Identity Theft

I was, I got a call from a collection agency asking me for a little over $500.00 on a past utlilty bill at an address I never lived at.

I had to put a fraud alert out on my credit reports, I contacted the major credit reporters.

Then, I had to prove my residence during the time that the bill was run-up, file a police report and send a copy to the Collection agency to drop the charge-off.

The most insedious thing about Identity theft is that it follows you. The person that uses it, even if they are convicted, can either wait and use it again or just sell it to someone else. I have to watch my credit very carefully now--speaking of, I should get a recent report.

 

I got a bill for 94$ from some company in Colorado I had never heard of and sent them something saying, please show me proof that I purchased something from you and they never wrote back. I hope that shiite didn't go to my credit report....

 

I was also a victim and it was a living nightmare. About almost 2-3 years ago, I moved out from my old apartment to my new house. Even though I changed my mailing address on one of my credit cards, it was still mailing those credit card checks and billing information to my old apartment. (You should always forward your mail immediately after you move out!!!) So this girl who moved to my old apartment got my account information and cashed those credit card checks for hundreds of dollars. This lady somehow got a hold of my new phone number and called me claiming she's from my credit card company and if I was intrested in a 5.0 APR but she needs some info to verify that it's me. I, being the stupid naive idiot that I am, gave her my SS#! I still can't believe I did that to this day! I knew I shouldn't have done that but as a graduating college student under so much debt, I got excited about the low APR offer so didn't think much when I did it. Immediately after giving her that number, I just knew that that was the dumbest mistake I've ever made in my life.

After I slipped out my info, that's when it got really fun. She started applying for all kinds of credit cards left and right under my name. Everything from Walmart, Khols, Baby gap, a cell phone account, on and on and on. She probably spent at least 15K through the various accounts that she applied for when I added it all up. This is a black pregnant lady by just knowing my social security number, can apply and use credit cards under an asian name. I had many talks with the Harris county detectives to help me get this person but to make a long long long story short, there wasn't enough evidence because of the strict state laws in TX. What's funny is the detective told me this woman just got out of jail too. They even brought her in, asked her if she applied for these cards and she said its her roomate that took off already and she'll give the detective her name the next time they meet up. She never did see her again. The detective that I worked with was so overwhelmed by these kinds of cases because they were understaffed for fraud cases.

In TX there needs to be at least 2 photograph pictures of her IN THE ACT of applying for the credit card under my name. These places do video these people but throw it away after a month or two after they apply. It's extremely hard to convict a person of ID theft in TX so these criminals were moving from Cali to Texas (a few yrs ago). I spoke with my old apartment management group and they told me that they can ID this lady who's livign at my old apt because she tried to pick up some computer parts but they wouldn't let her because they know my face and knew I moved out (I pick things up from them all the time). I can go on and on about this.

 

Not really identity theft but...

while living in London I was coming home from a night out and stopped at an ATM to get cash to pay our sitter and the account was zero'd out. Called the bank (Chase at that time) and they said 'yes, you withdrew all of your money at a casino in spain today.' I said (to quote 3 Dog Night) I've 'Never Been to Spain.' Apparently at restaurants now they have these machines they run your card through that duplicate the numbers and then card. The bank said 'it shows that the card was present (because of that extra number on the back they look for now)' and I said 'I don't think so, I'm holding the card right now in my hand. It ain't in spain.' Luckily it only took them about 3 days to replace the funds in the account.

 

Not the typical sinister ID theft, but it is/was not uncommon for illegal aliens to work under assumed SSN's. Many people never even realize it until they file for Social Security benefits and have earnings discrepancies.