Identity Theft

"Arrivederci" (arrividerci) 04/10/2019 at 09:22 • Filed to: None

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Think I might be a victim of identity theft. Fucking awesome.

Apparently someone tried to use my name to open a phone payment plan at Walmart for an ATT device and a Verizon device. Honestly not sure how my information got out there as I’m pretty careful with it. Received these weird letters from Walmart saying my application was not approved based on past performance? Makes me think they didn’t have my SSN as my credit is (or was maybe now ) extremely good.

I’ve contacted the credit bureaus and placed a fraud alert and am working with Walmart’s fraud team to see what might’ve happened. They confirmed the letters are legit, as I was initially thinking phish.

For those who have gone through this what else do I need to do?

Chariotoflove > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:30

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Usually when I find out there is a charge that is not me on my card, I call and cancel the card. That’s about it. Visa takes care of it from there. 

Arrivederci > Chariotoflove 04/10/2019 at 09:31

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Unfortunately this isn’t that - my accounts and cards are fine, at least for now.

GLiddy > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:34

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You’ve done a fraud alert. Good. Put a credit freeze on all your credit bureaus. That way your credit can’t be used unless you unlock it each time you apply for a new credit line.

File a police report too. You’ll need this for documentation. If and when collection agencies start hounding you for payment on credit lines you did not open, you’ll need to give them an agency and report number just to validate your contention that you are not the one that opened these.

I had a similar issue when my mother died. The scum at the funeral home actually stole her info from the death certificate and started opening credit cards in her name before she was even buried. (It was one employee.)

G o o d L u c k .

Ash78, voting early and often > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:36

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That’s about all you can do. Identity theft protection/investigation is pretty amazing now. When mine was “gently” stolen about 15 years ago, all that really happened was I had to make a bunch of phone calls, but then I got collection calls for the next 3-5 years and had to threaten the collector with the FTC because they wouldn’t accept my word (or a letter) that I was not responsible. I don’t think that’s legal anymore.

Chariotoflove > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:36

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They just used your name but didn’t steal a form of payment? So they were trying to open. A credit line?  That’s beyond what I’ve had to deal with. 

TheRealBicycleBuck > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:41

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You’ve done the right thing. Now you’ll need to keep an eagle-eye on your accounts. No doubt they will try to gain access to existing accounts or will try to open new accounts in your name. 

random001 > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:41

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Call this guy..

Arrivederci > GLiddy 04/10/2019 at 09:42

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Thanks for the advice - I was contemplating a freeze, but at this point Walmart hasn’t told me what all is needed to try and open a phone payment plan. If my SSN is required, I’ll 100% place the freeze. Honestly, not planning on buying anything big anytime soon, so maybe I’ll do the freeze regardless.

Once I get everything from Walmart, I’ll go forward with the police report and file with the FTC as well.

Sorry you had to deal with that after losing your mom :(.

Chariotoflove > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:42

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I did have problems when i refinanced my house. The background check found a person with my wife’s name in Livonia who they thought was my wife but had bad credit. We had to get a certified affidavit that said person was not her. Basically we had to prove their mistake was a mistake.

I’ve also had collections people calling my house thinking I was a scofflaw with the same name. But no one has ever tried to use my identity to open credit. 

Arrivederci > Chariotoflove 04/10/2019 at 09:43

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I guess that’s what a phone payment plan would fall under.  I’m curious as to why Walmart would deny it, honestly.  Glad they did, but I just pulled a report and didn’t see anything strange on there.  My utilization is only at 7%.

Arrivederci > Ash78, voting early and often 04/10/2019 at 09:44

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Did you complete the FTC report and police reports?

Arrivederci > random001 04/10/2019 at 09:46

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If only I was him right now.

Ash78, voting early and often > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 09:49

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The police were like “What’s identity theft?” (2003)

Plus this happened across two different towns and nobody knew who should have jurisdiction.

The bureaus really did all the work, the FTC only came into play after I was harassed.

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 10:01

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“ Equifax thanks you for your business and also fuck you, you can’t sue us because we bought the politicians and the courts. .”

smobgirl > Chariotoflove 04/10/2019 at 10:03

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I had someone once steal my name and insurance info to try and make claims as me. This might’ve been circa 2008, the claims were getting denied because we had already switched insurance at work (but also it was a male using a geriatric clinic several states away, so...come on). 

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 10:53

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Like GL iddy said, consider the credit freeze. I’ve had mine stolen several times, and it took extended fraud alerts and credit freezes to finally get a handle on it. Keep an eye on what the credit bureaus do long- term. I had problems with them initially removing fraudulent credit lines for investigation when I raised the issue, and then quietly putting them back on a few months later. Generally, it took my sending essentially legal demand letters citing all the relevant federal statues and FEC rules threatening legal action via certified letter before I got the credit bureaus to do exactly what they were supposed to do.

You’ll need the police report. Not that your local department is going to invest anything in investigating it, but that report is the golden ticket for making everything else happen.

On some level, I’m a bit disappointed that no one ever did anything cool with my identity , like buying a 15 year-old Maserati from a buy here/pay here place. Instead, they tried to open some bank accounts in Missouri, ran up a direct TV bill in California, took out a payday loan in Utah (and paid it back, which just seems like doing it wrong when it comes to identity theft), and took out unemployment benefits in my name here in NM.

That last one was actually the biggest deal, because I only learned of that one when I got contacted (as a suspect) in a really cryptic manner through the universities HR folks by a criminal investigator from that state department because they eventually noticed they were paying out unemployment benefits to someone who also happens to be a current state employee. It took lots of paperwork and some sworn affidavits to fix. Then after all that, they forgot to tell their collection folks that it was a fraud situation, so they actually placed a lien against me in the county the benefits were fraudulently obtained in. That took a whole additional round of records, paperwork, police reports and a letter from the department cabinet secretary to fix with the department and the county clerks office where the lien was filed, and then a whole another rounds of demand letters to the credit bureaus to get them to stop reporting a fraudulent lien as a derogatory public record that no longer existed. Part of me thinks that if there ever was a situation where I needed to take out unemployment benefits in the future , it might be an interesting process to do so in this state.

Chariotoflove > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 11:14

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It must be like you said, some piece of required info missing. 

Chariotoflove > smobgirl 04/10/2019 at 11:15

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Ugh. Why would an old guy think he could pull off “smobgirl” convincingly?

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > Ash78, voting early and often 04/10/2019 at 11:34

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Man, you could have funded a nice project car with a quick lawsuit against the collection agency.

Arrivederci > Ash78, voting early and often 04/10/2019 at 11:41

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Cool - thanks for the info!

Arrivederci > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 04/10/2019 at 11:47

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Oh geez - that all sounds horrible.  I’m sitting here wondering what else they might’ve done aside from trying to get a payment plan on a stupid phone.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 15:17

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Beyond the three big credit bureaus, it might be worthwhile to eventually check some of the other consumer reporting agencies like getting a clue report (insurance claims consumer reporting) from Lexis-Nexus and chex systems. Those can pickup activity like an attempt to open deposit accounts or open utility accounts that might not ever get picked up by the big three.

The state investigator contact was wild. The guy called up the university HR folks and started asking all kinds of questions about me without giving much detail about who he was or what he doing. The HR lady told me she had never had such an inquiry before and it raised her suspicions that it was some kind of a scam. She shut the guy down and told him nothing beyond public directory information about me and told him to come back with a warrant or court order to get anything else, but she did agree to pass on his contact information to me. It was only then that I figured out what was going on.

Arrivederci > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 04/10/2019 at 15:34

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I went ahead and got the freezes placed as well. Called up ATT and Verizon and both said that they had no record of my SSN in their systems, so I’m wondering if this person used my name and address and maybe a fictitious SSN or something.

I’ve got another email in with Walmart for more info. I’m planning on getting the police report filed tomorrow as I’ll need that for my affidavit to get the transactional data from Walmar t

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Arrivederci 04/10/2019 at 15:56

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The freezes are a good idea. The only downside is that they will require advance planning on your part when you want to open an account. Also, even when unf rozen, the fraud alerts trigger requirements for prospective creditors to perform additional verification of your information (often sending them a copy of an ID or proof of address).  That means that "instant" credit approval will never happen.  The application will get flagged and forwarded to their fraud folks for your verification before a credit decision will be made.