Identity Theft....Cover your asses people....
 

Ever feel just plain violated?

Well...Early last week my debit card stopped working. I called my bank to find out why and the declined to tell me. Today I open up my mailbox to find a letter detailing that "I" have over 15 thousand dollars in unpaid loans and lines of credit delinquent for the last 4 months and that all my available funds have been seized as collateral as well as all credit in my name frozen.

Turns out after recieving a letter this morning that someone in Ohio has been using my personal info for the past 4 months and living the good life.

I want to fucking HUNT DOWN this Scumbag and slowy tear off his nutsack.


All I can say is people PLEASE watch out for this sort of thing. Theres NOTHING more violating than someone fucking up your entire world.

That fucking sucks...won't the bank do anything for you?

Eventually they have to.

But for now he has to suffer.


That sucks dude. Sorry to hear.

I had a bout with this shit.. best thing to do is get a report from each of the three reporting agencies to see what else there is on your report.. It can last a while.. I dealt with it for 2+ years and like $24,000 in fraud later...

I check my credit report each and every month, just to get a list of my obligations. Costs about $30/mo but it's well worth it, IMHO.

Sorry to hear you got fucked over. It can be a nightmare getting everything straightened out.

sorry to hear that!:( thanks for sharing though.... i'll take your advice.

Unfortunately, the fraud goes both ways. A lot of people try to defraud companies by CLAIMING identity fraud. A lot of it is legit. It can take forever to clean your record up. Meanwhile, you can forget about buying a house. It sucks.

I feel your pain! It totally sucks when shit like this happens. You would think the banks and credit card companies would get a clue and not make it so damn easy for these fucks to do crap like this!

Yeah man, I know no comparison but I got 2400 from someone who broke into my shop and pulled one of the cc numbers. Tomorrow I have to go back to the bank and sign the paperwork.

that really sucks...

thats why u gotto check your credit report on a continous basis

I remember seeing a site about a year ago that you pay X amount per month and you can see your credit repot for each of the three agencies at any time. However I don't remember this URL at this time which sucks.

By the way, any idea how your identity got stolen?

I thougt that happened to me a while ago and I freaked out ... turned out we are 2 persons with the same name or something like that . they just pulled up the wrong record

TBO...I have no Idea...I do know that I moved from Ohio to MA about 5 months ago and that there was alot of instances in which I had to give copy's of my Drivers liscense and what not....

Get yourself a good identity theft lawyer as soon as possible, the bank will try to fuck you as hard as the thief did. :2 cents:

If you haven't already, buy a good cross shredder and be very religious about using it. I burn the shredded documents with my information on them for an extra measure.

Regularly check your credit rating with all three agencies, try and use a mail drop for your mail, I want to be a hard target for someone, make them prey on someone easier who doesn't go through the steps I go to protect my identity. :thumbsup

http://www.truecredit.com/

They're a good source of info if you'd like to do a credit check from the three major agencies. They'll even send you updates as often as every week informing you if anyone has accessed your credit history :)

sorry to hear about this. I had a similar thing happen about a year and half ago. I had a so called friend steal a check from my checkbook, buy new checks and then used my Identity to bounce about 3K worth of checks and open up about 25K worth of credit lines. I found out who it was and he's been caught, procescuted and sentenced and I'm still dealing with this shit.

a couple things I have learned to help prevent this:
1. call the three main credit reporting agencies and put fraud protection on your credit report. This way if anyone wants to give you credit, by law they have to call you and get your authorization before they do it. So if you are getting calls for things you didn't apply for you know something is wrong.

2. buy a safe. It can be a cheap little thing that you bold into your closet or something. Put your passports, Check Books, Bank Records anything that has your personal info on it in the safe to make it harder for someone to steal it.

3. shread everything that has your info on it before you put it in the garbage. This one is especially big if you live in an apartment building because people go through apartment dumpsters looking for this type of stuff.

4. like other people have said get your credit report at least a couple times a year and make sure everything is correct on it.

how hard is it to check online banking few times a week to see if shit is in place ?

My ex wife used my social to open a bank acct and went on a shopping spree bouncing checks left n right. This was close to a year ago and I am still coming across new problems due to this. Once it happens to you, it will be a forever battle clearing your name completly.

that's just what I was thinking too, I check mine all the time, because I buy a lot of stuff online

4 months is a long time to go without checking

Not hard at all... what IS hard is knowing that someone used your information to open NEW accounts in your name or bought a new car with your credit.

hey is there a way to get identify theft insurance? I read an article that insurance agencies have coverage now for this

Get ready for a long period of frustration.

yup.. a Dr. my wife used to work for had his identity taken over 5 times by the same man... even after he went to jail. the guy even opened up his own medical practice and did surgery and all kind of crazy shit... dateline even did a show about him...

One doctor encounters a serial identity thief
It's bad enough when an identity thief uses your personal information for financial gain. But what if that happened not once, but five times? And what if that thief was also treating patients under your name?

That's what happened to Gerald C. Barnes, MD, an orthopedic surgeon in Stockton, Calif. Five times during a 20-year period, a man born Jerald Barnbaum, who in 1970 changed his name legally to Gerald Barnes, has stolen Dr. Barnes' identity.



here is another

"It's probably one of the most extreme cases of identification theft that we've seen both in terms of the number of years that it was carried on and the elaborate deceptions that were involved," said Dan Saunders, an assistant U.S. attorney in California who recently prosecuted the not-doctor Barnes.

Barnbaum/Barnes used the real physician's name and credentials to obtain employment as a doctor at several clinics in the Los Angeles area between the late 1970s and 2000.

The phony physician was convicted in 1981 for involuntary manslaughter after a patient died. He also was convicted in 1984 and 1989 on state charges related to impersonating Dr. Barnes.

In 1996, the false doctor was sentenced on federal charges to 12½ years in prison for posing as Dr. Barnes a fourth time. He escaped in August 2000 and was arrested a month later, working as "Dr. Barnes" in a Los Angeles clinic.

This earned the phony physician a second federal grand jury indictment last February. On Sept. 18, he pleaded guilty in a California federal court to mail fraud, distributing controlled substances, using Dr. Barnes' Drug Enforcement Administration number and stealing Dr. Barnes' identity to buy a car. Scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8, the fake physician faces up to 38 years imprisonment on top of the 15 years he already is serving, including 2½ years for escaping.

another link about it

Free Credit Report

They have a service for $10 a month that will monitor your credit daily and give you a heads up via e-mail if things get a little fishy.

Also I have yet to look into it, but they have an affiliate program. :Graucho

Something doesn't add up.

For outstanding debt it takes a Court garnishment to seize your checking account. This takes a Court jugdment which is a long process and requires you be served.

Was this outstanding debt with the bank you have your checking account? They can cancel your credit lines but to seize your money it requires a Court order. It is against FTC rules (bank laws) to seize your account without a Court order because it directly interferes with your rights to pay other obligations and you have right to exempt certain assets from collection under state law. There is a strict process for this.

Just saying this doesn't add up. Explain?

Sorry to hear your problems and hope it all works out.

not true PornGeneral, I had an account seized with $14k in it out of the blue, and i was not told anything at all!

The bank knew nothing of it either, other than the fact that it was a court order and I had to contact a lawyer which was listed on the account notes.

To this day, I still dont have my money, and the lawyer never answers or gets back to me. :mad:

The moneys just sitting in the account, frozen and seized. I wonder how fucking long that court order is good for.

Some states allow attorneys to issue garnishment writs. This is what was done more then likely in your case. I would keep trying to contact the Attorney, if they executed the garnishment in error and refuse to release your funds you could have a serious case against both the Attorney and the bank. Waiting for things to happen is foolish. Its your money!

The garnishment order should have been sent to you and have a case number on it from the Court. If not go check your local Court house.

That really sucks, even creditcard companies that ask me for my information don't get it even if it means a better APR over the phone, I just tell them to mail it to me the deal and I will see if I want to do it or not. They seem to now have the policy of asking for social security over the phone now. There needs to be a better system in place, it is too easy to steal peoples identity.