Credit Fraud at Christmas: Gotta love it
 

What should I find when I get home today but a Sleep Country credit card in my mailbox? Addressed to Steven (lastname), where lastname = MyRealLastName.

So I call Sleep Country's retail services provider, CitiFinancial. Apparently Steven has applied to be a co-applicant on MY account. He gave my new (only 2 months old) mailing address and my name. Said he lives in Grisby, Ontario, but didn't specify if he was my spouse or relative. So any purchases he makes on my account I am responsible for.

No, they cannot close the account because I have not paid off my bed yet.

No, he has not made any purchases yet.

No, they cannot REMOVE him from the account for god knows what reason.

Yes, they are investigating.

Merry Fricken Christmas!

Killer customer service ... gotta love it! Sorry to hear about your troubles, hope it all works out!

Didn't he have to sign something when he added himself? I don't think they would or should add anyone to your account without first getting permission from you.

I'm sure there is a way for you to get out of paying it.

Your in line for idenitity theft.
Better get copies of your credit reports now, then send in a certified letter to each saying you need your accounts flaged. (certified gets them moving faster since they are legally on a timeline).
Alert your bank, and also file a police report. Get the ball rolling now or you will spend countless weeks playing catchup.

enjoy your bed

Sorry to hear that....but I am sure you can fight that....:mad: I had a similar experience and I fought them made them investigate and I didn't have to pay anything....

oh you're not kidding, are you? This may be a stupid question, but how do I get a copy of my credit report?

hmm ok

No not kidding.
Not sure if it works the same way in Canada, but here we use three main credit reporting agencies. In some states you can get a free report every year from each, otherwise you pay a small fee, or you can sign up for one of the websites that offer the reports which is wise, since you will want to monitor everything for sometime.

Even if you flag your account, companies are supposed to contact you directly before opening anything, but often do not do it.

Identity theft is a very big deal and very lucrative since the chances of the thief seeing a day in jail are slim to none and the payoffs are huge.

That's fucked up ask to talk to the manager or whoever it is that you can get high up and stop this before it gets out of control and tell them if they don't do something about it now you will go to the local newspaper and they will do anything to avoid the bad press...

Aw man.. I'm going to call back tomorrow if I don't hear from them by then. The girl said she couldn't talk to a manager until MONDAY, which is entirely unacceptable.

Elli.. talk to your bank, they'll be able to give you the heads up on who to get in touch with for credit checks etc. :thumbsup

PS - nice cleavage shot :Graucho

Out fucking rageous.

I would write a letter, send it certified mail, explaining the situation. If they choose to ignore it you will prevail completely. And I would also log time spent working on that problem and bill them appropriately for it.

hahah billing them for my time. That's awesome :)

Thanks Ruth! :)

Do not laugh to much, had a friend who ended up quiting their normal job just to have time to deal with his fiasco. Ended up spending over 8 months working on it full time. Even close to a year latter he is having to recontact credit agencies as certain items get re-reported.

oh damn.

that sucks

company called Equifax here in Canada
www.equifax.com

check them out. am sure they'll have answers to what ya need:thumbsup

I suggest getting a credit report with equifax....costs $22 canadian to get it automatically on the internet.

If these guys are giving you the run around I highly suggest getting a lawyer ASAP. Once a lawyer gets on the case it should get cleared up much faster and save you alot of hassles.

By the way figure he or she has your important numbers. In the states of course those would be your social security number, drivers license number, date of birth, etc.

Does Canada only use Equifax or do you use the other two as well?
All three listed below.

Experian (formerly TRW)
www.experian.com
800-682-7654
P.O. Box 8030
Layton, UT 84041


Trans Union Corp.
www.tuc.com
800-888-4213
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064


Equifax
www.equifax.com
800-685-1111
P.O. Box 105873
Atlanta, GA 30348

equifax seems to have a monopoly in canada

you can get your full credit report online with FICO score for $15

Elli thats only 40 mins away.. i can do a suprise nock on the door :)

That is soo messed up. I hope they get it resolved ASAP so you can breather easier. I cannot imagine how you must feel right now.

Alright, I checked my credit report (thanks for the link!) and it's all a-ok so far. I had no idea my credit rating was so good! woot! :)

http://www.safecanada.ca/identitytheft_e.asp

Some reading material for ya.

I work at an ATM machine company so I am used to getting complaints about fraud. My suggestion is to get all your papers in order i.e Credit Report. Also, to get fast results its always good to tell the CC Company that you will involve the RCMP. That will scare them shitless. Keep escalating until you get the results you want.:2 cents:

Cool, thanks for the info! I have two copies of a letter that I'm sending to both companies involved, registered mail tomorrow.

Identify theft is uncool, but all too common at this time of year.

Send me the instigator's personal information, and a ninja sneak attack will arrive in 1-3 business days!



:BangBang:

blame canada

Definitely do everything certified mail & when you speak to someone on the phone, record their name along with the time & date.

John's still dealing with a Capital One account he only had for a few months. He made maybe $300 worth of purchases & his next bill had an account balance of over $1500. They couldn't provide a list of the purchases, but it's already on his credit report as a default. It seems like he talks to a different person every time & has to go through the whole story again. At this point, I think he'll just have to pay it. :(

sounds like a shitty customer service to me and would cancel the card just as soon as you pay off the bed

Elli be careful, Monday while paying my business a/e bill I noticed a high balance for this month. I had close to 1,000 in charges that I didn?t make. I immediately call them up to report it, the fraud department is looking into, my number was changed, and a new card is being sent out. What I failed to do was thinking this was an isolated case.

Since Saturday, a thief has managed to max all my business cards and a few personal accounts and empty my checking account. I really haven?t had any time to cry since I found out. I was to busy filing a police report, closing checking accounts and opening new ones, requesting new numbers for my ccs and sending out certified letters. My business and personal credit and banking is fuck at the moment. The bank manager drafted a letter saying that my account has been reported to the fraud department as if it is really going to make a difference when someone or business gets a returned check that says the account is closed. So, I need to contact a lot of people.

I did learn that in September/October/November, the thief made little charges and deposits to make sure the accounts were valid and did the big hit now. I feel like the biggest fool right now and please don?t make the same mistake I did thinking that it is one account. If I had thought identity thief when my DSL carrier could not verify my address when talking with tech, I might not be in this mess. Who knows. Good luck
:)

So do I change all my cc's now? Or wait to see if any charges appear? So far all is clear.

outch - that sucks

some people set themselves up though. Today on good morning america some nut had a handmade sign saying happybirthday to his 9 yearold son. the sign included the full name of the boy the FULL name of the mother and father and their last names , the hometown they are from and the actual date of birth.... this would be all ya need to really put the screws to little johnny in a few years...

have some brains people.

oh that sucks and happend alot all the time

We're talking about a credit card that can only be used at Sleep Country, right?

Having a secondary cardholder added onto a credit card account is a rather simple process, actually. All this guy had to do was grab your account number (most likely off a bill), type up a letter and sign it as your name. Generally, credit card companies simply don't have the resources to cross-check signatures.

The upside to this process is that the card is only sent to the address of the primary account holder (which is why you received the card). And without the card, he can't use the account.

Don't worry about changing your credit card numbers (especially not any Visas or Mastercards). Both Visa and MC have a zero liability policy, meaning you're not responsible for any fraud charges.

Just keep an eye on your statements and if you see anything out of the ordinary, give the CC company a call and have them cancel the card. Any bank can get you a brand new card delivered to a local branch within 2-3 business days.

And don't worry about identity theft at this point, especially if your credit report is clear. This appears to be a case of a low-level fraud attempt from an uneducated fraudster.

I worked at Visa for 3 years, including a stint in fraud prevention, so feel free to ask any other questions :thumbsup

I called up my cc company and wanted my one account closed prematurely so any recurring transactions i got would not be billed. They told me I couldn't. So the falling day I reported my card stolen and told them i didn't want a new card issued. Problem solved.

Elli, call Equifax and Transunion and alert them of potential fraud. They flagged my account so if anyone ever trys to get credit they have to call me at home to confirm it is me going for credit before they will allow credit to be approved. It's a pain in the ass but it will deter the fraudster and he/she will move on to easier targets.

Sorry to hear this happened to you but it happens to thousands of others everyday, you are not alone.

DH

www.freecreditreport.com

make sure to print out multiple copys of your credit report and store them in different safe places (for good record keeping)

THEN call up the 1-800 number, and cancel your "Free 1 month Trial" thing before they charge you.

i did that and it worked great for me and the mr.

that's only for Americans. she got hers already though.

:thumbsup

Thanks for the info, psyko!! Yeah, it's just a sleep country card, and he doesn't have it. I'm sending them registered letters anyway. The equifax site was very good. It wouldn't let me retrieve my info until I told it (multiple choice) which bank I opened my last loan at and what company financed my car. So I think that's locked down pretty good.

How would he get my account number for sleep country? I don't pay it online at all, just in the mail, and all my cheques have arrived promptly. Hm.

That is absolutely obserd that he was able to add himself to your account without your concent.
If i use my husbands credit card, and he calls and says, I did NOT give her autorization to use it. The charges on it can be fought.
only purchases by the name of the origional card holder holds up.
I hope you can fight this. cause that is just one huge pile of shitty customer service and bullshit.

:(

you can go to truecredit.ca and pay for a 3 in 1 report. in the system there is a link for fraud and identity theft. click that link and call the numbers listed for your reporting agencies.

that card should have never been issued without your signature and you may have grounds for a suit if the same rules apply in canada.