Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Totally mundane today....Credit theft

This January I was waiting for a 1099 from a site I work on, it never showed up. This may be the beginning of a huge issue, or just coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidence. I called them and was given the typical non-answers, "we have until January 30th to mail it", "we don't know which ones we mailed", give it another few weeks". Then I called and asked for a copy and was told they couldn't provide one. Then on February 28 someone used my Master Card number to attempt to order two night vision scopes and drop ship them to Indianapolis. One went through, much to the accounting department's chagrin, because someone didn't do their job right. It cost them almost $2000.00, they caught the second one or they would be $4000.00 in the hole.

Digressing for a moment. In January I said to my husband, "I am really afraid someone has my information and will use it." So I signed up for a credit protection company. Guess how well that worked. Not at all. The only time I heard from them was when I went through the fiasco listed above and Citibank cancelled my card so no other charges could be made. So , they let me know after I found it and Citibank stopped it. Gee thanks that was a huge help.....

I filed a police report. Luckily we had a ship to address in Indy, and the police are currently following that up. Apparently people overseas crave two things. Electronics like cell phones, game systems, cameras, etc., that are difficult or impossible to get, and weapons. The night scopes are used for just one thing, killing people in the dark. They ship to a person in this country who thinks they have a legit job, sometimes even off of a web page, and those people in turn ship to either another person in this country to pass on the items, or they pass on the items themselves overseas, usually to the Mid East and Northern Africa.

That was easily handled. They had tried making another purchase, to Best Buy, and that was stopped. A few days later, now that "their" credit card won't work anymore, my debit card gets used. A purchase was made from EBay India (not sure for what), and several charges to Facebook (again not sure for what). They again attempted Best Buy and the transaction didn't go through. All those charges (Ebay India was for $400), put my checking account in arrears. I don't keep much money in there as my debit card is set up to only access my checking account, so I can keep someone from getting into my accounts and draining them.

I did everything right, and still got jacked.

Now I have bank fees.I was told by the bank's fraud department to go down and sign an affidavit that I didn't make the charges. The local person there said there was nothing for me to sign until charges hit the account. So I made the trip for nothing....but she was wrong. Because I didn't sign the affidavit, the bank, after putting credits on my account for the charges, removed them, allowed the charges to go through (hey it isn't their money, right), and add fees. When I went down and told her what happened, she said, "OK we will do a letter to start an investigation" (really, START one, it WAS done til you screwed it up), and then argued with me over the fees because MY checks bounced. Well Honey, MY checks would not have bounced if YOU had done YOUR job!Now I am REALLY mad. There was no manager available , so guess where my first phone call is going today?

Then she told me that there would be a provisional credit (which I have yet to see), but when they find I made the charges (EXCUSE ME!), even though she is not saying I did, but people do it all the time, and say they don't....they will take it back.

Here I thought I was the customer and the person in India was the thief. Silly me.

I would love to know if a person for the site that contracts me, stole the paperwork with my address and SSN. Did someone intercept the mail? Did someone hack into the credit protection site? It was one of those things, but which one???

A little information:

Don't register with online protection sites, I was told many are the thieves themselves and you hand them all of your information. The three credit reporting agencies Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian all provide credit protection services. They are the best to use if you want to go that route.

Credit card companies are much easier to deal with than banks. I was told that the best thing to do is have a card just for online purchases. Pay it off each month, and if it gets used, cancel it immediately.

When you have a problem , you can put a free 90 days Credit Fraud Alert on your credit report. Anytime a credit ap or bank account is attempted to be opened in your name, a red flag will go up and the credit reporting company will stop the application or account from going through.

Only use sites that require the CVV number on the back of your card, they have a higher level of security. Most credit is stolen when sites get hacked, not you!

Sites need to contact you if the billing and ship to are different, if they don't contact you, you know they aren't security conscious.

Only allow access to your checking through your debit card. This way a thief (or the bank) can't clean you out!


I am so ready to call my bank today, when I was in Albuquerque last year for the Gathering of Nations, I tried to get $60 out of an ATM to have for the day eating and buying souvenirs. I kept getting denied. When I came home I was told that because I was away from home the system thought I was trying to steal the money. I asked what good a debit card is then when you can only use it at home! I was told, well you have to call us first and tell us where you are going. REALLY? Meanwhile, someone can sit at their computer and order $400 from EBay in India, and that flows right through my account. Nice.

I said to my husband last night, what if I were some poor soul that had no other access to money? No credit card, no savings, and no food in the house. Banks are such idiots.

ID theft isn't the issue it was years ago. There is more protection and awareness, back a few years no one believed you if you said you didn't take out that credit card, or buy that car, now there are stop gaps in place and a whole division of people at credit companies and police stations just for that purpose, to investigate credit theft. But cleaning it up is still a huge pain in the neck. The bank had best clear this up today, if not, they can have my new debit card, after all, if all it is good for is taking money out of an ATM locally, then I don't need it. I can walk into the bank!

I believe the reason this happened to me is I am going to be that relentless jerk who pounds on doors, and makes constant phone calls to get things fixed, changed, and to get this idiot caught. I am starting this morning with my bank.....

Have a safe day all!




Peshaui Wequashimese


(C)2013 Dr R M Wolf. May not be used copied or reproduced without prior written permission.

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