windowandaisleseatonly

Hello All,

Hope you're having a great long weekend.

I just found out that I've been hit hard with ID Theft - Someone out in the Midwest somehow got ahold of my SSN and has been opening up all sorts of store CC's and Wireless phones in my name. I've had to place my credit on fraud alert and been able to stop most of it by calling the individual vendors/creditors. I have to wait for the affidavit's of fraudulent usage to come in (7-10 business days) for each vendor, and I'm going to go to the police after I start collecting and building a file.

But anyways, This is a major bummer, cuz I wanted to apply for 3-4 CC's soon (including the Arrival+ and Old Amex Blue)

For those of you who (unfortunately) have been in my situation, How long did it take you to "stabilize" the damage? How soon were you able to apply for new CCs? Also, did it slow down any of your MS activities?

Curious to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

-Steve

StartinSanDiego

Wow, yikes! I have no idea how to repair the damage, but my sympathies for your plight.

wrxmom

It's going to affect your applications especially if you have a fraud alert on file. So instead of getting immediately approved, you will have to call the reconsideration line each time.

You might want to sit out on MS for a little while.

MasterCharge

OP, this is my opinion and it is not meant to discourage you on your endeavors. With that said, it is not wise to participate in the MS activities due to the amount of personal information that you will be exposing when playing this game. Your current situation indication to me that you might not be on top of your finances, actively monitoring credit report, bank account details, knowing when to freeze your credit report, chex, ews record, etc. I personally freeze all my credit report when I know I will not apply for any type of product in the following months (most it cost me is $30 but that is a cost I am willing to forgo due to the potential risk and liability of ID theft and Fraud). However, if you are determine to play the game, please consider subscribing for free services, like CreditKarma, Credit.com, Quizzle, and/or Credit Sesame to help you manage things. Good luck!

ericdabbs

OP why you have not decided to freeze your credit ASAP with all 3 credit bureaus is beyond me. By freezing your credit the criminals are not able to open credit lines in your name. I mean it sounds like it has been happening for awhile but somehow you were oblivious to what was going on.

If I were you, I would quit MS for the time being because you have a lot more major problems with restoring your credit that are much much more important than MS since you need time to repair your credit. If I were you, I would open an account with CreditKarma to provide credit monitoring. After that I would freeze your credit with all 3 credit bureaus.

windowandaisleseatonly

yeah, learning the hard way this weekend. I do monitor my activities thru mint and credit karma, but it seems like I need to do better. Placing the freeze on my credit now.

I'm also going to back off a bit from the MS game for a bit until this dust settles.

Thanks again for the feedback - Definitely learning the lessons the hard way.

ftomasze

Your doing the right thing here dude. I couldn't imagine having to go through what your going through. Get those CRs on ice and chill until everything with the ID theft is cleared.

Also -- keep a keen eye on the email alerts you get from whichever credit monitoring system you subscribe to. I personally use MyFico, Citi Identity Monitor, and Credit Sesame.

MaxVO

The Fraud Alert will be on file forever, not a "little while". It's very hard to get it lifted. The alert will require that you confirm all credit applications by phone -- the banks will usually initiate the call. It's a nuisance, but not a major one.

AFAM-DFW

I have been in your position and, without knowing your circumstances, believe that you have done nothing "wrong".

All the information need for the theft is on every form that we fill out for doctor visits and available to everyone in the office as well as in the medical insurance claim chain. While this may not be where your theft happened, this is just an example of on of the many ways our info is not protected and can leak.

The report freeze steps help stop the id thief from profiting and limit the damage, it doesn't help with the info theft.

You were the victim and not to blame. The thief is the guilty party. Good luck with the cleanup.

hamhead

Very hard to avoid nowadays, I agree.

In my job I have access to names, socials, SSNs, property address, etc. of tens of thousands of people each and every day. It is practically impossible to go completely dark in that respect.

Mamibear

soon as I learned it wasn't mandatory to put SSNs in clinic forms I quit doing it several years ago. The receptionists don't say anything so I just put a line on it.

I'm sorry to hear you're a victim of ID theft OP. It can be a long process to recovery but you'll survive.

rgAAFT

First of all, my sympathies go out to OP

Second, why don't we dedicate a portion of this thread to discussing strategies for protecting your identity? (for those of us who have thankfully not had our ID stolen, but want to protect it. Given, (like somebody said) we sometimes have to give out personal information relatively often when playing this game to random places and clerks at Wal-Mart etc, I think this sub topic would be quite welcome.

I will start with what I know,
I know about credit bureau freezes (haven't brought myself to do it yet) , and I do subscribe to Citi Identity monitor.
How effective is Citi identity monitor at at detecting potential fraud? (besides telling you about new hard inquires and when new accounts are opened, both of which I know it does)
Anyways, so strategies and their effectiveness, please
Thanks

AnalystGuy

ID theft is very difficult to prevent in our current environment, but there are some steps you can take afterwards to help. In addition to the credit freeze, I would suggest signing up for a service that monitors some of the other data feeds that exist. The reason is a credit freeze only protects you if the creditor pulls your credit...there are any number of stores and other entities that do not. They can also help you in the event of further damage.

A second major concern is someone using your ID to open bank accounts. This is less prevalent but is much harder to clean up later. Contact Chex Systems and your DMV to advise that your information has been compromised.

Finally, file the police report with your local jurisdiction even if you have to add more information later. Make sure you get copies and that the badge number of the officer is clearly written.

I would avoid any MS for several months until this is completely cleared up.

rgAAFT

Are you saying that there is relatively little we can do to protect against ID theft until it has actually (hopefully never) happened?

Also, when you say "data monitoring service" , do you mean something like life lock?

raccah

Interesting, so the soft pulls and the sort - we can never tell why they were pulled, for an account we own or for an account that someone else opened in Citi for us? Sounds scary! But logical. Is there a way to get alerts for any activity, and the account for which it was pulled - that would be GREAT!

Even now, all I get is a hard pull from say - BOA, but no correlation to the account it happened for