General Credit Topics

[laz98]

Well, I finally became a vicitm of a determined identity thief

Someone used my information on Monday to apply for a PayPal Extras MasterCard.  After calling today, I learned that the card is already maxed out (not surprising).  I don't know where this person is from, but I'm pretty sure it was here in the USA.

They closed the account & are going to be sending me paperwork to fill out so I can file all the appropriate (& FUN!!!) identity theft affidavits.  Joy!  I hope that paperwork gets here soon.

[MarineVietVet]

Sorry this happened to you laz.

[llecs]

Welcome to the club! Happened x2 here.

[RobertEG]

I hope nothing related to the unauthorized use makes its way into your CR!

In anticipation of such, you might also consider filing a police report.  You will need that as a formal "identity theft report" pursuant to FCRA 603(q) should you need to get any reporting blocked from your CR or demand any documents from the OC.  It may be unecessary if the OC does not report, but will if they do.

.

The affidavits they are sending are not sufficient to invoke the identity theft provisions of the FCRA should the need arise.  They are only backup documents that a creditor can additionally request before releasing any business records.

[Jazzzy]

Can you tell us how you discovered the identity theft?

[trumpet-205]

I agree. Filing a police report is your next step.

[laz98]

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments.  Yes, I plan on filling out a police report.  The police department here actually has an identity theft packet that I already downloaded & printed.  It says I need to have the affidavits from the creditor, though, so I guess I'll have to wait on that.

So far the only thing on my credit is the inquiry.  That's how I found out about it.  I got alerts from both USAA & TrueCredit telling me about a new inquiry on my TU report.

[trumpet-205]

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laz98 wrote:

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments.  Yes, I plan on filling out a police report.  The police department here actually has an identity theft packet that I already downloaded & printed.  It says I need to have the affidavits from the creditor, though, so I guess I'll have to wait on that.

So far the only thing on my credit is the inquiry.  That's how I found out about it.  I got alerts from both USAA & TrueCredit telling me about a new inquiry on my TU report.

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Once you have the police report use it to place permanent fraud alert across all 4 CRAs (4th one is Innovis, some lenders like BofA, GE, and Cap 1 do use this CRA).

[Jazzzy]

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laz98 wrote:

Hi everyone, thanks for the comments.  Yes, I plan on filling out a police report.  The police department here actually has an identity theft packet that I already downloaded & printed.  It says I need to have the affidavits from the creditor, though, so I guess I'll have to wait on that.

So far the only thing on my credit is the inquiry.  That's how I found out about it.  I got alerts from both USAA & TrueCredit telling me about a new inquiry on my TU report.

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Thanks for letting us know how you discovered it. We all need to learn from each other.

We had a scenario a few months ago where somebody from Spain hacked our Amazon.com account. We kept our AmEx information stored in the account for payment. They were from Madrid and ordered a $2,400+ camera on our AmEx. We caught it only because we got an "order" email in Spanish from Amazon in Spain. It was a very frustrating experience. Amazon was no help, but AmEx reversed the charges right away and sent us a new card...and the guy never got the camera. If we hadn't acted immediately, however, it could have been a lot worse. (A lesson that we shouldn't store our cc information on these sites.) We also upgraded our computer's security.

Part of the key in these things is fast action when you see something that you know isn't yours.

[pizzadude]

Ouch, I'm really sorry to hear about this Laz.... 

Makes me think that putting a freeze on my reports might be a good idea once I get my scores where I want them.....

I hope that you can work it out without too much hassle on your part.    It's really unfair that you are victimized and you have to do so much work to clear your name.