have you ever had your identity stolen, or know someone who has?

looks like this is happening to ytth right now

hundreds of dollars of debit card charges
multiple ebay purchases
fedex account

What the FUCK, ugh just1n3 I am so so sorry. This has been an increasing worry of mine the past few years.

yeah it's pretty stressful. he has a really uncommon name, so it's weird. hopefully we caught it early enough and can get it sorted out. he's super paranoid all kinds of shit has been set up in his name. it's "funny" bc he's always been worried about this happening and my response has always been "lol u paranoid". boy do i feel silly!

I'm having a similar problem right now, though not so severe- four $10 charges on my card from Skype (I have never used Skype in my life) and two ominous $0 pre-auths from Apple.com. Already changed my cc#, and tonight I'm going to go through Paypal and ebay accounts with a magnifying glass. Thanks, Sony!

i'm hoping that catching it early will put a stop to it and they'll move on to another name - i think ytth is filing an identity theft report with the FTC today.

this happened to one of the filipino ladies i work with and she's still dealing with the fallout several years after the fact.

Had my card number stolen (online I assume) a couple months ago — whoever did it used it to buy 3 XBOX Live accounts (also noticed a preauth from Apple Asia). My bank gave me a temporary refund until Microsoft gave the money back.

My card number was stolen a year ago from an insuffciently secure retail site (Montb3ll Am3rica) and used to buy some kind of shit in London. Just one item, for not quite $100. It was probably someone with a bit of expertise at this crime.

someone used my card number to spend £1500 at an online bookies once. i was abroad at the time, and they could trace the transaction to the uk, so they refunded pretty quickly. stupid thing was that if they'd won, apparently the winnings would have just got paid back into my account so they couldn't have collected. otherwise they would have had to physically clone the card and go to a branch to collect but police told me that criminals "never" do scams involving both online and physical cloning. either way, the bank's anti-fraud dept did not offer me a "wait and see" option.

whole thing was relatively unstressful apart from a few hours of alarm at being alone in a foreign city with no money for a weekend, but my parents were able to wire some emergency cash.

no idea how they got the number though.

Same thing happened to me, I was told it's almost certain that the card was skimmed at a restaurant or bar when paying for a meal.

an elderly relative got email account hijacked and everyone on the contact list was targeted for wire fraud (and unfortunately a few were taken in)
warn your old folks about wire fraud! (maybe even go so far as to craft a wire-fraudy mass email that ends with "If you were about to wire a strange account number $5000 to bail me out of a Turkish prison, you are a true true friend, but also one naive to the ways of internet thugs. Please do not fall for future such emails, should they come seemingly addressed from me.")

This could be your undoing if you're ever actually in a Turkish prison/WIFI cafe one day, though.

i had an hsbc checking account with an atm card, and i had asked to have the account closed. they gave me a check for my balance but i guess that's all they did. a couple years later i got a call from them saying someone had used my card number at a yuppie kids' clothing store in manhattan? but there was no money in the account. it was weird, i have no idea how the number was obtained or why it was used at that one place only.

Hm the other day I got an envelope from ANZ, addressed to me, containing nothing but a welcome to yr new credit card pamphlet, no printed letter, no other info. It worried me, but then I recalled I had applied for a card with em, never recieved it, rang them and said it is lost, and they said if I never activate it it dosnt matter. FUck I hope this isnt a problem, that was years ago. Ive never recieved statements tho.

what if they've been stealing your statements for all these years also?

Oh god don't say that now I'm gonna panic haha.

This has never happened to me. Only thing that ever happened was the bank changing my social security number, which prevented me from making deposits and withdrawals in person. It was very alarming, every time I made a deposit the teller would tell me it wasn't my account because the social security number was wrong. It took a sit-down with all of my identification to clear it up.

Right near the very top of my list of fears. Someone got my debit card for $1,000 two years ago, but the bank covered the money immediately and without complaint. (Which almost makes up for the 1% interest vs. billions of dollars profit...) I've had a card frozen twice in the past year just because I used it somewhere where there was suspicious activity--my VISA's frozen right now until I get to a machine and choose a new PIN#.

I like how Bank of America keeps on top of that suspicious activity stuff, but sometimes it's annoying when they overdo it.

Like one time I went out of town to Miami to a football game, and I filled up the tank in one city. It was a 4 hour drive, so on the way back, I had to fill up again, and the card was declined. They apparently suspected fraud because I tried to fill up in two different cities on the same day (despite it happening at various times of day). But they didn't actually notify me, they just declined charges to the card..fortunately I had cash.

I know they generally tell you to notify your bank of trips, but I guess I figured just a 'there and back in a day' wouldn't matter. And the funny thing is, I went to NYC and used the card without notifying em and they didn't freeze the account at all.

Yeah I had that happen once when I stayed overnight in a hotel in the city I live in (was a romantic getaway type thing), then the next day for no real reason we went shopping and I bought a $700 PVR machine. Bank called me about half an hour later and made me list all the things I'd done on the card recently. I was kind of caught off guard!

yea, it's like "ok I hafta remember that I spent 38.23 at Krogers"?

They apparently suspected fraud because I tried to fill up in two different cities on the same day (despite it happening at various times of day). But they didn't actually notify me, they just declined charges to the card..fortunately I had cash.

The same thing happened to me once, years ago. I drove halfway across the country, buying gas along the way, and by the end of the trip my card was getting declined. I straightened it out with them, but months later, a charge appeared on my card for a pay-per-view hockey game in a city hundreds of miles away. For some reason, THAT didn't raise a red flag with the cc company.

I have mixed feelings...it's an inconvenience for sure; I got notice yesterday from an online newsletter I subscribe to that my card was declined, so I also have to arrange to fix that. But when I think about the alternative, I'm okay with the inconvenience. (And have no illusions that the banks are watching out for me rather than doing it out of self-interest.)

someone in Norway used my Amex to buy porn once (even spoofing my email address), but the pornmaster was kind enough to refund my money. Matter of fact, every erroneous charge I've ever had on any credit card since like, 2003, has been on my Amex.

xpost ahh yea I have no doubt the intent is good...BoA's major flaws are foreclosing on homes they don't own atm

my mom's credit card # got stolen and the worst thing that happened was two hair curlers were ordered and showed up at our house

my dad had like $500 deducted from his checking account but the bank refunded right away

*knock wood*

The same thing happened to me once, years ago. I drove halfway across the country, buying gas along the way, and by the end of the trip my card was getting declined. I straightened it out with them, but months later, a charge appeared on my card for a pay-per-view hockey game in a city hundreds of miles away. For some reason, THAT didn't raise a red flag with the cc company.

― Guy? Guy? It's me, your cousin, Marvin Mann-Dude (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, May 4, 2011 11:09 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha that reminds me of how credit card companies check for fraud. can't remember if I read it here or on some other forum but one of the best ways to get your card flagged is to buy a full tank of gas, then go to a foot locker and buy some brand new sneakers. apparently that's the first thing every 16 year old who steals a credit card does with it.

"that's how I'll get em, I'll order hair equipment and ACTUALLY SEND IT TO THEM! oh the look on their faces"

had this happen once in college, dude bought something in the middle east w/ my debit card. bank fixed/refunded right away. I heard that they weren't under the obligation to do this, as it was a debit card and not a credit card?

There seems to be no end to the problems in the middle east.

haha no really I forgot where, all I remember was 'middle east'

I think that this guy may have had something to do with my mom's CC# getting stolen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Gonzalez

apparently he used to wardrive around New Jersey and hack into Ross/TJMaxx networks to steal the credit card #s. my mom is a frequent shopper at TJ Maxx. :/

iatee--supposedly debit card charges are harder to get reversed, and that's why the suggestion is often made to charge gasoline as credit instead of doing it as a debit transaction. can't remember the whole explanation as to why...

I think it was a gas station around the corner where they got my debit-card two years ago; someone told me that if you're not careful, they can see you punch in your PIN# in the security camera. (Perversely, I still use the gas station, but no problems since.) The difference to me would be that anybody can steal a credit-card number, so the bank can't reasonably blame you; a debit card more likely involves carelessness on your part.

gas stations also have skimmers installed sometimes

I think mine was from an online purchase where I paid w/ debit

personally if my debit ever gets hijacked, i involve no bank. I take matters into my own hands. *cracks knuckles*

can't remember the whole explanation as to why...

Consumerist was saying something about that the other day - http://consumerist.com/2011/04/swiping-your-debit-card-at-the-pump-could-put-a-huge-hold-on-your-checking-account.html

i've had my debit card number stolen before - that doesn't worry me that much... more worrisome is the fedex account, since that shows that they're trying to do things with my name, address, and bank info. i locked all my shit down today and filed an FTC report, with police report to follow tomorrow. best case, they just had my CC info, in which case any new accounts they try to open will not go through when the card comes back declined, forcing them to move onto the next name down the list. worst case, they have my bank account # or SSN, in which case i'm in for a rough ride.

i only found out about the fedex account because they used my phone number, and fedex gave me a robocall to thank me for starting an account. fedex gave me the email address they used to set the account up, but that's probably stolen as well, or some shill account. still - anyone know how to do a reverse email search without using one of the sketchy pay services online?

also: LOL at saying "they" like it's a group of nefarious criminals as opposed to some douche with some hacking skills grifting a few bucks here and there.

Our city's had massive issues with skimmers being installed on ATMs in recent years - some gang of Romanians or something weird were raking in cash. I've become mega ccareful to cover the pinpad with my hand now and I try not to use my card on things like taxis (tho sometimes its unavoidable)