OT - Identity Theft

Hotch said:

Back in around 1980 or so some body take a loan out in my wife's name somewhere in Mississippi and of course never paid it back.
To this day I still get a$$hole credit companies calling wanting money!! They just resale the debt over and over again.
I keep telling them "Send me a certified copy of original loan paper work to verify her signiture!" If not F?CK OFF!!

http://youtu.be/hxUAntt1z2c

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Hotch- you may appreciate this one

That may have been some of the best tv I have ever seen.  My wife had me watch that as soon as she saw it a few weeks back.

Looks like this thread took two directions and we all learned something by sharing. The OP title implied identity theft, but was really about credit card fraud.

Years ago elsewhere an avid egger who owns a dead beat tracking service addressed issues like LifeLoc and other credit monitoring services along with fraudulent cc charges etc. By law the three major credit bureaus must provide an annual FREE report on inquiries, and any updates to your credit record. Additionally they must share the information with each other. I then proceeded to lock down my record at each giving further assurance that any requests for credit would trigger an immediate alert to me and would require my written authorization to supply the information to the requestor. I also then sat up a schedule that every 4 months I would inquire an activity report from one of them in case there was slippage. By doing the rotation my inquiries were FREE. Maybe that sounds like too much trouble, but really it wasn't especially for the peace of mind it has given me for like 15 years now! 

Eggcelsior said:

I was hit in the Target breach. Someone tried to by 354 dollars worth of groceries at a Meijers in Michigan after a small charge in Indiana at a gas station. Now, if I ever travel out-of-state, I need to call or Capital One blocks my card.

That sounds awfully restrictive - was that by your request or did Capital One require it? How lenient are they on internet purchases? 

Big green egg stole my credit card and identity! Now I identify as an egghead!!!

In all seriousness I had it happen to me as well someone tried buying a $4000 Home theatre setup at Best Buy and they stopped them in their tracks. 

Biggest piece of advice for anyone out there is to inform your bank of your travel plans as on all three occasions it happened when .... Drum roll.... I was traveling

Eggcelsior said:

RRP said:

Eggcelsior said:

I was hit in the Target breach. Someone tried to by 354 dollars worth of groceries at a Meijers in Michigan after a small charge in Indiana at a gas station. Now, if I ever travel out-of-state, I need to call or Capital One blocks my card.

That sounds awfully restrictive - was that by your request or did Capital One require it? How lenient are they on internet purchases? 

Their fraud unit marked me "high risk". It's getting a bit easier. I've never had an issue with Internet purchases but I wonder if they can see where that's generated from since I typically order from my phone or 1 computer.

Good point! And as I posted before I do believe my CC issuer monitors my activity which probably seems strange for all the small charges I make using it.

BTW - since I really only use my CC for convenience purchases I keep my limit to a small dollar amount rather than the repeated "free upgrades" to like $10K. I just don't need those high levels and believe higher the limit then higher the risk. 

i have done security at a rather large financial institution for the past decade and here is my advice for you to take or leave.

get rid of your checkbook.  its one of the top places your identity gets thefted.  it has a lot of personal info on each check and goes through a lot of hands before it gets back to you.  yes, i know some places process them electronically now but its just not worth the risk having one.  most if not all financial institutions offer electronic bill pay service.  if yours doesnt it might be time to find a new one.  ever wonder why mail box theft is still an issue?  this is why.  and it does happen to secure mail boxes as well.  and on the subject of mail, opt out of bulk mail.  this will eliminate the majority of your credit card offers.  however, if you have done business with a company or are doing business with them they can ignore this but you can contact them to opt you out of offers

as for card theft always look for skimmers and be wary of letting your card leave your sight.  unfortunately this is how some vendors are forced to do business (restaurants)

ron nailed it on the FREE credit reports.  each (3) bureau offers 1 free one per calendar year.  the trick is to stagger them so that you will have a free one every 4 months or so and not all at once.  there is different info reported on each one and they will almost never be the same but this is still a great proactive approach.  the website to request this service is the same for all 3 bureaus and is HERE

if you have been hit or are a high risk you should have a fraud alert on all 3 credit bureaus.  this will alert anyone opening an account in your name to possible fraud and hopefully the institution requesting the info will take additional safeguards

if you are at risk (spouse or kids on your account, etc.) or have been hit before then maybe a credit monitoring service is right for you.  i am not a fan of lifelock but it beats nothing and if you are happy with it i am happy for you.  a lot of us here have costco accounts and they offer very affordable accounts ($9/month for executive members + $3 for kids).  thats about the price of a fast food meal.  creditkarma is actually not bad for a free one either.  i actually use both the costco service and creditkarma 

last but not least make sure  you have good antivirus and keep it updated and make sure you keep all of your software on your computer updated (especially the operating system).  there are some NASTY things out there.  this one specifically lays dormant until you are typing in financial info and then pops up a window looking like a legit verification for attempted fraud on your account.  once typed in it then encrypts the data and sends it to the controller.  i have seen single losses in the tens of thousands of dollars to this one.  on this subject never ever ever open an attachment that you werent expecting and never click on a link in an email unless you 110% trust it.  just open a browser window and type in the address yourself.  they are preying on laziness (and it works)

the best advice i can give you is educate yourself.  if you are being reactive and only consider identity and card theft after the fact then it will just keep happening to you unfortunately.  you HAVE to be proactive!

here is some FREE online security training for you to peruse if you should chose to do so

sorry for the longevity but if you have specific questions let me know.  hopefully this will help at least one person

I'm bad about consistently monitoring my credit card transactions. I generally only use my Amex. Now that I have Apple Pay, an alert pops up on my iPhone whenever something is charged on the Amex. It lets me monitor it in real time instead of relying on my self-discipline (or lack thereof) to sit down and look over multiple charges at once. Obviously this doesn't help with identify fraud, but it at least it's one less thing I have to worry about.

great advice! @MO_Eggin

CU I deal with had to issue me 3 new cards in a 7 month window few years ago. That was after an inmate used some sort on number generator and got lucky...this guy was charging $50-60 every few hours. Took several months before it got resolved. 
Bastards..