so, uh... anyone have any experience with identity theft?

CAREFUL S1OCKI IT COULD BE A TRAP</Homerwhisper>

i got things mostly sorted out, in the end. mostly.

board lawyers mount up

well yesterday, a few hours after I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns (something I never do, but I kept thinking about that garlic sauce after I posted about it last week) and paid with my debit card over the phone, I checked my statement online and there was a $496 transaction at FOOTLOCKER.COM posted that same day. I thought "that's weird, the only time I used my debit card all weekend was on that pizza" and then it occurred to me that the guy who took my order asked for the three-digit security code on the back of the card. I hadn't eaten all day, so I guess my low blood sugar caused me to forgo a second thought about how unusual is it to ask for that. When wife returned home with the car later I had been stewing with hatred for Ben (guy who took my order, name was on the box) and decided it could only be a good idea to drive to the Papa John's and give this clown a piece of my mind. I sorta lost it on the dude, making all his co-workers stop what they were doing and watch this psycho accost poor Ben. Ben got real red in the face and couldn't even look at me as he defended his honor, "I've been asking for that security code for four years now," all the while I'm mad dogging him, visibly angered, treating him like a thief, casting dispersions all stern-like. I get him to give me the name of the day manager or whatever and say I'm gonna talk to the guy tomorrow. I get home all proud of myself for being a Kurt Russell or something and first thing wife says is "hey I called the bank, the charges were from my card, I'm sorry!" I call Ben back and apologize like the complete wiener I am.

anyways then this morning wife checks her other credit card and it had been maxed out with an order from TOYS-R-US. When she calls the bank/store they say they used our phone number, so who knows. She canceled the card and ordered a credit report monitoring thing. Ben will no doubt be slashing my tires some night this week.

http://z.about.com/d/lost/1/0/d/U/-/-/Ben.jpg

Debit cards are evil. You can't really contest any charge on a debit card, whereas you have a whole month with a credit card. Someone stole my CC# to make long distance calls about 15 years ago, and the company reversed the charges, no problem. With a debit card it's already outta yr bank acct.

The only thing I use my debit card for is withdrawing cash from ATMs.

if you have a debit card that has a MC or visa logo on it and run it as credit, you get their protection, as far as I know. but you'll notice that most of the time if you use this card at a store and don't expliticly state you're running it through as credit, it defaults as debit; this is cheaper for the merchant, I believe.

You can't really contest any charge on a debit card

You can with Bank of America (it's a Visa/debit) - not identity theft, but I stupidly used mine for an on-line purchase. The company charged $2,500 instead of $25. BofA immediately refunded the charge when I reported it and managed the entire investigation. But yeah, I don't use it for anything on-line anymore.

I've had CC# stolen, but the worst thing was self-inflicted (well, husband-inflicted really). When I left my job in January, I boxed up everything from my desk into a single lidded banker's box, including an envelope (boldly marked PERSONAL INFO) of all the stuff I wanted to shred - copies of my passport, SS card, drivers license, voided check, etc. One day, right before we had our first cocktail party at our new place, Mr. Jaq hauled a huge load of junk in lidded banker boxes to Goodwill. Except he gave them everything, including my office box which had still been in the trunk. I had massive panic for a week. Fortunately, nothing came of it.

Someone stole my debit card # and bought like $600 worth of gas and crap from walmart within a few hours. Luckily Wells Fargo has fraud protection.

^^ yep, this. B of A occasionally proves themselves to be not entirely useless. I would say that I should have learned my lesson last summer when a gas station attendant in Shawnee, Oklahoma charged me $100 for a tank of gas and attempted to charge a few other things, but what is that lesson supposed to be, never use a debit card for anything other than withdrawals?

er that carot should be pointing at Jaq's post

nothing personal homosexual II

last year, just after i quit my job, i got a call from chase about some "suspicious transactions" with my debit card #. the tip off was me using it to buy a pack of smokes in chicago followed by someone in london emptying out my account 90 minutes later. i eventually got the $$$ back but goddamn they made me jump through hoops to get it.

I sit corrected. In any case, this is interesting on the CVV:

The Card Security Code (CSC), sometimes called Card Verification Value or Code (CVV or CVC), is a security feature for credit or debit card transactions, giving increased protection against credit card fraud.
There are actually several security codes:
The first code, called CVC1 or CVV1, is encoded on the magnetic stripe of the card and used for transactions in person.
The second code, and the most cited, is CVV2 or CVC2. This CSC (also known as a CCID or Credit Card ID) is often asked for by merchants for them to secure "card not present" transactions occurring over the Internet, by mail, fax or over the phone. In many countries in Western Europe, due to increased attempts at card fraud, it is now mandatory to provide this code when the cardholder is not present in person.
Contactless Card and Chip cards may supply their own codes generated electronically, such as iCVV or Dynamic CVV.

what is that lesson supposed to be

I think the main lesson is to check the transactions on your accounts (debit and credit) frequently and jump on it right away when something is amiss.

I think that the lesson is also that charges on a debit card (using the debit feature, at least) are more difficult to contest than credit card transactions.

i never use my debit card to debit my account unless i'm getting cash back. but that's a rarity too.

Had a couple of problems in the past. Got a phone call from my credit card company asking if I'd spent £200 on some gambling site. Fortunately got flagged up instantly, card was cancelled and no money lost. Never found out who it was, but most likely culprit was a dodgy waiter at a restaurant, skimming the card.

Earlier this year got an email from paypal saying that I'd added a new bank account, just as I was about to log on, got another email saying that all the money in my account was withdrawn to it. Logged in instantly, cancelled the transaction and new account and changed password. Reported it to the police who were worse than useless. Someone had been outside our house using a laptop a few days earlier and we'd reported them to the police, who had moved them on. I mentioned this to the duty office and she said 'what does that have to do with computer fraud', tried explaining but she couldn't see the connection. Paypal seemed even less interested despite the fact that they had all the bank details of the new account. Guess I've just been lucky.

iiiijjjj, from the dude's reaction it does sound like something fishy went down, but you should know that every time I've ever ordered from them (lived in kind of a psuedo-frat for a summer, so a lot) they've asked for that code. So, it's probably best not to use that as Exhibit A.

In my day, you could just steal someone's wallet and the most you'd lose was your money. Where did all this hype about identity theft come from? Sure wasn't from that John Cusack movie.

Funny story: my application for tenancy at my dope new place on the South side was just rejected. Since the office was closed over the holiday weekend I called this morning to find out why I'd been rejected assuming it was some paperwork slip-up. I've never had any trouble anywhere.

"Well I gotta tell you there were some things that came up on the criminal background check that we just couldn't ignore. We're not comfortable renting to someone with three charges for possession of a controlled substance, for example."

"....what?"

uhh.....

Whoah okay WHAT?? I feel your pain re rejected applications, we've had three places turn us down in 2009. Shit is seriously depressing.

Plus that is some CRAZY news to be getting from your mgmt company. What can you do about it?

They're re-running the background check with a different company to see if it was a mistake, and I'm heading down to the Austin PD to run a check on myself to see if I get the same results. Honestly if this isn't a mistake and is actually happening I have no idea what to do.

It must have been a fairly recent thing because I've passed criminal background checks everywhere else I've ever applied to live/work in the last 5 years, right?

gotta be a mistake, hoos

This thread belongs in the FIRST RESPONSE hall of fame

FIRST RESPONSE hall of fame

I feel velkocated now.

Yeah I considered reviving another identity theft thread when I saw this but

real luna RIP

six grand in charges on a sears credit card in my name in virginia
apparently they have my social and "pertinent personal info necessary to obtain a card".
Awesome. They cancelled the card and put a flag on my account but this has been a pain in the ass all night and will likely require action over the next week.
/first world problems.

What ever happened with Hoos and the criminal b/g check thing? I NEED CLOSURE ON ANECDOTE

wait, a criminal background check can reveal exactly what crime/s someone was convicted of, not just that they have a criminal history?? that seems really wack that a rental agency can access that kind of specific info.

and sympathies to you, forks. we went through this pretty recently, such a nightmare to deal with.

I worked at a well known natural Mexican food restaurant in Austin,TX for all of two weeks to get some Christmas cash. Two or three years later I received a letter from the IRS demanding I pay them $19K in taxes. I had been paying my taxes but they showed me working for a construction company in Dallas and at the restaurant in Austin.

I had my suspicions and got a friend to phone the restaurant and ask the owners if they knew how to get a social security number. They then told him to call them from a public phone and they would tell him. UGH! The place was next to a bus station that was going back and forth to Brownsville.

So I called Social Security Administration and IRS explained things, had proof that I was working 40 hours for the university for several years straight. Then I stood in several long lines and gathered lots of documents and still have a folder one inch thick. Turns out my social security number was used by two undocumented workers, both males. When I applied for that waitress job they copied my social security card and drivers license...there you go.

For years I was paranoid. It was a nightmare.

Holy shit 19k in taxes! What a nightmare!

It seems like knowing one's ssn is all you need in the US to nick someone's ID... surely that cant be all it is? That is frightening.

In the UK I got sent someone else's P45 (i.e. all SSN/tax/job details); on a separate occasion got asked by the tax office about my work abroad (had never done so) and on yet another occasion they asked for a P45 from a job I never had. I quizzed them a lot about this last one because I wanted to know if someone had been thefting my identity but they didn't seem that bothered.

I've had my Paypal account hacked before they were caught like a day later. They seem to have gone and bought a load of DVD box sets off ebay.

My ss# was already screwed up. My mother and I have the same name, (ugh!) so they have me working one year before I was born then again at six years old for a year. My birthday is correct so you would think they would spot an error? Nooooooo every year I phone in and explain, receive a form and send in proof and they still screw it up. That is why I hold on to all the documentation of the ID theft. Afraid that one day they will try and give me a hard time and claim I was working 120 hours a week in two different cities. I benefits me but still....

four grand more at a best buy.
ten grand total. Filed a police report. Everyone is hella blase about this.

Just happened! Only $60, but ughhh....

So, I don't think this is attempted identity theft, but I'd appreciate any guesses as to what the hell is going on, other than an attempt to piss me off.

Twice within the past year, the most recent being this week, someone has used my name, my phone number and/or my email address to request information online. It's all things that would require no more data than that -- car insurance quotes, requesting info on enrolling in a school, a job recruitment site, a maid service. Whoever is doing this has no access to my email, but they're using my email and name, so I end up getting a bunch of unsolicited garbage saying I signed up for things. I've also received a handful of phone calls following up on these requests I didn't make.

The only other clue is that there was an address on one of the accounts, but it was for an apartment I haven't lived at in five years. I have no idea why someone who didn't know me would do this, but I really have no idea why anyone I've known would do it, either.

I could change my phone number and email address, but I'd rather not. Hopefully whatever asshole is doing this will just stop?

Can anyone think of a way this would actually fuck w/my identity?