Identity Theft Action Items

[Sarpy]

Wow! Tough break!

I often see ladies with their purses in the shopping cart and wonder why they don’t get stolen more often.

Especially those who walk away from their carts--I've seen carts with purses in them alone in an aisle while the owner was around the corner in the next aisle.
That certainly wasn't what happened to me...my cart was right at my hip, but I did look away for a minute when answering a question for the pharmacist, who was facing me (and you would think the crook as well, but I'm sure she was distracted). These guys are good. Within 10 minutes he was already charging gift cards down the street and had tried to get into Apple Pay, which I never activated.

 

[DEC-1982]

Thanks davef and easysurfer. I need to print these out, go though them thoroughly, and then file them.

 

[audreyh1]

Especially those who walk away from their carts--I've seen carts with purses in them alone in an aisle while the owner was around the corner in the next aisle.
That certainly wasn't what happened to me...my cart was right at my hip, but I did look away for a minute when answering a question for the pharmacist, who was facing me (and you would think the crook as well, but I'm sure she was distracted). These guys are good. Within 10 minutes he was already charging gift cards down the street and had tried to get into Apple Pay, which I never activated.

Yeah - I guess that’s a main reason why I always have a cross shoulder bag that stays on.

Wow bad luck to run into a professional thief.

 

[plsprius]

I froze my Equifax account (at no charge because of their breach) and put a fraud alert on my credit files. It seems to be working at a superficial level, as I was offered a credit line increase recently and accepted it. But, the bank had to talk to me by phone to confirm my identity before they would grant the increase.

As I understand it, the fraud alerts are free but only last 90 days. I have calendared resetting the fraud alert each 90 days. Not an ideal solution, but I don't feel I should have to pay to freeze my credit files. I understand mandating free credit freezes are being considered in Congress in view of the multiple privacy breaches.