[Novalug] Totally OT: Identify Theft

Jay Hart jhart@kevla.org
Sun Jul 13 13:49:00 EDT 2008


> My first question is how did you find out that your identity was stolen? 
> Typically, it is when you check your credit scores or online billing.
>
> In my case, after a diinner at Don Pablo's in Alexandria, some expenses showed
> up the next day.  The charges were at Bed Bath and Beyond (store location is
> in some remote area of Virginia) and at a Hess gas station in NY.  Luckily, I
> saw the expense the next day online and alerted my bank.  With gas prices
> going up this seems to be another reason for  stealing identities.
>

I would have immediately returned to Don Pablo's and called the police via
311. Get an officer to respond and tell them your compliant, More then likely
you HANDED the waiter your card, and he swipped it (scaned it, and made a
dup). Do this quick enough, maybe you catch the guy in the act.

I am guilty of this as well, handing the card to the waiter, and they leave
with it.  I did it just the other day at Outback Steakhouse.  To get around
this, go with  the waiter when it time to ring up your bill, and watch him
swip your card through the machine.

I heard of one story sometime back where someone has setup a scanner at a
register and would swip your card through their scanner, then say that didn't
work so they were going to use the second scanner because it worked better.
This basically resulted in them getting a scan of your card, and they did it
right in front of the unsuspecting customers.

Jay

> Anyway, one of my colleagues mentioned the following services which will alert
> you about attempts to rob your identity.
>
> http://www.lifelock.com/
> http://www.loudsiren.com/
>
> I believe you can do the same services for free thru the 3 credit scoring
> companies.  Research a little bit on that.
>
> I am still interested on how you found out that your identity was stolen. 
> What was the time lapse between the first expense at Best Buy and you finding
> out about these expenses?
>
> Like Greg said, don't go with an attitude towards the financial institutions.
>
> Good luck!  Keep us posted on how you resolved this issue.
>
> Subbarao
>
> GPG public key ID - 5D5F91F8
>
> Key Fingerprint - ABA2 6057 ABF3 6D56 8F5F 80FE 5214 B661 5D5F 91F8
>
> --- On Fri, 7/11/08, Jay Hart <jhart@kevla.org> wrote:
> From: Jay Hart <jhart@kevla.org>
> Subject: [Novalug] Totally OT: Identify Theft
> To: ma-linux@calypso.tux.org, novalug@calypso.tux.org
> Date: Friday, July 11, 2008, 11:57 PM
>
> I was made aware this evening that I have been a victim of identity theft.
> Someone(s) opened an account at Best Buy using all my identification,
> including my SSN, and rang up $15,000 worth of stuff.  Basically walked in,
> opened account, bought $15K of stuff, loaded it up, and off they went.
>
> I found out about it when the account information arrived at my house, along
> with the new Best Buy Store credit account card. I received two separate items
> in the mail, had they not arrived same day, I might have shredded both.
>
> I've called the credit reporting agencies, the FTC, my bank, and a Maryland
> Private Investigator.  Tomorrow I plan to take a little trip to the store to
> see what I can learn, maybe get the PI to help me out.
>
> If you have been the victim of identity theft, what other stuff should I know,
> and what kinds of problems did you encounter that would be good stuff to know?
>
> I'm hoping the store is going to want to work with me since they are out
> $15K
> of stuff.  The FTC uses your data to search for patterns, so I figure they
> will not be of much help to me.  Equifax will help me out, by putting blocks
> on my account, but most of their services will cost me money.  My best shot is
> either video footage at the store, and/or fingerprints on the credit
> application.
>
> Jay Hart
>
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