|
|
01-21-2020, 07:02 PM
|
#1
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Fair Lawn
Posts: 2,936
|
My personal info hacked
(sorry for length of this story, but I couldn't make it shorter)
First, I got mysterious texts advising me of purchases made from my debit MasterCard. Except I never had a such a card. I called them and they told me that the cardholder probably inadvertently entered my phone number due to one digit being off. But then I got, in the mail, a brand spanking new debit card (which I hadn't asked for).
Calling the card issuer was both frustrating and scary with their total lack of concern for fraud. I suspect they are in on it. It gets worse: Home Depot rejected my credit card application since I had a credit freeze on my reporting agencies. Except I hadn't applied for a card. Home Depot told me someone applied at a store in another state USING MY NAME, ADDRESS, AND SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER.
It gets even worse: Lowes sent me a Lowes Pro card. You guessed it, I never applied for it. But they approved it, including some $8000 in purchases made by the time I received the card in the mail. At least they verified I am not liable.
I notified all of my credit card companies, and my bank. Anything else I should do to protect myself?
|
|
|
|
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!
Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!
|
01-21-2020, 07:06 PM
|
#2
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Texas: No Country for Old Men
Posts: 50,000
|
I'd immediately freeze my credit at all three agencies.
Oops. See you already did that.
How were they able to open accounts/get cards? I thought freezing your credit prevented this.
__________________
Numbers is hard
|
|
|
01-21-2020, 07:11 PM
|
#3
|
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 13,845
|
Have you pulled your own credit reports? I'd do so, asap.
|
|
|
01-21-2020, 09:45 PM
|
#4
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 416
|
Sounds like you're a victim of identity theft.
I had it happen to me many years ago and it was a mess. Pull your credit reports, notify the police, contact all the merchants that have been affected.
They registered cars in my name, opened phone accounts, charged up over $25k in fraudulent credit card transactions. This was back before the internet and I was on the phone for several days dealing with everything.
You may have identity theft coverage provided by your homeowners insurance or even your bank.
Keep a folder with all the information concerning this forever as it will come back to haunt you forever. I still have to refer to my files occasionally and it's been a good a good 25 years since it happened to me.
Good luck!
|
|
|
01-21-2020, 11:06 PM
|
#5
|
Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 528
|
So sorry for all this trouble. It is very disturbing that it happened when you have credit freezes already! That was one big one I thought was keeping us safe.
I don't know what else to tell you but I have had good responses to credit checks just by using the free https://www.creditkarma.com/ site. Everything helps.
Also if you don't already make sure your all your credit and debt cards already email you there are chargers over a given amount. Our are actually set at $1 but $5 or $10 or $20 would work.
Just remembered to check on of my favorite sites.
Title: 10 things you must do if your identity is stolen
https://clark.com/consumer-issues-id...id-what-to-do/
More details in the article but here is the list:
Take these 10 steps now if you think you’re a victim of identity theft
1. Take notes
2. Open an account with Credit Karma or Credit Sesame
3. Request credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus
4. Freeze your credit with all 3 credit bureaus
5. Contact the institutions where you see fraudulent activity
6. Contact all 3 bureaus and issue a fraud alert with each one
7. File a police report - Call your local police department to file a report. You may be transferred to the fraud prevention department if there is one. Provide any information that you have about the
8. Call the Social Security Administration’s fraud alert line (800-269-0271) and the Federal Trade Commission, which keeps a database to identify thefts (877-FTC-HELP)
9. Contact your current banks and credit card companies to report fraudulent activity in your name
10. Follow up
|
|
|
01-21-2020, 11:43 PM
|
#6
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 209
|
Wow scary stuff!!
I wasn’t aware that we could freeze credit with 3 agencies.
Does this just keep anyone from opening a card in your name? How do you do this?
If so, how I difficult is it to unfreeze this later?
Thanks
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 05:03 AM
|
#7
|
Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 312
|
What a major bummer. Do you have any idea how they got your information, such as a breech from Equifax, USG Security Clearance, or BCBS? It seems that there was a critical failure with Lowes and they owe you a root cause because a credit freeze is designed to prevent this from happening.
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 05:28 AM
|
#8
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,313
|
I am curious about how they opened the accounts (Master Card debit and Lowe's Pro) while a credit freeze was in effect. Is it possible that the issuer opened the account pending authorization and the credit bureaus would have refused data from those companies since your credit was frozen? It would certainly be irritating to find that a freeze isn't a freeze.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 05:30 AM
|
#9
|
Moderator
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 13,845
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retireby45ish
Wow scary stuff!!
I wasn’t aware that we could freeze credit with 3 agencies.
Does this just keep anyone from opening a card in your name? How do you do this?
If so, how I difficult is it to unfreeze this later?
Thanks
|
All 3 have steps on their websites and it takes only a few minutes. If you lock to day, unlocking shouldn't be too hard. It's those that locked years ago before they put new protocols in place that have reported difficulties.
It prevents them giving your credit report in response to an inquiry, which is required to open 99% of accounts.
Whatever passwords and keys you make to lock them? Keep em safe and in a place you can find. They do NOT have a "oops forgot my pin" easy way to get back in, for good reason.
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 05:33 AM
|
#10
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 1,155
|
It sounds like Home Depot was the only one that DIDN'T issue a card because of the credit freezes you had, but that Lowes and Mastercard did issue cards?
How would that even happen with credit freezes on? Did you have Equifax, Transunion and Experian all frozen?
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 05:40 AM
|
#11
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,313
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aerides
Whatever passwords and keys you make to lock them? Keep em safe and in a place you can find. They do NOT have a "oops forgot my pin" easy way to get back in, for good reason.
|
The damn companies are dropping the pins and going to passwords. Unfortunately I can't register a password at a coupe because they won't accept my pin and require me to answer obscure credit questions from my file. They make the choices so difficult that I can't figure out the answers.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 07:00 AM
|
#12
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 37,931
|
I suspect the credit bureaus have made it too easy to unfreeze credit such that a bad actor can do so. We recently had to set up online accounts with the bureaus to temporarily unfreeze credit and they did not require the initial PIN to unfreeze our credit! Plus they asked the ridiculously easy “knowledge” questions to verify our identity and set up our accounts even though our credit was frozen. It’s infuriating!
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 08:22 AM
|
#13
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Western NC
Posts: 4,600
|
I don't think you have to unfreeze credit to get store-based credit.
IIRC that's what happened to the Lifelock owner...some perp managed to get store credit with his personal info.
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 08:34 AM
|
#14
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 11,313
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncbill
I don't think you have to unfreeze credit to get store-based credit.
IIRC that's what happened to the Lifelock owner...some perp managed to get store credit with his personal info.
|
A credit lock only blocks reports. A freeze blocks new lines of credit. With a lock (lifeblock) someone with your info could still open a line of credit if the store didn't care to get a report. If a store doesn't open a line of credit at any of the bureaus I am not sure what they are doing. Presumably, they couldn't report failure to pay since there would be no line of credit to report on.
__________________
Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre -- Albert Camus
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 09:13 AM
|
#15
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Spending the Kids Inheritance and living in Chicago
Posts: 16,972
|
When I froze my reports at the 4 credit bureaus, I noticed the (IMHO) slimey trick they were trying to pull of offering to lock my account instead of the legal freeze account.
I wonder how many people accidentally go for the lock, not realizing it's not the same thing ?
__________________
Fortune favors the prepared mind. ... Louis Pasteur
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 09:16 AM
|
#16
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,127
|
This thread motivated me to go down the rabbit hole of registering for the accounts fro the credit agencies. I'm one of the folks who did the credit freeze with PIN years ago, before the new and improved (gulp) way of doing things.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 09:23 AM
|
#17
|
Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 528
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Retireby45ish
I wasn’t aware that we could freeze credit with 3 agencies.
|
Title: How to Freeze Your Credit With Equifax, Experian and TransUnion
https://clark.com/credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 10:04 AM
|
#18
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2016
Posts: 1,951
|
There are dozens upon dozens of credit reporting agencies... not just 3.
At a minimum you need to also freeze at Innovis and NCTUE. NCTUE (run by Equifax) is used by a lot of the telecom companies and no, freezing at Equifax does not also freeze NCTUE.
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 11:43 AM
|
#19
|
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 13,127
|
Well, I managed to create accounts for 2 of the 3 big credit agencies.
Equifax is still a problem like they were in the past. After having to call a number and answer 4 questions to prove I am who I am. Then the person at the call center, said, I just need to get a password reset. But no dice, does not work. I guess the only good thing is since it is so difficult to even try to log in, I suppose a hacker wouldn't be able to get my info online either.
__________________
Have you ever seen a headstone with these words
"If only I had spent more time at work" ... from "Busy Man" sung by Billy Ray Cyrus
|
|
|
01-22-2020, 12:00 PM
|
#20
|
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: Champaign
Posts: 4,677
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by eroscott
Take these 10 steps now if you think you’re a victim of identity theft
1. Take notes
2. Open an account with Credit Karma or Credit Sesame
3. Request credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus
4. Freeze your credit with all 3 credit bureaus
5. Contact the institutions where you see fraudulent activity
6. Contact all 3 bureaus and issue a fraud alert with each one
7. File a police report - Call your local police department to file a report. You may be transferred to the fraud prevention department if there is one. Provide any information that you have about the
8. Call the Social Security Administration’s fraud alert line (800-269-0271) and the Federal Trade Commission, which keeps a database to identify thefts (877-FTC-HELP)
9. Contact your current banks and credit card companies to report fraudulent activity in your name
10. Follow up
|
All of the above. Someone in FL opened a business account on our CC. The IRS sent us a pin to file every year (for 7 years). A policeman came to our house when we filed a police report.
__________________
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
|
|
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
» Recent Threads
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
» Quick Links
|
|
|