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Identity Stolen!
By Charlie
Today I received an e-mail from my credit monitoring service, informing me that someone had opened a Bank of America account using my Social Security Number. I called Bank of America and closed the account, and put a fraud alert on my accounts. Nonetheless, it creeps you out a little when your identity is hijacked. I'm just glad I caught it when I did, before it did any damage to my credit score.
Identity theft has been on the rise lately, and it is serious. I'm pretty sure i covered all of my bases here, but do any of the OPFOR readership have any advice on how to handle this/prevent it in th future? Id love to hear it.
PS. I recommend Experian, and I would advise Bank of America to streamline their fraud reporting services, I was on the phone for 45 minutes and transfered to 3 different departments to resolve my issue. Without Experian, I wouldn't have found out about this in the first place -so get a monitoring service ASAP!
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FYI, Bank of America is one bank that openly offers illegal aliens the opportunity to open accounts, obtain credit cards, cash their checks and they also will transfer funds free of charge back to Mexico. I believe the only stipulation is that their paycheck comes to BoA.
I use the three credit reporting units, it appears your on the right track. I would call all my credit card companies and alert them as well and any investments you might have like 401K's, IRA, etc.
God Speed and Good Luck
Al
New service out there - 'Check my SSN', about 5 USD IIRC. May be worth the few bucks to see where else your SSN has shown up.....
No hay espon-oil
Actually, you might be giving me advice. I had a similar frustrating BofA experience (if you care to, you can read about it here: http://fatekisminy.blogspot.com/2007/10/ive-been-violated.html). I haven't signed up for one of those credit monitoring thingies, but it seems worthwhile - that's if you can find someone to call BofA for you.
Ha! My BC and the XO had theirs hijacked last year. I guess putting your personal information on thousands of documents can be an issue.
I do most of the admin stuff in the troop, and after that happened I rekeyed the admin database to use AKO identities as a candidate key. Unfortunately, since anything going higher than Bn requires a full SSN, such as any ATRSS school, I still have to store that. Certain information like date of birth we can't do without... you can't grade a PT card without knowing how old someone is, for example, but there's no good reason why anyone but you and DFAS needs your SSN.
You might try this website. It provides general information on how to recover after an identiy theft.
http://www.yourcreditadvisor.com/blog/2007/03/your_identity_h.html
I use this outfit (through work):
http://wserver0.prepaidlegal.com/newCorp2/legal_plans/idt_shield.html
Fortunately I haven't needed them, but they did pick up on when we got a loan for a new truck.
B of A daught some fraud on my credit card about 10 days ago, including a donation to an "Islamic charity". They called me in the middle of the night, reviewed my legit charges and closed my account.
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My kids have cost me so much, I could tattoo my social security number on my forehead and not do more damage!