Identity theft - YorkieTalk.com Forums

cheryl000 · 09-04-2006, 05:14 PM

I was wondering if anyone out there has been a victim of identity theft. I am doing a term paper and I want to include a part about someone who was VERY negatively effected by it. I was a victim of it last year. If you have a story I would like to use it for my term paper. You can also share it here if you would like. I think it would be helpful to also include how you think it could have possibly happened.

My story is that I was just looking at my checking account online and I noticed a weird charge for $60 on there for a website downloading stuff to a cell phone and I didn't even own one! I contacted the company and they were VERY nice about it. They told me that the person who did it had enough information about me like my home address, account number etc. They were nice enough to put the money back into my account and they even emailed me the IP address of the person who placed the order! I don't know how the person got my information, I'm thinking possibly from the internet.
I was so excited because I figured we had a chance of catching the guy with the IP address. So I contacted the police who came and filed a report. A few days later I got a letter in the mail saying that it was out of their jurisdiction because the IP address resolved to New Jersey. I called the NJPD and they said I would PHYSICALLY have to come there to file a report! Of course being in the military I couldn't travel all the way to the other side of the United States!
I had so many bad feelings from this experience. I wanted to catch the guy and teach him a lesson but I felt like the government's laws (that I helped protect while serving) failed me. I also felt violated and scared... some stranger knew all of that information and I hated the fact that he knew where I lived. What other stuff could pop up? What if other companies weren't as nice? I put my credit report on fraud status incase anything weird came up I would get a phone call, but thankfully nothing happened. I know I was very lucky, this happened to one of my friends and the person went to Target and ran up $600 on one of her credit cards with cds and cell phone cards. (I think the person used Target because they don't check ids.)
Anyways, my objective of the paper is to let people know what it feels like to be a victim in all of this. There doesn't seem to be enough to protect us. There should be a federal agency for this crime and the state you live in shouldn't matter when you try to press charges. I have heard of people not being able to get cars and houses because of identity theft. I want to show the criminals that do this what it feels like and we are people, not just names and numbers that own accounts! I would be VERY thankful for anyone's insight!

Amber_lv · 09-04-2006, 05:32 PM

I used to work for a credit card company and I've heard tons of stories about it. I have not personally had it happen to me but down here where i live there was a ring of it going around not only were they using adults ssn but a four year old little girls as well they bought a house in here name using her social. It takes minutes for them to steal your identity and years to get it cleaned up. Most of the time people don't even realize what is going on till months down the road and by then it's to late and your credit is wrecked! I used to sell a credit protection plan to our card members and let me tell you it is worth it to buy or at least be enrolled in some kind of protection for your credit. I have heard of wives doing it to husbands and vise versa children do it to parents and the worst parents doing it to their children. You can never be to careful here are some tips for keeping your identity safe.... Never give your social out over the phone EVER if you have to make sure that they did not call you even if it's your credit card company if they want that info they will be more than happy for you to call them back at there 1-800 # don't call any # they give you always look the # up in a phone book or on the back of your card and only give them the last 4 # they have the rest right in front of them if they are a credit card company. Also if your credit card company offers some type of credit protection enroll in it at least for 30 days and see what it's all about it. Like i always used to tell my customers it only take a few minutes and a few dollars to protect yourself but it takes years and a lot of money to dig yourself out once it has happened. Also never keep your pin # with your cards and never carry your social card with you keep it in a safe lock box. Don't ever give your pin # to anyone not even your spouse and if identity theft happens to you call all three credit bureaus and have them freeze you credit no one will be able to do anything with your credit including you unless they call and verify with all 3 bureaus with the new info you have set up. Good luck in your paper and i hope this is helpful to someone out there!

cindy0721 · 09-04-2006, 05:41 PM

ive been a victim... my story is actually very interesting.... I was a identity theft victim at 16yrs old... by my oldest sister.. I found out when I Iwas 18 and finally confirmed it was her and confronted her she denied it ...I think that hurt me more than what she did..... I wish she could of owned up to it though.. til this day she denies it.... whatever I know it was her... she got several accts in my name and put herself as a additional card holder... duh.... now I am trying to buy a house and it haunts me so much,.,. I took all the accts off thank god but it hurt me in so many ways.....I was never able to start good credit on my own and its hard for me to get approved .... I am 30 points from where I need to be credit wise and it suxs....

cheryl000 · 09-04-2006, 07:02 PM

Thank you for the tips Amber! I will definately be using them in my paper.
I am so sorry that happened to you Cindy. I know that it can make you feel powerless. I can't believe people are allowed to get credit out before they even turn 18 without parent's permission! My SIL filled out one of the papers that came in the mail when she was 12 and got her own credit card without her parents knowing about it! Needless to say she got adicted to it over time credit cards started to spiral out of control. Then it got into cards where she was trading them off to have a new one every year and just her car payments were over $800 a month. She has bankrupt already. Now she's 29 and still living with her parents.
I also worry that someone could steal my son's credit because I had lost his social security card. I tried to look up and see if there was any info about it on a credit report but it wouldn't let me because he's too young. IMO if someone takes out loans and creditcards it should be required to show proof of identification in person and paperwork of the transaction should be sent to the home address. If something were to happen we wouldn't be notified for a long time. I'm glad we're allowed free credit checks once a year, but to me it's just a start and more needs to be done.

Amber_lv · 09-04-2006, 07:07 PM

Well what they do is open an account in your name and then have a diff address set up usually a P.O box # and so you never get a bill and thats why it's hard to find out and also if they have your ssn they can easily look up you b-day and get all your info right off the internet and they can go to the dmv and get a totally legit drivers licence in your name so then they do have id and no one is the wiser Idenity theft is the #1 growing crime in the US.

RoxyJosMom · 09-04-2006, 07:20 PM

We ran into a problem once but we were lucky to have a great bank and they took care of everything. We were visiting family and had used my husband's personal business card one morning. No problem. We went to check out of the hotel that afternoon and they said it wouldn't go thru. We called since there was $8 or $9,000 available cash. The bank knew we were in PA and a bunch of charges had appeared from Ohio and a couple other places. Someone went on a shopping spree at The Gap, Radio Shack, some other stores and ordered a bunch of stuff online. The only way anyone could have gotten the number since it was a fairly new card and never used online was at a restaurant. When the waiter or waitress takes the card back to ring it up. They get the numbers and sell them to people for a pretty good profit. Our bank put our money back in our account immediately and handled the investigation, but they couldn't catch the person because whoever it was knew how to keep from getting caught. PO Box # with false names, stuff like that. We were definitely lucky. Good luck on your paper,

09-04-2006, 05:32 PM	#2
Amber_lv Peeka Boo I See You! Donating Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Salt Lake Posts: 7,161 Blog Entries: 3	I used to work for a credit card company and I've heard tons of stories about it. I have not personally had it happen to me but down here where i live there was a ring of it going around not only were they using adults ssn but a four year old little girls as well they bought a house in here name using her social. It takes minutes for them to steal your identity and years to get it cleaned up. Most of the time people don't even realize what is going on till months down the road and by then it's to late and your credit is wrecked! I used to sell a credit protection plan to our card members and let me tell you it is worth it to buy or at least be enrolled in some kind of protection for your credit. I have heard of wives doing it to husbands and vise versa children do it to parents and the worst parents doing it to their children. You can never be to careful here are some tips for keeping your identity safe.... Never give your social out over the phone EVER if you have to make sure that they did not call you even if it's your credit card company if they want that info they will be more than happy for you to call them back at there 1-800 # don't call any # they give you always look the # up in a phone book or on the back of your card and only give them the last 4 # they have the rest right in front of them if they are a credit card company. Also if your credit card company offers some type of credit protection enroll in it at least for 30 days and see what it's all about it. Like i always used to tell my customers it only take a few minutes and a few dollars to protect yourself but it takes years and a lot of money to dig yourself out once it has happened. Also never keep your pin # with your cards and never carry your social card with you keep it in a safe lock box. Don't ever give your pin # to anyone not even your spouse and if identity theft happens to you call all three credit bureaus and have them freeze you credit no one will be able to do anything with your credit including you unless they call and verify with all 3 bureaus with the new info you have set up. Good luck in your paper and i hope this is helpful to someone out there! __________________ Peeka-Boo-Daisy-Designs <---Click Here Peeka's MyspaceDaisy's Myspace Peeka's Dogster

09-04-2006, 05:41 PM	#3
cindy0721 Always In My Heart Donating Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: The Lone Star State Posts: 3,393	ive been a victim... my story is actually very interesting.... I was a identity theft victim at 16yrs old... by my oldest sister.. I found out when I Iwas 18 and finally confirmed it was her and confronted her she denied it ...I think that hurt me more than what she did..... I wish she could of owned up to it though.. til this day she denies it.... whatever I know it was her... she got several accts in my name and put herself as a additional card holder... duh.... now I am trying to buy a house and it haunts me so much,.,. I took all the accts off thank god but it hurt me in so many ways.....I was never able to start good credit on my own and its hard for me to get approved .... I am 30 points from where I need to be credit wise and it suxs.... __________________ Cindy & Gizmo Gizmo on Dogster *Rest in peace My Madda* *very much*

09-04-2006, 07:07 PM	#5
Amber_lv Peeka Boo I See You! Donating Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Salt Lake Posts: 7,161 Blog Entries: 3	Well what they do is open an account in your name and then have a diff address set up usually a P.O box # and so you never get a bill and thats why it's hard to find out and also if they have your ssn they can easily look up you b-day and get all your info right off the internet and they can go to the dmv and get a totally legit drivers licence in your name so then they do have id and no one is the wiser Idenity theft is the #1 growing crime in the US. __________________ Peeka-Boo-Daisy-Designs <---Click Here Peeka's MyspaceDaisy's Myspace Peeka's Dogster

09-04-2006, 07:20 PM	#6
RoxyJosMom Love The Verminator! Donating Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: ny Posts: 4,282	We ran into a problem once but we were lucky to have a great bank and they took care of everything. We were visiting family and had used my husband's personal business card one morning. No problem. We went to check out of the hotel that afternoon and they said it wouldn't go thru. We called since there was $8 or $9,000 available cash. The bank knew we were in PA and a bunch of charges had appeared from Ohio and a couple other places. Someone went on a shopping spree at The Gap, Radio Shack, some other stores and ordered a bunch of stuff online. The only way anyone could have gotten the number since it was a fairly new card and never used online was at a restaurant. When the waiter or waitress takes the card back to ring it up. They get the numbers and sell them to people for a pretty good profit. Our bank put our money back in our account immediately and handled the investigation, but they couldn't catch the person because whoever it was knew how to keep from getting caught. PO Box # with false names, stuff like that. We were definitely lucky. Good luck on your paper, __________________ Roxy loves Alphy Remi loves Millie [COLOR="Purple"]Mom to RoxyJo & Remington , Fozzy Bear & Chloe

09-04-2006, 05:14 PM	#1
cheryl000 YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: none Posts: 1,495	Identity theft I was wondering if anyone out there has been a victim of identity theft. I am doing a term paper and I want to include a part about someone who was VERY negatively effected by it. I was a victim of it last year. If you have a story I would like to use it for my term paper. You can also share it here if you would like. I think it would be helpful to also include how you think it could have possibly happened. My story is that I was just looking at my checking account online and I noticed a weird charge for $60 on there for a website downloading stuff to a cell phone and I didn't even own one! I contacted the company and they were VERY nice about it. They told me that the person who did it had enough information about me like my home address, account number etc. They were nice enough to put the money back into my account and they even emailed me the IP address of the person who placed the order! I don't know how the person got my information, I'm thinking possibly from the internet. I was so excited because I figured we had a chance of catching the guy with the IP address. So I contacted the police who came and filed a report. A few days later I got a letter in the mail saying that it was out of their jurisdiction because the IP address resolved to New Jersey. I called the NJPD and they said I would PHYSICALLY have to come there to file a report! Of course being in the military I couldn't travel all the way to the other side of the United States! I had so many bad feelings from this experience. I wanted to catch the guy and teach him a lesson but I felt like the government's laws (that I helped protect while serving) failed me. I also felt violated and scared... some stranger knew all of that information and I hated the fact that he knew where I lived. What other stuff could pop up? What if other companies weren't as nice? I put my credit report on fraud status incase anything weird came up I would get a phone call, but thankfully nothing happened. I know I was very lucky, this happened to one of my friends and the person went to Target and ran up $600 on one of her credit cards with cds and cell phone cards. (I think the person used Target because they don't check ids.) Anyways, my objective of the paper is to let people know what it feels like to be a victim in all of this. There doesn't seem to be enough to protect us. There should be a federal agency for this crime and the state you live in shouldn't matter when you try to press charges. I have heard of people not being able to get cars and houses because of identity theft. I want to show the criminals that do this what it feels like and we are people, not just names and numbers that own accounts! I would be VERY thankful for anyone's insight!

09-04-2006, 07:02 PM	#4
cheryl000 YT 1000 Club Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: none Posts: 1,495	Thank you for the tips Amber! I will definately be using them in my paper. I am so sorry that happened to you Cindy. I know that it can make you feel powerless. I can't believe people are allowed to get credit out before they even turn 18 without parent's permission! My SIL filled out one of the papers that came in the mail when she was 12 and got her own credit card without her parents knowing about it! Needless to say she got adicted to it over time credit cards started to spiral out of control. Then it got into cards where she was trading them off to have a new one every year and just her car payments were over $800 a month. She has bankrupt already. Now she's 29 and still living with her parents. I also worry that someone could steal my son's credit because I had lost his social security card. I tried to look up and see if there was any info about it on a credit report but it wouldn't let me because he's too young. IMO if someone takes out loans and creditcards it should be required to show proof of identification in person and paperwork of the transaction should be sent to the home address. If something were to happen we wouldn't be notified for a long time. I'm glad we're allowed free credit checks once a year, but to me it's just a start and more needs to be done.