Identity Theft

[noxious.sunshine]

Soooo we're all excited to get paid yesterday and go grocery shopping and do laundry and all that -fun stuff-... But then.

My BF goes to the gas station to pump gas in the roommate's car so I can drive his and his card doesn't work. WTF?

Welp. The bank tells him that his account's been compromised or whatever. No freaking wonder his checking account's been winding up negative the last little while or so.. And here -I- was thinking it was because I'd overspent and then a bill got paid automatically making it all go in the red. It got fixed, though. The bank has to mail him a new debit card and switch the account over to a new one. This is the 2nd time it's happened to him.

My ex in Phoenix stole my driver's license, social security card, and birth certificate, but it's not like anyone can actually buy anything in my name anyway 'cuz my credit is completely shot.

Has this ever happened to you?

[Spuuky]

Nope. I'm a very low-risk target (high difficulty, low reward) so I doubt it'll ever happen to me.

However, my father (extremely low difficulty, moderate reward) has had it happen twice.

[rubah]

stop using debit cards to purchase things. keep track of your expenditures and use a credit card to make purchases; there's a lot more protection that way. Someone goes on a spending spree with your card, you get a call that day and they send you a new one. The charges are dropped and your cash is safe.

Has there been a spree lately? Yours is the third story I've heard this week!

[Quindiana Jones]

Someone stole my Runescape account once.

[Laddy]

That's more of a personal favor.

[Synoptikal]

I've had my World of Warcraft account hacked once.

Oh, and I'm also on my 4th credit card...

[noxious.sunshine]

I actually have a very sick feeling that like maybe I -did- overspend... And they've chalked it up to identity theft. IDK where he spent his money before I moved in or what he spent it -on-. And he works a lot, so maybe the extra spendage triggered the account?

I also think that'd be really hilarious, but it's not.

But that doesn't exactly add up either. He tells me what our budget is, and I stick to it almost to the letter.

[Quindiana Jones]

That's more of a personal favor.

Aye. Devastating at the time, though.

[Iceglow]

I once had someone clone my bank card when I used an ATM. Was fun, not! £300 gone like *snaps fingers* I got the funds back, apparently the guy cleared every account using that ATM in a 24 hour period.

I deal with lots of fraud claims all the time in my job. To be honest most of the time it's customer's stupidity they do trout like sign up a duplicate acct on their xbox they have no idea exists because it's linked to the email on their xbl and they don't check that one. Or some trout like that. Most notoriously though they give their card to a field sales agent and wonder why they were signed up. If you didn't want to buy, you really shouldn't be giving a random person on the street your debit/credit card.

[Shlup]

That's happened to BJ twice. My husband, who's always Mister Caution and scolds me because he thinks I'm careless, has had this happen to him twice. And I don't let him forget it!

[Shorty]

Twice in the past I've had my account information stolen and crazy ridiculous purchases made to my bank statement. My bank is incredibly good at spotting what appears to be fraudulent activity, though, and both times the charges were cleared before they were even posted. By the time I contacted the bank, they were pretty much like "yeah we suspected identity theft don't even worry about it". I'm pretty careful about using trusted sites online, so it must have been spyware or some trout on my computer.

Additionally, my wallet was stolen in 2008 when I was at a party. In it was my social security card because I am an idiot and kept it in there from when it was needed upon starting my job. That, my license, my bank card and my credit cards were all stolen. The bank and credit cards were used, of course (all charges were cleared, naturally), but I haven't had any strange things pop up on my credit history since then, so I don't think they attempted to use my social in any way, thank god. Still freaks me out that it may be floating out there in Godknowswhere Phoenix, but it was years ago and if something does pop up, I'll deal with it then.

[Pumpkin]

No, I have never had this happen, which is amazing considering how easily I lose things.

The worst I had happen was I lent my ex my debit card to pay for a taxi and a taxi only (I was very clear about this) and he went on a spending spree. Well I knew he would, so after I recovered from my extreme stupidity I called my bank and told them to cancel the card and that I would pick up a new one. They even offered to replace the money he spent, but I didn't feel right doing that because the money wasn't stolen, it was gone because I was dumb enough to let someone immature and irresponsible use my card.

Sure enough he couldn't afford the taxi (since I cut off the card before that point) or the extra large pizza, 24 case of beer, and bottle of booze he was about to buy him and his friends, and he actually got pissed off at me for "embarrassing" him, after I told him he wasn't allowed to spend what little money I had and I was just lending him my card for a taxi.

[Shorty]

You should have let them replace it. It technically was stolen because you didn't authorize those charges.

[CimminyCricket]

What Shorty said! I've never been the victim of identify theft, but my father had someone in Texas steal his identity. Nothing came of it since they weren't doing too well when it happened. It must have sucked for the guy who stole it. xD

[Unbreakable Will]

I don't use banks.

Not that I have any money to put in them, almost 75% of my pay goes to rent/electricity/internet. The remaining goes to gas/food/baby stuff and various activities that I can barely afford.