and provided me with a bunch of personal info that I had not given out. Cancelled that than contacted netflix, got pretty much the same info from them. I cancelled that as well and then got real nervous.
Checked my online banking statement and it showed a bunch of pending purchases I had not made. I immediatly called my bank (Thankfully they have a twent-four hour number.) and told them that my Credit card numbers had been jacked. They told me to fill out fraud forms for the purchases and to contact the big three (Equifax, Transunion and Experion) and put out a fraud alert. Sounds like standard Identity theft right?
Here's the weird part, I had not used this VISA/Debit card in like 6 months and the only online stuff I had done was pretty secure (paypal, Ebay and amazon.).
Fortunatly, my bank could see that I hadn't used this card (I had actually ordered a new one because the tape was unreadable.), but I did not tell my bank to close this one out. I had long since shedded the card.
The end result was a bunch of crap ordered (some, even delivered to my house.) that I had to cancel. Had to change phone numbers, (also linked to credit cards.) started recieving calls from undergroundcashsecret.con as well as the general disgusting feeling of being voilated.
Sorry to be so long winded, just wanted to share my misadventure as a lesson and let you guy's that don't know, even if you have no credit or bad credit there is always some dirtball out there too help make it worse.
Dan

[Ivan]

If you find out who it was, I know some guys from the reservation that will destroy small countries for a couple cases of cheap beer and telling them they said something about their sister.

I feel for you man, I would be apoplectic for months if that happened to me.

[latexeses]

My wife and I went through a not quite as serious a situation about four years ago when the local blood bank had a couple of laptop computers stolen. They had everything in the world to identify us when we come in to donate blood on the damned things and they asked for it everytime we came.
We had to notify everyone in the credit industry and the credit card company etc....
They caught the people who stole the laptops about three weeks after they were stolen but the fear factor didn't go away. Grit my teeth everytime we open a card statement..
Feel like I could stomp someone into a damp spot on the ground if I caught them with my ID.
Deb and I really feel for you. Good luck.
Rodger

[trbig]

I lost my wallet several weeks back while riding down in Texas. They charged a tank of gas on one of the cards, but that's all they got before I cancelled everything. Unfortunately, they got the cash I had along with all my personal info. including my Social Sec #. I keep waiting to find out that I am now a 5'4" Mexican living somewhere in south Texas.


Tod

[barberad]

There was another thing I found out thru this experience and have proved it to be true in some situations. If you do not push the clear button at the gas pumps some one can charge gas to your credit card. usually after a minute or so the pump will reset, but I have done this with my own card when I have the little red can with me for the lawn mower. Put the nozzle back, don't get a reciept, pick up the nozzle and it will say to choose your grade.
pretty scary, most people don't even realize that there is a clear button on the pump.

[TopCatGr58]

A couple of years ago, SWMBO was checking the bank statement, online, she does that every few days, and found several suspicious purchases. We contacted the bank and informed them of this, had the debt. cards that they were made from cancelled and reissued with new #'s. That was the end of that.

Recently, my personal/financial/medical info has been compromised thru no fault of my own. The health insurance company that insures me notified me that a couple of their personnel were at a hotel, and had laptops stolen with many insured members info on them! So...they provided me with a 2 year free subscription to a credit monitoring service, I signed up immediately!

And just yesterday, got a notice from my Mortgage company that one of their employees had been selling data to 3rd parties which again included name/address/dob/ssn/etc.!!! They, too, have offered a 2 year subscription to their credit montoring service for NO CHARGE, I'll be signing up with them ALSO!!

Seems like companies may need to tighten their security protocals regarding who has access to customer's critical personal/financial data, as well as how that data is stored!

Be careful out there, and if you don't already do it, highly suggest you learn how to access your bank account online and monitor it closely yourself!
T.C.

[trbig]

"highly suggest you learn how to access your bank account online and monitor it closely yourself!"

That way when someone hacks into YOUR computer to get all that info, they can cut out the middle man by not having to pay someone for the stolen info! lol. I think some third world countries may have it right. Get caught stealing.. lose a hand. Hard for a hacker to type with stumps..


Tod

[fredintoon]

"Get caught stealing.. lose a hand."

Hi trbig,
that ain't right, that's stupid. Stealing is a mental illness and the best cure for mental illness is hard work. Cut off a person's hand and they can only work half as hard. Plus any one handed person will be stigmatized as a thief even if the hand was lost to accident or ill health and that ain't right neither. OTOH putting thieves in jail is expensive. What to do? Chain gangs. Put the thieving bastards to manual labour fixing up roads and the like. Pay the union wage for the work they do to those they have robbed until their debt is cleared.
OTOH, get caught sexually molesting a child and loose your nuts? I'm all for that.