Hi, Guest
10-07-2005, 09:12 AM
Yup, my wife got it pretty good. The worst part about the whole thing was how the crediting companies handled it, and the cops didn't give a s**t.
Long story short:
We check our credit card statement online almost daily. Saw a strange charge for $600 to the Colorado Sun or something like that. Newspaper. WTF?
Cancel the card.
Few weeks later, we get a bill from Telus for $1000 of cell phone charges, on a phone we don't have. Call, tell them to cancel it, it's not us, identity theft, etc.
Next day, get another bill for over $1000 for another phone. Call Telus again, tell them it's identity theft, they say they'll cancel it, etc.
We look at the phone logs, and one of the phones is calling random places all over New York. We figure it's a drug dealer, and this is his phone. Somebody used Tina's identity to buy a phone, then sold it to a drug dealer to use.
The second phone bill, there are some numbers all over the US, never twice. And a TON of phone calls to this one 1-800 number. WTF? Call the 1-800 number, and it's for "Canada By Tel" or something like that. Basically it's a company that will set you up with a 800 number, a voicemail box, and even forward your calls to any phone number you want. This company is on the up and up I think, but you can imagine how this could be abused. Say, if you were running an illegal company... you could have them take your messages, and access them by stollen cellphones. If the phone gets cut off every month, no big deal, your "customers" can still call you, and you can forward it to your new illegal phone.
We started calling some of the other numbers around the US. They are all for newspapers all over. WTF?
We call the Colorado Star, and ask them what was purchased with the $600 charge on our card. They say it was a big ad, and fax it to us.
The ad reads: "Credit Problems? In debt? Call us for free credit counselling."
You can imagine if somebody was going to help you with your credit, they'd ask you for your name, number, and Social Security number, all the things they'd need to steal your identity.
We searched the internet for that phone number, and turn up tons of identical ads in newspapers in both countries.
It's a ring. Somebody got Tina's identity, bought a couple phones, sold one, used the other to set up this fake credit counseling company to harvest other identities.
We call the police, and tell them everything that is happening. Give them the entire file, and tell them to shut down that 1-800 number before they steal other ID's.
A month later, we get another bill from Telus, they didn't turn one of the phones off. We call them again, and they say they turned it off, but somebody called and complained so they turned it on again! A month later, we get another bill, and a threatening letter saying if we don't pay our bills, they'll take action against our credit rating. We call and tell them to stop harrassing us or we'll sue. That stopped that.
But the incompetence is STAGGERING.
We also called the credit bureau, and told them to flag Tina's account as having fraudulent activity, and not to grant any new credit without calling our house to confirm with us.
A few months after that, we bought a damned CAR! and nobody asked or said anything!
3 months after the report, we get a call from a cop. He's following up on the case. He was on vacation when we filed it, so it sat on a pile on his desk, and it took him that long to get to our file. It didnt' sound like he really gave a s**t, and AFAIK, never did anything.
The system is SO broken.
A few months ago, I lost my bank card in Mexico. (yeah, I know) When I got home, I went to the bank to get a new one. Told the lady I lost my card and need a new one. She asks for my bank account number, I say I don't know it, but it's tied to <this> credit card I have with the bank. She scans that, gets my account number, gives me a new bank card, and I set a PIN. Now I have full access to my account.
But I ask her "How come you never asked for my ID or anything?" "Oh, you have an honest face." I told her that's rediculous. I could have found a wallet, seen a bank-credit card, and gone in and got a new bank card with PIN for the wallet I found and raided the account.
She really didn't seem to care.
:ph34r:
Long story short:
We check our credit card statement online almost daily. Saw a strange charge for $600 to the Colorado Sun or something like that. Newspaper. WTF?
Cancel the card.
Few weeks later, we get a bill from Telus for $1000 of cell phone charges, on a phone we don't have. Call, tell them to cancel it, it's not us, identity theft, etc.
Next day, get another bill for over $1000 for another phone. Call Telus again, tell them it's identity theft, they say they'll cancel it, etc.
We look at the phone logs, and one of the phones is calling random places all over New York. We figure it's a drug dealer, and this is his phone. Somebody used Tina's identity to buy a phone, then sold it to a drug dealer to use.
The second phone bill, there are some numbers all over the US, never twice. And a TON of phone calls to this one 1-800 number. WTF? Call the 1-800 number, and it's for "Canada By Tel" or something like that. Basically it's a company that will set you up with a 800 number, a voicemail box, and even forward your calls to any phone number you want. This company is on the up and up I think, but you can imagine how this could be abused. Say, if you were running an illegal company... you could have them take your messages, and access them by stollen cellphones. If the phone gets cut off every month, no big deal, your "customers" can still call you, and you can forward it to your new illegal phone.
We started calling some of the other numbers around the US. They are all for newspapers all over. WTF?
We call the Colorado Star, and ask them what was purchased with the $600 charge on our card. They say it was a big ad, and fax it to us.
The ad reads: "Credit Problems? In debt? Call us for free credit counselling."
You can imagine if somebody was going to help you with your credit, they'd ask you for your name, number, and Social Security number, all the things they'd need to steal your identity.
We searched the internet for that phone number, and turn up tons of identical ads in newspapers in both countries.
It's a ring. Somebody got Tina's identity, bought a couple phones, sold one, used the other to set up this fake credit counseling company to harvest other identities.
We call the police, and tell them everything that is happening. Give them the entire file, and tell them to shut down that 1-800 number before they steal other ID's.
A month later, we get another bill from Telus, they didn't turn one of the phones off. We call them again, and they say they turned it off, but somebody called and complained so they turned it on again! A month later, we get another bill, and a threatening letter saying if we don't pay our bills, they'll take action against our credit rating. We call and tell them to stop harrassing us or we'll sue. That stopped that.
But the incompetence is STAGGERING.
We also called the credit bureau, and told them to flag Tina's account as having fraudulent activity, and not to grant any new credit without calling our house to confirm with us.
A few months after that, we bought a damned CAR! and nobody asked or said anything!
3 months after the report, we get a call from a cop. He's following up on the case. He was on vacation when we filed it, so it sat on a pile on his desk, and it took him that long to get to our file. It didnt' sound like he really gave a s**t, and AFAIK, never did anything.
The system is SO broken.
A few months ago, I lost my bank card in Mexico. (yeah, I know) When I got home, I went to the bank to get a new one. Told the lady I lost my card and need a new one. She asks for my bank account number, I say I don't know it, but it's tied to <this> credit card I have with the bank. She scans that, gets my account number, gives me a new bank card, and I set a PIN. Now I have full access to my account.
But I ask her "How come you never asked for my ID or anything?" "Oh, you have an honest face." I told her that's rediculous. I could have found a wallet, seen a bank-credit card, and gone in and got a new bank card with PIN for the wallet I found and raided the account.
She really didn't seem to care.
:ph34r: