Identity Theft/Consumer Fraud, who here has been a victim?

[tranger2]

I am giving a speech next week on ID theft and Consumer Fraud and am curious how many people here have been hit with this?

Sometimes it's clear stupidity (like giving your ssn over the phone), but most of the time, it is not the victims fault. A waiter swipes your card at the restaurant, the gas pump has a skimmer hidden in it, your wallet/purse gets stolen, someone else filed a tax return in your name.....

Was looking for some stories if it happened to you, how long did it take to get your affairs back in decent order. If something is too personal, you could also PM me.
Thanks for any help.

 

[Lynx]

Had a credit card compromised after doing a transaction with a place in Oregon. Seems an employee decided to use my CC# to buy themselves some goodies to the tune of half a grand. Credit card company took care of the issue and sent me a new card. Other than the hassle it wasn't that big a deal.

 

[SoonerDVM]

Not really an identity theft, but I did have a book of checks stolen. I didn't realize it until I got an overdraft notice. Reported it, got it taken care of. It's been... maybe 6 or 7 years, but I still can't write a check at Walmart or Target.

 

[mouthpiece]

I had someone in England charge $700 of Itunes to my credit card.
I initially mised the first months $300 charges, then the next months statement it was $400 more.

I called the credit card initially contesting the $400, then went back and saw the other charges, called back and contested them. They dismissed all the itunes charges except the 1 Taylor Swift song my wife had downloaded on her Iphone.

CC said what they do is run random CC numbers through trying to charge small items, then when it works, they pass it around and charge the heck out of it.

Right now, I think we are in the middle of a Chinese fake purse scam and I'm about to call the CC company in a couple days if it doesn't pan out.

 

[Gabriel42]

Not really an identity theft, but I did have a book of checks stolen. I didn't realize it until I got an overdraft notice. Reported it, got it taken care of. It's been... maybe 6 or 7 years, but I still can't write a check at Walmart or Target.

Same thing happened to me in 2006, except it was on an account that had been closed since 2001. Checks were in a box of old stuff at my dad's and someone in his wife's family snagged them. They wrote $3-4k worth of checks. Made a police report, lots of copies of it and affidavits from me took care of it at my bank and the stores, and took about 10-15 hours of solid over a week to get all of the paperwork together and faxed (Yes, in 2006 banks and stores were still making me fax documents instead of scanning and emailing them). Still have the final scanned copy of all of the work product on my computer incase anything pops up.

SoonerDVM: You should be able to fax the affidavit or police report to Target/Walmart and their check clearing company and have them clear your name out of the system... but then again, who uses checks anymore?

 

[Buddhaman]

My wife had her card info stolen by a skimmer at a gas station. We had our bank sort it out and nothing else ever happened to us.

 

[ChuckC]

Had my credit card info stolen a couple of times. The first time, maybe ten years ago.

Coincidentally it was right after the first time I ordered something on the web using a cc. I assumed that was where it was stolen but turned out to be from another order I had placed by phone to a NJ company.

Around $900.00 worth of 1-900 calls originating from a NJ area code were made before the cc company contacted us.

It didn't take long to straighten out and didn't really end up costing me anything other than aggravation. I got a new acct number and had to change my info at a few places I regularly ordered from that had my cc on file.

Second time was caught quickly and not much money stolen but still had to go through the new acct hassle.

 

[uncle money bags]

Had debit card info stolen after ordering papa johns online. I narrowing it down to that website considering i hardly ever used that card, and almost never online. In this instance the website requires the ccv code from the back of the card to complete the purchase. Apparently im not the only one that this has happened to through PJ's website i discovered after some research. Anyway, long story short the next couple of days i was apparently in Hollywood buying a crap ton of coffee at starbucks and designer candy at some foo foo confectionery. My bank took care of it and reimbursed my account almost immediately.

 

[BadgeBunny]

A few months ago our credit union called and said GC's card had been compromised and that they were sending him another card. We are still using that account. No problems with my card. Neither of us had ever heard of that situation before. (No unauthorized charges to our account either. I love our credit union.)

 

[Okiedog]

Had an ex-DIL get a credit card in my name. Ran up about $1000 in charges and for several mos. made minimum payments and then stopped. That's when I got a call from the CC company. What really pissed me off was the fact that the only info I could get from the cc company was the address the statement was sent to. They refused to tell me who had signed charge receipts and made the few payment checks. (privacy issues). I had to sign an affidavit that I had never lived at nor received mail at her address. Finally got it cleared up and from what I understand it cost her dad several thousand dollars to keep her out of jail for other frauds she had committed.