Identity theft?

[altiain]

Well, it finally happened. After years of hearing about it happening to other people, I was paying some bills online last night when I noticed two small charges on one checking account that neither my wife nor I had made.

Thankfully, the charges had been made on Sunday and had not even posted to the account yet (I noticed them as holds on the account), so I was able to contact the bank this morning, dispute the charges, and close the account before any more charges were made.

I've always kind of believed that when it came to identity theft it wasn't so much a matter of "if", but more a matter of "when". In the last year several of my friends, a couple of my co-workers, and my boss have gone through varying degrees of identity theft. My case was pretty mild compared to some of them. However, the whole thing started me wondering: just how many people do experience identity theft?

So I'm curious - have you experienced identity theft? If so, what happened? Was the perp ever caught? I'm guessing most of the time the people who commit these crimes are never caught.

[Titus]

I had to have my CC re-issued when someone tried to take it. Apparently the idiot's first attempt was to call pizza hut with a $100 delivery order, paying with my CC via phone. They then called back and said don't deliver, they will come in to pick-up the order. When they went in to pick it up, Pizza Hut refused to give them the pizza because they could not produce the card or ID. Pizza Hut called the CC company and a hold was put on the card. After the Pizza Hut failure, the thief called the florist to have flowers delivered to someone. A hold was already on the card at this point, so that failed too. Shortly after this, the CC theft prevention unit called me, confirmed it was not me ordering Pizzas and flowers, and then let me know a new card was on its way.

[joe.MIATA]

Someone got my CC number in Europe. They made about $400 in purchases in England and France. I shut it down within a day or two and was not liable for the charges. About 4 years ago.

[Monkey of Death]

Before we were married, Melanie (my wife) was a victim. The perp walked into her building and into her office when no one was looking and stole her purse. Melanie canceled her credit cards and thought that would be it. But the thief took her ID info and opened credit accounts at several jewelry stores and charged up several thousand in purchases. The jerks at the stores never even checked for ID. The thief was a 4'10", fat black woman. My wife is 5'6", slim and white. A quick glance at the stolen drivers license would have ended all this mess before it got started They did figure out who did it, but I'm pretty sure nothing ever happened to her. In the meantime, Melanie still (10 plus years later) has to occasionally deal with this. Everything is supposed to be cleared up. But more often than not, the people who are supposed to take care of clearing the reports just can't be bothered to do their jobs. So Melanie has a file full of notarized documents showing that she wasn't responsible for the fraudulent charges and she gets to dig them out every 2~3 years. Or whenever we go to buy a car. Or a house. Or pretty much anything that requires a credit check...

So the moral of the story is even if you close your credit and checking accounts they can still screw you if the minimum wage monkeys that accept credit apps don't check IDs.

Feel better now?

[cam76034]

Happened to our family twice, both times to my oldest daughter.
First time she was 17, went to NE Mall to buy a mother's day gift with her debit card. Hurst PD was completely worthless, even though she knew which store it was where it occurred. They blew it off and said to file a report with the PD in the city we lived in.

Second time was during first semester finals her freshman year in Lubbock. Someone cleaned out her bank account, opened up several credit cards in her name, and ordered a bunch of stuff on the internet. All this within 48 hours. The person doing this had way too much of her personal information, to the point where all the clues indicated it had to be someone in her dorm with access to her room. Sure enough, thanks to the diligence and followup of a Texas Tech PD detective, he caught the person who did it, he even went to the mall and viewed the surveillance tapes of the stores where the new accounts were opened. It was her roommate, a girl we had known for years and were supposed to be best friends. Not anymore.

My daughter tanked her finals as a result of all the stress. Tech Admissions office is run by a bunch of imbeciles who took the position that "we can't do anything until proven guilty", so my daughter had to move out instead.

She did press charges against the little princess however.

[jrj512]

Just had my CC number stolen last week. Strangely, it was just after I caught POS Racing looking through my wallet.

[POS Racing]

Just had my CC number stolen last week. Strangely, it was just after I caught POS Racing looking through my wallet.

I like cheese!

[Nails]

About 6 years ago my Visa bill showed almost 10 thousand paid to Borders Books online, a few hundred paid to Metro Volkswagen, and 20 bucks to Pizza Hut. (Guess thieves like Pizza Hut) I offered to help track down the guy and told my Visa company that it was probably one of two people but they said no thanks. I asked if I should file a police report and they said it wasn't necessary. The local cops said it wasn't in their jurisdiction. So I guess the thief got away with it and the businesses had to eat the loss.

[tailchaser]

Same experience Titus had... x2... Same card both times... And, of course, it's the only one that NEVER gets used for "Internet" transactions - only retail POS.

Second one was kinda ballsy, I thought, but they said it happens all the time... Perp ordered some high-end electronics to be delivered to my house... FedEx delivered the items while I was on the phone with fraud prevention while they let me know a new card was on the way...

Best part was, even though I had a do not deliver order on file with FedEx at the time (since FedEx liked to deliver my packages to some business at Collin Creek mall), the perp was able to call in with the tracking number and not only tell them to deliver it, but waive the signature requirement...

[Titus]

Same experience Titus had... x2... Same card both times... And, of course, it's the only one that NEVER gets used for "Internet" transactions - only retail POS.

Second one was kinda ballsy, I thought, but they said it happens all the time... Perp ordered some high-end electronics to be delivered to my house... FedEx delivered the items while I was on the phone with fraud prevention while they let me know a new card was on the way...

Best part was, even though I had a do not deliver order on file with FedEx at the time (since FedEx liked to deliver my packages to some business at Collin Creek mall), the perp was able to call in with the tracking number and not only tell them to deliver it, but waive the signature requirement...

So what happened? Did you wait for him in the bushes with an equalizer?

[boisking]

I've never been a victim, but somebody charged $17000 on my dad's card last week.

[HudsonHawk]

I have had it happen a couple of times withmy CC. Everytime the CC company was easy to work with and I was nto liable for any charges. The worst was when some yahoo was runing around rowlett and garland writing phony checks with my DL license # on them. I had to drive out there to the various stores Prove I was nto the one who wrote the checks then had to go in to the Rowlet Police department and file a report on the fraudulant activity.

Only upside was I knew most of the officers on the Rowlett PD from when I configured all their notebooks for the squad cars with wireless access for their GPS tracking system.

[channelmaniac]

I had some charges from an airport in Houston... At that time I hadn't flown through there in 2 years... Amex Corp card is great. Called 'em up and said they were't mine and that's the last I heard of that.

[MiataMike]

Oh yeah, I have a house in Houston I've never seen...

Other than that I've had some random charges on my account in places I've never been like Minnesota.

Theives can sometimes be the person over the phone that you give your CC# to to pay a bill. They can write down your info then use it later. I know a girl that does billing for a hospital and one of her co-workers just got popped for doing just that.

[Darron65]

Another reason to use a credit card over the phone vs. a debit card. At least the credit card company will help you dispute the charges.

Thankfully the worst I've had to deal with were some restaurants double charging in Houston, and one waiter tried to pencil-in a $50 tip on a $24 bill. Nice try, Majik

[CosmosMpower]

Just had my CC number stolen last week. Strangely, it was just after I caught POS Racing looking through my wallet.

He does have Tirerack on speed dial on his phone remember?

[CosmosMpower]

Best part was, even though I had a do not deliver order on file with FedEx at the time (since FedEx liked to deliver my packages to some business at Collin Creek mall), the perp was able to call in with the tracking number and not only tell them to deliver it, but waive the signature requirement...

That shouldn't have happened. The retailer/shipper should have put in the declared value. If it was high end it would've been over the limit and at that point direct signature is automatically required meaning your wife can't even sign for it if it has your name on it. Also usually only the shipper can make changes to the shipment, not the recipient or 3rd party. Looks like someone dropped the ball.

[XM_Rocks]

Debit Card = Credit Card for fraud protection.

As long as there is a Visa or Mastercard logo on the debit card.

I had a $600+ charge from a Home Depot in Bronx, NY and a $70+ charge from Payless Shoes in Kansas City. Within a few hours Wells Fargo called me and they conditionally refunded the money back into my savings contigent upon completion of an affidavit.

[Majik]

Another reason to use a credit card over the phone vs. a debit card. At least the credit card company will help you dispute the charges.

Thankfully the worst I've had to deal with were some restaurants double charging in Houston, and one waiter tried to pencil-in a $50 tip on a $24 bill. Nice try, Majik

Hey I gave good service and you know it. Maybe if you hadnt left $.50 It would have been so easy to write in zeros.

[Prova7]

A few months ago we saw some cc membership charges from internet sites we didn't recognize, all paid on the same day. It was several hundred dollars if I recall correctly. Called the cc company, told them it wasn't us and it was fixed. We were issued new cards as well.