Separating Myth from Reality of ID Theft

Vikingod · Oct 24, 2005, 09:00 PM

Gretchen Hayes was understandably concerned when she received a letter warning that she could be at risk of identity theft.

A laptop had been stolen from the University of California at Berkeley in March, and stored on it was personal information on 98,369 graduate students or graduate-school applicants, including Hayes.

The breach--which exposed names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers--was widely reported in the media, and the school created a special Web site to help individuals who found themselves suddenly vulnerable.
__________
Read More / Source: c|net

Iria · Oct 24, 2005, 10:23 PM

Well, here's some reality from a person who has had his ID stolen twice. Me.

Once was non-Internet related. A loong time ago. I still don't know how he go my info, but they caught him and put him away. I was lucky in that a JC Penney store clerk thought the driver's license he was trying to use, with my name on it, looked fake. However, it took a year after the initial alert before he was caught. And the problem was more with bad checks than credit cards. You can alert the credit companies by simply calling them ... just 3 of them. With bad checks you have to call all of them individually (the parties involved). One of them was quite rude and until I told him the detective's name who was investigating the case he didn't believe me. I also got to talk to two B of A VPs about it. The one problem was they (B of A) forgot to wipe a bad check from my history. This didn't show up in any credit checks, of course, but when I tried to open a new checking account. Anyway, the VPs AND the detective who knew about the case had all retired! It took some time to get this last item removed because of this.

The 2nd time was Internet related. I used the same password for EVERYTHING. Someone managed to break into my Yahoo! email, and since I had some store receipts from online stores, he tried one of the biggest stores.

What he didn't figure on was me ordering from them before it was delivered and noticing the fraudulent order ... and also me figuring out he used filters on my email to keep me from seeing the receipt emails.

The store gave me my money back, the cops staked out the delivery address (but he didn't pick it up ... but they told me they had a lead).

So, now I use Roboform to keep track of all my PWs ... I don't use the same one for email and stores, they are all strong (and hard to remember, hence Roboform) ... even the master PW for Roboform is strong.

I also shred everything and have one of those credit tracking accounts for myself and my wife (once a year for free is not enough for me ... I want constant monitoring and am willng to pay).

Vikingod · Oct 24, 2005, 10:28 PM

Its pretty unbelievable, but ID theft is a tough thing going on now. I deal with it every day at work. People aren't as careful as they should be, and sometimes they are and still get burned. That is a pretty unfortunate story in your case Iria, but dont feel alone.

Iria · Oct 24, 2005, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikingod

Its pretty unbelievable, but ID theft is a tough thing going on now. I deal with it every day at work. People aren't as careful as they should be, and sometimes they are and still get burned. That is a pretty unfortunate story in your case Iria, but dont feel alone.

I don't. I have a close friend who had his credit card address changed to a different state without his knowledge. He was lucky he found out about it before anything major had been done with it.

Sandok · Oct 24, 2005, 10:44 PM

Damn I'm glad I haven't had anything bad happen

The_Neon_Cowboy · Oct 25, 2005, 12:53 AM

I had an ex girlfriend do it to me with a credit card, (10,000 limit) didn't know
it was going on untill the CC company called about authurzeing like $1,000 +
in a clothing store in the mall and after that she tried, odering like $1000+ from
wallmart .com delivery adress being a abandoned house where her ex boyfriend
used to live. I don't know oif they ever got here becouse she used the library
computers and she freinds and fuck buddies to most of thier staff these days...
they wouldn't let them look at the sign in sheets or thier computers for the needed evidence... She had even made some payments

Not haveing contacted with hier for about 2 years after all this came up she
started contacting me by email and wanting to meet up. and I would assume fishing for infomation whear she was suspected well, I set up a meeting and
a sherfs car paid her a visit

never herd from here since. But I don't think
they got here becouse i'm pretty sure I saw her in public after that.

Oct 24, 2005, 09:00 PM	#1
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,187 Rep Power: 109 System Specs	Separating Myth from Reality of ID Theft Gretchen Hayes was understandably concerned when she received a letter warning that she could be at risk of identity theft. A laptop had been stolen from the University of California at Berkeley in March, and stored on it was personal information on 98,369 graduate students or graduate-school applicants, including Hayes. The breach--which exposed names, dates of birth, addresses and Social Security numbers--was widely reported in the media, and the school created a special Web site to help individuals who found themselves suddenly vulnerable. __________ Read More / Source: c\|net __________________ *How You Can Help DriverHeaven By Using Digg*

Oct 24, 2005, 10:28 PM	Thread Starter #3
Vikingod Int'l Fish Liaison Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: By the light of lamp I sit and type... Posts: 16,187 Rep Power: 109 System Specs	Its pretty unbelievable, but ID theft is a tough thing going on now. I deal with it every day at work. People aren't as careful as they should be, and sometimes they are and still get burned. That is a pretty unfortunate story in your case Iria, but dont feel alone. __________________ *How You Can Help DriverHeaven By Using Digg*

Oct 25, 2005, 12:53 AM	#6
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 90 System Specs	I had an ex girlfriend do it to me with a credit card, (10,000 limit) didn't know it was going on untill the CC company called about authurzeing like $1,000 + in a clothing store in the mall and after that she tried, odering like $1000+ from wallmart .com delivery adress being a abandoned house where her ex boyfriend used to live. I don't know oif they ever got here becouse she used the library computers and she freinds and fuck buddies to most of thier staff these days... they wouldn't let them look at the sign in sheets or thier computers for the needed evidence... She had even made some payments Not haveing contacted with hier for about 2 years after all this came up she started contacting me by email and wanting to meet up. and I would assume fishing for infomation whear she was suspected well, I set up a meeting and a sherfs car paid her a visit never herd from here since. But I don't think they got here becouse i'm pretty sure I saw her in public after that. __________________

Oct 24, 2005, 10:23 PM	#2
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 87	Well, here's some reality from a person who has had his ID stolen twice. Me. Once was non-Internet related. A loong time ago. I still don't know how he go my info, but they caught him and put him away. I was lucky in that a JC Penney store clerk thought the driver's license he was trying to use, with my name on it, looked fake. However, it took a year after the initial alert before he was caught. And the problem was more with bad checks than credit cards. You can alert the credit companies by simply calling them ... just 3 of them. With bad checks you have to call all of them individually (the parties involved). One of them was quite rude and until I told him the detective's name who was investigating the case he didn't believe me. I also got to talk to two B of A VPs about it. The one problem was they (B of A) forgot to wipe a bad check from my history. This didn't show up in any credit checks, of course, but when I tried to open a new checking account. Anyway, the VPs AND the detective who knew about the case had all retired! It took some time to get this last item removed because of this. The 2nd time was Internet related. I used the same password for EVERYTHING. Someone managed to break into my Yahoo! email, and since I had some store receipts from online stores, he tried one of the biggest stores. What he didn't figure on was me ordering from them before it was delivered and noticing the fraudulent order ... and also me figuring out he used filters on my email to keep me from seeing the receipt emails. The store gave me my money back, the cops staked out the delivery address (but he didn't pick it up ... but they told me they had a lead). So, now I use Roboform to keep track of all my PWs ... I don't use the same one for email and stores, they are all strong (and hard to remember, hence Roboform) ... even the master PW for Roboform is strong. I also shred everything and have one of those credit tracking accounts for myself and my wife (once a year for free is not enough for me ... I want constant monitoring and am willng to pay).

Oct 24, 2005, 10:44 PM	#5
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 66	Damn I'm glad I haven't had anything bad happen