escape_nyc
Dryer sheet aficionado
Apologies for the long story but details are necessary to explain the situation.
About 3 weeks ago, DW received a call from 'Chase Fraud Department' from a number beginning with 408. They left a voicemail informing her that somebody had opened up a Business Credit Card in her name (she doesn't have a business nor does she have a Chase Credit Card, but does bank with Chase) and they had closed the account. They asked her to call back a 1-800 number. She did and was asked for some info. She gave them her SSN, address, name and stopped after she got suspicious of them asking about all this info which they should already have. They told her to call the number on the back of her card if she was more comfortable. She told me about this a minute later while I was at work, I googled the numbers and realized that this is part of phishing/vishing scam looking to collect personal information. She is obviously embarrassed by this. She was under a lot of stress and having a particularly bad day, they caught her at a very vulnerable moment and they sounded legitimate at the time until she caught on.
She called the real Chase on the back of her card immediately and they said they had no record of any credit cards and did not recognize the 1-800 number she had called. The put alerts on her account and 'extra security'.
We put on fraud alerts and froze her credit with all 3 agencies, checked for any fraudulent CC accounts (there weren't any), put alerts on bank accounts and secured them as much as possible, filed an identity theft report with the FTC, put a temporary alert on with the IRS (going to send in paperwork to extend the alert), called Social Security Administration who said there was nothing they could do, called police who said we can't file a report as there was no actual crime committed - just handing over personal information over the phone was not enough proof. We did not contact the DMV or Passport Office.
Last week, we got a letter in the mail from 'Chase Fraud Protection' about the fraudulent business credit card opened in her name complete with account number and numerous transactions adding to over $1000 in and around our city and some other places. The letter says the account is closed and lists steps to be taken (call credit agencies, ftc, etc.) but some of the contact numbers and web addressed look dodgy/fake. The letter asks her to sign a confirmation of forgery statement and send it to them. It seems they have a lot of her information by now and want her signature, perhaps to sign forged checks or get fake IDs.
Here is where it gets extremely creepy. We take the letter to a local Chase branch to get some sort of written conformation from Chase saying that the letter is fake and identity theft, so that we can take this to the police to file a report. We gave the Chase account manager a few hours to look into whats going on and he calls DW back saying that he called through the internal numbers and after getting transferred a bunch of times spoke to someone in the Fraud Dept and their manager (verified they were employees of Chase in the internal phonebook) and they confirmed that the account was in fact opened and then closed and told him to ask DW to call back a 1-800 number. The account manager called her and ask her to call the number. Now, this 1-800 number was the same shady number she had initially called and give her SSN/address/name to! We went back to the branch right away and the account manager was spooked and confused himself. He brought in his manager who seemed to know what she was doing, and said that they were going to hand all this over to the Fraud Department and let us know within a few days. She said that they cannot possibly look into this as this could be something more involved that would involves the feds, secret service, etc. It seems to me these scammers have either hacked into Chase's phone systems and/or their records to plant this account in there. The 1-800 number is 100% scam, I have called them, confronted them and they refuse to share any information about themselves, like their name, chase ID number etc. They would not share that info with the Chase account manager in the branch either.
Needless to say, we are creeped out by this. If you have experienced something similar, would love to hear on any suggestions to get us out this mess. We are ready to take drastic measures to get this resolved and our accounts secured, and if we can - help nail these criminals.
We are looking at moving bank accounts to somewhere that takes security and identity theft extremely seriously and can lock down accounts from large wires, electronic transfers, forged checks. What is the best bank or financial institution in your experience? We are considering brokerage accounts as well like Fidelity, where in theory it should be harder for a thief to leak out money. What can a thief armed with SSN, DOB, full name, address potentially do? We want to cover all bases. Can they find out where one's bank accounts, brokerage accounts, etc. are located?
Open to any suggestions or help.
About 3 weeks ago, DW received a call from 'Chase Fraud Department' from a number beginning with 408. They left a voicemail informing her that somebody had opened up a Business Credit Card in her name (she doesn't have a business nor does she have a Chase Credit Card, but does bank with Chase) and they had closed the account. They asked her to call back a 1-800 number. She did and was asked for some info. She gave them her SSN, address, name and stopped after she got suspicious of them asking about all this info which they should already have. They told her to call the number on the back of her card if she was more comfortable. She told me about this a minute later while I was at work, I googled the numbers and realized that this is part of phishing/vishing scam looking to collect personal information. She is obviously embarrassed by this. She was under a lot of stress and having a particularly bad day, they caught her at a very vulnerable moment and they sounded legitimate at the time until she caught on.
She called the real Chase on the back of her card immediately and they said they had no record of any credit cards and did not recognize the 1-800 number she had called. The put alerts on her account and 'extra security'.
We put on fraud alerts and froze her credit with all 3 agencies, checked for any fraudulent CC accounts (there weren't any), put alerts on bank accounts and secured them as much as possible, filed an identity theft report with the FTC, put a temporary alert on with the IRS (going to send in paperwork to extend the alert), called Social Security Administration who said there was nothing they could do, called police who said we can't file a report as there was no actual crime committed - just handing over personal information over the phone was not enough proof. We did not contact the DMV or Passport Office.
Last week, we got a letter in the mail from 'Chase Fraud Protection' about the fraudulent business credit card opened in her name complete with account number and numerous transactions adding to over $1000 in and around our city and some other places. The letter says the account is closed and lists steps to be taken (call credit agencies, ftc, etc.) but some of the contact numbers and web addressed look dodgy/fake. The letter asks her to sign a confirmation of forgery statement and send it to them. It seems they have a lot of her information by now and want her signature, perhaps to sign forged checks or get fake IDs.
Here is where it gets extremely creepy. We take the letter to a local Chase branch to get some sort of written conformation from Chase saying that the letter is fake and identity theft, so that we can take this to the police to file a report. We gave the Chase account manager a few hours to look into whats going on and he calls DW back saying that he called through the internal numbers and after getting transferred a bunch of times spoke to someone in the Fraud Dept and their manager (verified they were employees of Chase in the internal phonebook) and they confirmed that the account was in fact opened and then closed and told him to ask DW to call back a 1-800 number. The account manager called her and ask her to call the number. Now, this 1-800 number was the same shady number she had initially called and give her SSN/address/name to! We went back to the branch right away and the account manager was spooked and confused himself. He brought in his manager who seemed to know what she was doing, and said that they were going to hand all this over to the Fraud Department and let us know within a few days. She said that they cannot possibly look into this as this could be something more involved that would involves the feds, secret service, etc. It seems to me these scammers have either hacked into Chase's phone systems and/or their records to plant this account in there. The 1-800 number is 100% scam, I have called them, confronted them and they refuse to share any information about themselves, like their name, chase ID number etc. They would not share that info with the Chase account manager in the branch either.
Needless to say, we are creeped out by this. If you have experienced something similar, would love to hear on any suggestions to get us out this mess. We are ready to take drastic measures to get this resolved and our accounts secured, and if we can - help nail these criminals.
We are looking at moving bank accounts to somewhere that takes security and identity theft extremely seriously and can lock down accounts from large wires, electronic transfers, forged checks. What is the best bank or financial institution in your experience? We are considering brokerage accounts as well like Fidelity, where in theory it should be harder for a thief to leak out money. What can a thief armed with SSN, DOB, full name, address potentially do? We want to cover all bases. Can they find out where one's bank accounts, brokerage accounts, etc. are located?
Open to any suggestions or help.
