Over the last several years identity theft has soared, which is probably no revelation to most people however few do anything about it or know what to do. Therefore I wanted to describe to you what happened to a close friend of mine over the past week, so you can take the appropriate countermeasures to safeguard your personal data.
On Friday my friend Larry called me up and said "Suss, you won't believe what just happened to me."
"Oh whats that Lawrence?", I said.
Well Suss, I just received an alert from one of the credit agencies I signed up with saying I had a hard inquiry from Verizon. The only problem is that wasn't me. Some piece of dick is trying to open up an account with my information. What should I do? This inquiry could also adversely impact my credit score.
"First off Lawrence don't panic. At least you caught it early. Which is more than I can say for others
who have become victims. Call Verizon who placed the inquiry to place a stop on the account and
call the credit agency you signed up with so you can file a dispute."
That Friday Larry immediately called Verizon's fraud department who placed a stop on the account. It appeared they only tried to open one account. The second thing he did was to call one of the three
major credit agencies to file a dispute. This is when he became aware for the first time that you can
place a fraud alert on your file for 90 days and if you obtain a police report you can add the alert for up to seven years. By placing this alert with one of the major credit agencies it would be communicated to the other two as well.
He was relieved for the time being but to say this was the end of it would be an understatement. The very next day I picked up the phone.
"Suss, Its Larry again. F me. These degenerates must have my social security number and who knows what else because I just got another alert that someone was trying to open up an account with AT&T mobile."
"Larry calm down" I said.
"How can I calm down Suss, I may have stopped this but another hard inquiry is problematic, don't you think? On top of that I thought placing this fraud alert would stop these clowns. I could only imagine what the consequences would be if I didn't catch this right away. That being time which I don't have and some serious money."
Larry again decided to look at the glass being half full as opposed to empty. He called AT&T who informed him that several applications had been filled out with his personal information but only one account was opened. The representative placed a freeze on the opened account and cancelled the applications in process. Baffled he asked the AT&T rep why the fraud alert was not initiated as they were suppose to call him on his cell phone first in order for any account to be opened in his name. He had then come to realize that the applications were initiated a few days prior to him placing the alert on his file and that the fraud alert did not come into affect until the day after. AT&T was quite helpful and said they would take care of everything on their end. Larry once again called the credit agency to dispute the inquiry with the agent and in the process found out you could place what they termed a credit freeze. According to TransUnion "a credit freeze is placing a freeze on your credit report that prevents lenders and others from accessing your TransUnion Credit Report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit. With a Security Freeze in place, even you will need to take special steps when you wish to apply for any type of credit.
Because of more stringent security features, you will need to place a Security Freeze separately with each of the three major credit reporting companies if you want the freeze on all of your credit files. A Security Freeze remains on your credit file until you remove it or choose to lift it temporarily when applying for credit or credit-dependent services."
Larry thought this would be too inconvenient therefore he decided to open an account with a large security monitoring organization. For several hundred a year he believed it was well worth it. He signed up to receive alerts as this organization monitored any activity which would not necessarily come up through one of the major credit agencies. Lo and behold that day he became a customer, he received an immediate alert that stated the organization detected some of his personal information on black market websites. This obviously meant some entity was trying to sell or buy elements of his personal information such as social security number, address, phone number etc..However fortunately for him they were able to get it removed. My guess is they sent a legal notification to the hosting service but who knows if another site would resurface with his personal information once again.
Finally Larry decided to opt out of all credit offers by getting information from the following link...http://www.experian.com/credit-education/opting-out.html .
Although it has only been one week Larry has yet to receive any alert from the credit agency nor the security monitoring organization. I tell you this story because I'm hearing from a number of family, friends and associates similar scenarios. So please do yourself a favor, don't be lazy and take action before you have a real headache on your hands and that's stating it mildly. As another suggestion just as Larry did, keep a call log of all those companies you called and spoke with if you have been compromised.
For those out there trying to exploit others for monetary or even personal gain. It is not a question of if you will be caught but when!. Remember despite VPN's, Tor and other services whitehats can also exploit blackhats as these services are also not immune.
On Friday my friend Larry called me up and said "Suss, you won't believe what just happened to me."
"Oh whats that Lawrence?", I said.
Well Suss, I just received an alert from one of the credit agencies I signed up with saying I had a hard inquiry from Verizon. The only problem is that wasn't me. Some piece of dick is trying to open up an account with my information. What should I do? This inquiry could also adversely impact my credit score.
"First off Lawrence don't panic. At least you caught it early. Which is more than I can say for others
who have become victims. Call Verizon who placed the inquiry to place a stop on the account and
call the credit agency you signed up with so you can file a dispute."
That Friday Larry immediately called Verizon's fraud department who placed a stop on the account. It appeared they only tried to open one account. The second thing he did was to call one of the three
major credit agencies to file a dispute. This is when he became aware for the first time that you can
place a fraud alert on your file for 90 days and if you obtain a police report you can add the alert for up to seven years. By placing this alert with one of the major credit agencies it would be communicated to the other two as well.
He was relieved for the time being but to say this was the end of it would be an understatement. The very next day I picked up the phone.
"Suss, Its Larry again. F me. These degenerates must have my social security number and who knows what else because I just got another alert that someone was trying to open up an account with AT&T mobile."
"Larry calm down" I said.
"How can I calm down Suss, I may have stopped this but another hard inquiry is problematic, don't you think? On top of that I thought placing this fraud alert would stop these clowns. I could only imagine what the consequences would be if I didn't catch this right away. That being time which I don't have and some serious money."
Larry again decided to look at the glass being half full as opposed to empty. He called AT&T who informed him that several applications had been filled out with his personal information but only one account was opened. The representative placed a freeze on the opened account and cancelled the applications in process. Baffled he asked the AT&T rep why the fraud alert was not initiated as they were suppose to call him on his cell phone first in order for any account to be opened in his name. He had then come to realize that the applications were initiated a few days prior to him placing the alert on his file and that the fraud alert did not come into affect until the day after. AT&T was quite helpful and said they would take care of everything on their end. Larry once again called the credit agency to dispute the inquiry with the agent and in the process found out you could place what they termed a credit freeze. According to TransUnion "a credit freeze is placing a freeze on your credit report that prevents lenders and others from accessing your TransUnion Credit Report entirely, which will prevent them from extending credit. With a Security Freeze in place, even you will need to take special steps when you wish to apply for any type of credit.
Because of more stringent security features, you will need to place a Security Freeze separately with each of the three major credit reporting companies if you want the freeze on all of your credit files. A Security Freeze remains on your credit file until you remove it or choose to lift it temporarily when applying for credit or credit-dependent services."
Larry thought this would be too inconvenient therefore he decided to open an account with a large security monitoring organization. For several hundred a year he believed it was well worth it. He signed up to receive alerts as this organization monitored any activity which would not necessarily come up through one of the major credit agencies. Lo and behold that day he became a customer, he received an immediate alert that stated the organization detected some of his personal information on black market websites. This obviously meant some entity was trying to sell or buy elements of his personal information such as social security number, address, phone number etc..However fortunately for him they were able to get it removed. My guess is they sent a legal notification to the hosting service but who knows if another site would resurface with his personal information once again.
Finally Larry decided to opt out of all credit offers by getting information from the following link...http://www.experian.com/credit-education/opting-out.html .
Although it has only been one week Larry has yet to receive any alert from the credit agency nor the security monitoring organization. I tell you this story because I'm hearing from a number of family, friends and associates similar scenarios. So please do yourself a favor, don't be lazy and take action before you have a real headache on your hands and that's stating it mildly. As another suggestion just as Larry did, keep a call log of all those companies you called and spoke with if you have been compromised.
For those out there trying to exploit others for monetary or even personal gain. It is not a question of if you will be caught but when!. Remember despite VPN's, Tor and other services whitehats can also exploit blackhats as these services are also not immune.