Dude, my identity has been stolen!!!!!!!!

[sparky216]

Stoneman,

That is what I was thinking as well. The 'Dell' people who asked for my SSN were a little shaky. The Chase credit card people did not ask for that information and seemed more sensitive to the fact that I had no way of knowing if the letter was a scam. So I am leaning toward this being the real deal, but it could just be someone out fishing. Nothing new came in the mail today...

Credit freeze almost sounds like something that we should all do anyway. Especially since I am at a stage of my life where I am not applying for stuff all the time anyway.

Credit freeze is a good thing, but the last time I had my ID stolen you had to provide evidence that your ID was stolen before they would freeze your credit profile. Things may have changed since then, but remember it's only for 3 months or so.

[da.bell]

That sucks Tall. Hope you are able to get this resolved quickly.

[Stoneman]

It's always OK to error on the side of caution and that way you can't go wrong...but if someone truly has stolen your identity you'll know as it will start to pop up when you make those credit checks, etc. Remember if somebody really did use your identity with Dell and Chase and those companies have already sent you letters (legitimately) that means it happened a while ago and anything else the thief did would be showing up as well. On the other hand if these contacts were in fact just a fishing expedition that would explain why you don't see anything else.

Just something to think about as making all those cancellations, etc is a huge undetaking and a major inconveinance in your life.

[skyski_tige]

That sucks. Some dude tried to open a paypal account using one of my email addresses - 3rd time he has tried in the last month to open an account with that email - 2 - webcams and a paypal

I called paypal and they cancelled the account and then I immediately opened it back up.

[Fast1911]

That sucks!!

I've heard that you can freeze your credit every 3 months, so there is no way someone can borrow, or get a credit card in your name without you being notified first. I've thought about doing it, but never got around to it. With this economy, it might not be a bad idea.

your right, it is a 3 month freeze..........I had to do it once and am considering freezing it again just to be safe

[Fast1911]

hopefully Obama gets elected and he can fix everyone's credit.........

[dogbert]

See what happens when you sell your Tige? You lose your identity

[skyski_tige]

Did you leave any paperwork in the Tige' that you sold?

[da.bell]

^^^ I would seriously doubt that. Bad05 also posts here with his Tige experience.

[dingleberry]

Good luck with getting everything resolved, Tall. It's such a pain to deal with this kinda crap. I just had to have a credit card account closed and a new card issued because some religious cult in Cal started making unauthorized $500 charges against it.

Then, about a year ago, I had someone in town here that was printing checks with my name and old address on them, and a bogus account #. Oh, they also put someone else's name, hyphenated like she was married to me, on the checks. Passed one check for $1000 at a jewelry store, and one for $21 at a Walgreens. C'mon - who commits fraud for $21? Jeez...

I was made aware of the checks when the check return companies started calling. I had to send in notarized letters attesting that they were not mine. I handled it all through my bank so that they could make sure it wasn't a phishing scam. I also asked the police about stolen identity charges or a file, and the police said that it wasn't actually a stolen identity, because they weren't using my account # and hadn't accessed or taken any of my money. They were just printing my name on checks. Any charges would have to have been pursued by the harmed parties (the stores that accepted the bogus checks). Still pissed me off, though.

[sparky216]

Good luck with getting everything resolved, Tall. It's such a pain to deal with this kinda crap. I just had to have a credit card account closed and a new card issued because some religious cult in Cal started making unauthorized $500 charges against it.

Then, about a year ago, I had someone in town here that was printing checks with my name and old address on them, and a bogus account #. Oh, they also put someone else's name, hyphenated like she was married to me, on the checks. Passed one check for $1000 at a jewelry store, and one for $21 at a Walgreens. C'mon - who commits fraud for $21? Jeez...

I was made aware of the checks when the check return companies started calling. I had to send in notarized letters attesting that they were not mine. I handled it all through my bank so that they could make sure it wasn't a phishing scam. I also asked the police about stolen identity charges or a file, and the police said that it wasn't actually a stolen identity, because they weren't using my account # and hadn't accessed or taken any of my money. They were just printing my name on checks. Any charges would have to have been pursued by the harmed parties (the stores that accepted the bogus checks). Still pissed me off, though.

wow, how did those checks ever get by tele check and such. Seems that a bogus acct # would be easy to find?

[dingleberry]

wow, how did those checks ever get by tele check and such. Seems that a bogus acct # would be easy to find?

Good question. It was actually the TeleCheck type companies that were the ones calling me (about a month after the checks were passed) asking if I had stopped payment on the checks. We would start to discuss the issue, they would read me the account # on the check, and as soon as I informed them that it was not my account #, they would stop providing any more details and would only give me a case # to reference. I'm guessing that the stores had not run an electronic verification of the checks at the time, and the criminals either had made a fake ID or were not checked for any ID at all. Luckily, I am only aware of the two fake checks that were passed, and no suspicious activity occurred at all on my credit reports. And that whole check situation occurred with nothing more than them using my name and old address that you can get from the phone book.

[jwanck11]

Free credit report . com. I pay 12 a month and felt it has been well worth the expense.

[skyski_tige]

^^^ I would seriously doubt that. Bad05 also posts here with his Tige experience.

I was kidding... just forgot to put the

[dingleberry]

Free credit report . com. I pay 12 a month and felt it has been well worth the expense.

Plus, they sing such catchy jingles in their commercials