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Wednesday, August 04, 2010

DENNIS PATRICK: MY IDENTITY WAS STOLEN!

It will never happen to me. But it did. Identity theft is real, ongoing and knows no bounds.

A thief, or thieves, stole my name, social security number and birth date.

Here is a timeline of my discovery. On June 8 I received a telephone call “Hello. This is not a solicitation. This is the fraud department from Bank of America calling about the checking account you requested June 7.”

Really? I didn’t open a checking account with any bank.

Observing preliminaries, the caller immediately terminated the new account process then explained that I may have been a victim of identity theft. “May” is putting it lightly.

Before the call ended the B of A Fraud Department rep assisted me in contacting and establishing a 90-day free fraud alert with all three major credit bureaus. Consequently, any business contacting any of the credit bureaus seeking a credit rating with my information would be alerted to the fact of my stolen identity. They could halt any fraud attempt. The bureaus would then alert me to the perpetrated fraud. This would apply to any requests for new accounts, credit cards or changes to my personal information.

On July 17 I received a call from AT&T Credit Verification Department inquiring about a wireless account I was seeking to open.

Really? I wasn’t seeking to open a wireless account with anyone. In fact, AT&T doesn’t even serve North Dakota at this time. “Of course,” said the AT&T rep, “this account was for an address in Pompano Beach, Florida.” I told the rep I have no friends, relatives or property in Pompano Beach, Florida. Never been there. I was informed that an account had been opened for that Florida address on May 26 and there was a $194 bill for June. The rep helped me close that account and deny the opening of the second account. I was then transferred to the AT&T Fraud Department where I eventually sent my ID theft affidavit.

I immediately contacted the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office and filed a report of the two AT&T incidents. I then opened a paid credit check monitoring service with Equifax, Experian and Transunion, the three credit bureaus, through my insurance company.

Later, while scanning my Experian credit report, I noted the Pompano Beach address associated with my name. Ah, ha! I’ll ask Experian to expunge that address to clean up my credit report.

When I contacted Experian, I was told they could not remove the address because an active CitiBank credit card account had been opened with that Florida address.

What! I should have been alerted. No, sir. The card was applied for on June 8, the same day Bank of America contacted me. The fraud alert had not yet gone into effect on that date.

I contacted the police on July 27 and filed a report before contacting CitiBank. When I did contact CitiBank I was told the account would be investigated and closed. Moreover, a $6500 check had been requested against the $7000 line of credit using my information and the Florida address.

Four fraud attempts were made in 8 weeks using my stolen identity. Two were successful, and were squelched. My next step is to freeze my credit reports with the three credit bureaus. Businesses seeking credit checks for new accounts using my information will be denied access until I lift the freeze. That should stop further attempts. But my information is still “out there.”

As with 56% of victims, I have no knowledge how my information was stolen. I’m confident it was not carelessness. I can narrow it down, but will probably never know precisely. Fortunately, I found out within weeks. Some people don’t find out for years.

Here are ways anyone can minimize the risk of identity theft:

Open an account with the three credit bureaus. An attorney, insurance agent, police or Attorney General’s office may offer advice.

Order your credit report. Insure it’s accurate and includes only activities you’ve authorized.

Use passwords on credit card, bank and phone accounts. Passwords using number sequences, birth dates, mother’s maiden name, last 4 digits of your SSN or phone number are no longer secure.

Secure personal information in your home, especially if you host roommates or strangers.

In the workplace, determine who has access to your personal information and verify security.

Don’t give personal information over the phone or internet.

Give your SSN only when necessary. Don’t carry your SSN card or Medicare card.

Guard you mail and trash from identity thieves.

Pay attention to billing cycles and ensure purchases are legitimate.

If you do become a victim of identity theft, notify the police immediately for help.

 

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at P. O. Box 337, Stanley, ND 58784 or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Click here to email your elected representatives.

Comments

Avatar for bob

such great card

bob on September 26, 2010 at 12:09 am
Avatar for Denver DUI Lawyer

This is an extremely helpful posting. I used to work for a company that had access to people’s credit reports and it astonished me how many people had odd activity on their credit. For example, concurrent addresses on opposite coasts, and credit cards opened for deceased people after they had died. It scared me enough to check my credit regularly.

It is horrible that you had to go through this, but wonderful that you took the time to post this to help others. Thank you!

Denver DUI Lawyer on October 4, 2010 at 10:52 pm
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