topic Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!! in General Credit Topics

Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:35:40 GMT

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.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

MarineVietVet — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:55:21 GMT

Sorry this happened to you laz.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

llecs — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 23:49:15 GMT

Welcome to the club! Happened x2 here.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

RobertEG — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:05:19 GMT

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.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

Jazzzy — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:11:50 GMT

Can you tell us how you discovered the identity theft?

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

trumpet-205 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:09:39 GMT

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

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 01:13:19 GMT

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.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

trumpet-205 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:11:17 GMT

@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.

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).

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

Jazzzy — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:54:45 GMT

@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.

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.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

pizzadude — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 03:11:47 GMT

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.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:24:19 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:

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.

Me too! I think that's the worst part of having this happen. Waiting to see how much hassle it's going to be in the end. So far, the PayPal people have been really nice to me, but that can always change!

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:51:43 GMT

Wouldn't this be the ideal time to freeze or lock the CR. Or perhaps consider some form of service like lifelock?

I mentioned id theft once to experian when they wouldn't remove the ficticious name used by a parent and the whole cr report vanished and I didn't exsit for years till Sallie Mae reported Stafford last year.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:02:21 GMT

I am going to get some more information on the report freezing & fraud alerts tomorrow. Not going to get LifeLock, though.

Yeah, I hear some crazy things start happen to your reports with things like this...just going to cross my fingers & hope for the best.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

trumpet-205 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:04:41 GMT

Did you have a PayPal account? You need PayPal account to get PayPal MC, so if you did have one your PayPal account is compromised.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 20:12:24 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
Did you have a PayPal account? You need PayPal account to get PayPal MC, so if you did have one your PayPal account is compromised.

Yes, I do have a PayPal account. I didn't know you had to have the account to get the card. I'm surprised they didn't take the money I have in my PayPal account!

My Bill Me Later account is linked to my PayPal account, too. Am I going to have to close that as well? I just got a CLI

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

trumpet-205 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 20:33:36 GMT

Call PayPal to check if there is any other account registered under your name.

If there is only one PayPal account (which is tied to your email account) registered under your name then your PayPal account is compromised. Pay close attention to this PayPal account and anything assoicated with it (deposit account, debit/credit card, BML, etc) and be prepared to shut it down.

Also change your online password.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 20:37:50 GMT

@trumpet-205 wrote:
Call PayPal to check if there is any other account registered under your name.

If there is only one PayPal account (which is tied to your email account) registered under your name then your PayPal account is compromised. Pay close attention to this PayPal account and anything assoicated with it (deposit account, debit/credit card, BML, etc) and be prepared to shut it down.

Also change your online password.

Doggone it! What a pain this person is. I deleted all the info I had saved on my account, & changed my passwords for both PayPal & BML. Changed my security questions, too. I sent an email to BML asking what they think I should do. I honestly don't know about this stuff as much as I thought I did. When I called PayPal yesterday I didn't think about asking about my BML account or the money in my PayPal account ($88, not a fortune). Today WOULD be Friday, wouldn't it?

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 04:10:50 GMT

Just an evening update, for anyone who might want to know...

So I went ahead & moved the money in my PayPal account to my bank. No sense in waiting for it to be taken. Changed the password & security questions for the email associated with my PayPal account. Luckily it is not my primary email; I only really use it for PayPal.

Emailed my bank since my account was linked to my PayPal. They said since I don't want them to close the account this minute (bills pending), to just keep an eye on things & let them know when I do want them to close it. I really don't want to, but I may not have a choice about it. I don't want to be worrying about this forever & ever.

Updated reports from everywhere. Got the ##%^&$%&*@ identity thief's address on one of my reports, & the account is showing (differently) on 2 of my reports. The reports also show most of the fraudulent account number, so that's helpful. Saved printable copies to my computer for printing tomorrow. As of right now, the fraud alert is showing on EQ & EX only. Hopefully TU will get with the program tomorow.

Visited some more identity theft information websites today (FTC, state site, etc.) & bookmarked pages & saved files that will be useful. By this time I was pretty tired of reading things so I'm leaving that for tomorrow. Spending a lot of time checking passwords on sites to make sure no other accounts have been compromised.

Will update this again tomorrow if I have new information. Maybe I'll get the paperwork from PayPal tomorrow.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

laz98 — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 04:19:36 GMT

Hello, just another update Nothing from PayPal in the mail today, so hopefully on Monday.

Well, another of my emails was hacked today. Luckily, it is also not an important email, but still. We think my gf's account may have been hacked too. We aren't sure, but we changed the password anyway. We changed her BML account information as well.

Went to log in to my BML account today, & it had been locked due to too many failed login attempts. I was able to get it reset. Called in to see if there was anything they could do, but they said no, since there hadn't been any fraudulent transactions. I was able to change my user ID, though, & I changed the password again.

There is a little more concern today that our bank account will get hacked next. Like I said yesterday, I don't want to close it; I've had it forever. But I may not have a choice. I was able to change my user ID & password for that as well; I'm hoping that will be enough.

The fraud account is now on TU, & the fraud alert is present on all of my reports. Honestly, right now it's not giving me much peace of mind.

Re: Freaking Identity Theft!!!

Anonymous — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:48:50 GMT

You have checked your computer thoroughly for malware, keyloggers, and trojans correct?