Great, like I needed *this* first thing in the morning

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

I’m opening the mail and what do I find? Two Visa credit cards, one for myself and one for Kathleen, from a bank in South Dakota. Not applications, mind you, but actual, active credit cards (for which they’re already trying to charge me an application fee of $198.)

So I call the place and they tell me that I applied for it via (wait for it) the internet. Which I didn’t. And they believe me (although the guy asks me five times, apparently thinking I don’t understand the question the first four times he asks me), so I’m not being charged for anything. But what’s unbelievably alarming is that whoever applied for it did so with 100% accurate personal information, right down to my mother’s maiden name.

So they tell me I should start calling the credit bureaus to inform them to put a “hawk watch” on my credit information. And I try to do this and am promptly stonewalled by phone menus or on-line menus, all of which boil down to the same thing: We won’t do anything until you order a copy of your credit report, for which we will charge you, and *then* we will give you a phone number where you can talk to someone who may be of help.

It’s not like it’s huge amounts of money for ordering the dámņëd thing, but on principle alone, it feels like extortion.

Anyone know any practical way to inform the credit bureaus without being forced to buy crap from them?

PAD

48 comments on “Great, like I needed *this* first thing in the morning”

  3. I’d second Brad’s idea — go through your bank.

    We got word six months or so ago that a credit union we use had been broken into and some personal information taken — we probably weren’t at risk, but as a precaution the credit union was giving everyone free reports and telling all the agencies to keep an eye out for our stuff.

    That’d be my first step, anyway — if that doesn’t work, I think you can probably talk to one of the credit-report people and order one report. (You shouldn’t have to do all three, as I believe with a report like this any one will notify the others.)

    Good luck!

    TWL

  5. Peter;

    Rather than call the reporting agencies, WRITE THEM! The law requires that they read and respond to all correspondence. Be as detailed as possible in your letter. They should act on it right away.

    Hugh (The voice of unfortunate experience)

  6. I work in a bank. These are the 800 numbers for the major credit bureaus in the U.S.:

    Experian (TRW): 800-301-7195
    Equifax: 800-525-6285
    Transunion: 800-680-7289

    When reporting credit fraud, ask for a free copy of your credit report. You will need to put a consumer statement on each bureu’s report for you and Kathleen saying that any credit application should be checked with you two first.

  7. Chris is correct, and you will have to go through alot of options when calling those numbers, and you may just get an address to write to. If that is the case, simply put on the letter that you may be a victim of identity theft and that you need to dispute a recent credit check, because you do know that at least one bank has checked your credit and even though they have verbally told you that everything is taken care of, it is best to get something in writing from the credit bureaus to acknowledge that it is taken care of.

    But is very important that you notify all three credit bureaus because others are incorrect in stating that one will notify the others, they are competitors and don’t trade info.

    Most reputable finance companies will use at least two of the credit bureaus when checking your credit(usually Equifax and Trans-Union, Experian(TRW) is usually the least reliable of the three) but most people that participate in Identity theft are not going to use reputable finance companies.

  9. I just wanted to personally thank Scott, Brad, Tim, Hugh, and Chris for the information. I’m printing all of this out and placing it in the Important Docs file just in the likely event it will be needed.

    The Internet has spawned all kinds of grief but it has also given us a community that can help deal with it. Thanks again, guys.

    And PAD, I hope it works out. This is probably one reason why more pros are reluctant to do the kind of thing you’re doing and who could blame them?

  10. Going through the bank will not only be helpful, but very important as well. After all, it’s not just credit that identity thieves are after, if they can find out your bank balances your savings and checking accounts could be in danger as well.

    If you’d like to trace where this started: Try to remember if you lost any recent credit card bills, lost your wallet recently, or tossed out any receipts. And are you a GMAC customer? They recently had someone break in and steal customer information.

  11. Hi Peter and everyone,

    Here’s the link Tim was talking about; this is how we dealt with it after our credit union notified us about the theft.

    https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/25_FCRegistration.jsp

    If you sign up here, you’ll get copies of your credit reports from all three companies for free (Experian notifies the other two) and a 90-day fraud watch put on your account. (This may make it more difficult for you to open new accounts and stuff yourself, since you’ll have to take extra steps to prove you’re you, but it’s probably worth it.) You can ignore the “sign up for a free report” banner at the top… I think it’s just one last attempt to get you to go that route instead of the free one you’re entitled to if you’re a victim of fraud.

    Hope this helps!

    Lisa

  13. I’m sure you are aware of this, but my companies computer consultant was just yesterday telling me about invasive “spyware” that records your keystrokes and can transmit them to others while you are online. I guess that could include mother’s maiden name, account numbers, etc., anything you type while ordering books from Amazon or paying bills online. I don’t know how (or even if) this really happens, but it is a frightening thought, for everyone.

  14. Peter,

    I just had a thought after reading Kathleen’s weblog. You guys just got back her computer after sending it to be worked on. Is there any chance that the various pieces of personal information used to apply these credit cards could have been easily harvested from it? I know that there’s a variety of things on mine that coudl be used to mess with my existing credit card accounts with about two minutes of organized searching. I think I’m going to move that stuff tonight…

  15. You might have to look for the info, but I thought I read at one point that some states, by law, allow you to get X number of copies per year of your credit report for free.

    I was looking at this stuff once and I recall Colorado (where I am) being one of the states, but I couldn’t tell you of any others.

    It’s worth for everybody though.

  16. I wonder:

    Is the company planning on doing any checking of their own, PAD?
    To check which website the app was done from, ip address, etc.

  17. Peter,

    I just had a thought after reading Kathleen’s weblog. You guys just got back her computer after sending it to be worked on. Is there any chance that the various pieces of personal information used to apply these credit cards could have been easily harvested from it? I know that there’s a variety of things on mine that coudl be used to mess with my existing credit card accounts with about two minutes of organized searching. I think I’m going to move that stuff tonight…

  18. my companies computer consultant was just yesterday telling me about invasive “spyware” that records your keystrokes and can transmit them to others while you are online.

    That’s why my home system is running Ad-Aware v6.0, while the computer at work has Spybot – Search and Destroy…

  19. Great, like I needed *this* first thing in the morning.

    What I want to know is, how the hëll do you get mail first thing in the morning? I’m lucky if my mail carrier gets to my house by 2PM.

  20. Just a quick note- it’s a pain to buy your credit report from these companies, but it’s relatively inexpensive. And if someone has commited fraud in your name, it might be worth going through your reports to catch that stuff ahead of time.

    It is a legitimate pain in the ášš, but it is worth your time to do this now. Good luck, PAD.

  21. (To Alex.) The postman has to start *somewhere*… it’s not like he just sits around the office until 2pm then starts delivering mail to your neighborhood. He’s been out delivering to various other neighborhoods all morning. So your house is later along his route than the people who get their mail at 10am, for example.

    davidh

  22. I work for one of those ‘evil’ credit bureaus. Unfortunately I’m far down in the trenches – if I was in Peter’s position, I’d have to go through the same steps he will to resolve this.

    I think as a victim of fraud you are entitled to a free report – be sure to listen to all the options in the voice menus. I’m not 100% sure, tho, because I live in one of the states that entitles you to a free copy anyway.

    The bureaus, although competitors, do share some information under law, such as “opt out.” I would start with whichever bureau the bank used to approve you for the credit card as that’s where the trail will start. They want you to have a copy of your credit file before you talk to someone so that they can go through item by item and determine what items you are disputing as a result of the fraud.

    It’s a scary world we live in. There was an article in the newspaper recently about how easily people can get information about people online through background checks that used to take a lot longer to obtain. Imagine the cost return – let’s say one of those checks cost even as much as $100 – you then apply for a fraudulent credit card and rack up maybe $1000 in charges before the gig is up… But the perpetrator is off to mess up someone else’s life. I got hit twice in the past where someone managed to get my credit card numbers. One of those times was a debit card – which is why now I won’t use a debit card anywhere that it leaves my hands (I think the card number was stolen at a restaurant).

    But I digress… Good luck PAD!

  23. Side but related note:

    In the event you DO need to apply for large credit in the near future (car, etc), make sure the loan agency in question is aware of possible fraud so that they look at the reports instead of relying on your credit score, which may show a higher open credit total.

  24. Just wanted to add that it may be worth spending the $40/year or whatever to subscribe to a credit monitoring service. I signed up with freecreditreport.com myself, after trying their free 30-day service, and now I get a monthly email telling me if there’s any funny business going on with my credit. I also get quarterly credit reports, and can go online to check my status at any time.

    I don’t work for these guys and am not out to pimp them, but given the whole hassle of identity theft and credit stealing these days, seems to me it’s worth the minor expense.

  26. Howdy,

    The FTC’s identity theft page is at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ . Quoting from their “Get your credit report” text:

    “Each credit bureau may charge you up to $9.00 for a copy of your report. However, you are entitled to one free report a year if you can show that: your report is inaccurate because of fraud; you’re on welfare; or you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days.”

    Seeing as I only had letters from credit card companies asking for confirmation before they issued cards and still got my reports for free, I’d say actually RECEIVING credit cards means you qualify for a freebie.

    It’s also worth noting that the 90-day hawk watch can be extended to 10 years at your request, but you have to request it in writing (and then get a really really good calendar to remind you to renew it). Used to be you could get a copy of your credit report once a year for free, no questions asked, but they changed that recently.

    Easily the worst part about this is that you have to get a police report from somewhere if you want anything to happen to the sacks of human filth that tries this sort of thing. Unfortunately, this usually ends up being a finger-pointing exercise, where your local cops say you should file with the cops in the CC company locale, while the CC locale cops say you should file local. File both if you can, although that got me exactly nowhere. This was all the more frustrating, considering that I managed to get the ADDRESS that the scumsucking, dirtbag, pig dog, jerkwad, freeloading, thieving, sniveling, no-good, very-bad sack of used toilet paper used TWICE to apply for credit cards in my name. I even had to get the credit agencies to remove that address from my credit reports.

    Thought briefly of taking a drive down to Chevy Chase, MD, with a baseball bat, a can of gasoline, and a cigarette lighter, but ultimately decided against it.

    Be persistent, though. Bad credit will hound you for years. Good luck with this!

    — Ed

  28. PAD:

    I can’t really add much to anything the others have already suggested except to not treat the problem lightly. Both you and Kath may have just picked up another full time job trying to keep both your credit and name good.

    The GOOD news is, this may have just been a prankster screwing with you, since the credit cards were sent to your mailing address.

    The BAD news is someone out there has enough info on you to do some serious damage.

    As long as I’m on the subject, I just finished writing a spec script where I had to research the subject of identity theft. So I’ve learned a good deal about how identities are stolen. I’d like to make the following suggestions to EVERYONE on this board.

    1. SHRED or burn ANY mail you throw out. Thieves rummage through your trash to get info on you.
    2. Do NOT give out your social security number except for government agencies or purposes. That includes public utilities that try to identify you by your SSN. In most cases they can simply give you a customer ID number instead.
    3. SECURE your mailbox. Think of all the information that it contains about you.
    4. Order a credit report from all three credit bureaus. You’re entitled to one free from each bureau, but I’d suggest that you spring for a second six months from then. Immediately dispute anything you don’t remember doing.

    5. Be careful about giving out your email address. That’s why I don’t give mine out here. Almost everyday I get email from someplace telling me that email I sent to someone is being sent back with an attachment. DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. If you don’t know the person sending you the email or what the email is about, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY. There are viruses that implant themselves on your computer, and then when you’re connected to the internet email information about you to the people that wrote the virus.
    6. Be careful what you download on line, and where you go.

  30. —
    How do you get an active credit card in the mail? That in and of itself is illegal.
    —

    Actually, its not, otherwise the CC companies would have no viable way to get legit cards out. What usually happens is that the cards have a validation procedure.

    As strange as it sounds, I don’t think PAD is the victim of identity theft here, as the cards were sent to his home address. What I THINK happened (and I know I heard about this somewhere, wish I could remember where), is that a less than scrupulous CC company ran a general credit inquiry (probably based on a sold list from one of PAD’s current active creditors), and issued the card without a formal application (scarily, this is NOT illegal, more on that in a moment here). They depend on the target customer not really being perceptive, or often they get by on the ‘Oh, my wife must have applied for this.’

    Now, you’d think just opening a credit card account without an app is illegal, but its not. Legit companies don’t do it much, however, because you used to be able to say that since you never signed for the card, you didn’t have to pay the bills. A court ruling that signing the charge slip effectively meant your consent to pay stopped that, and now it seems that the companies may be trying this bull again.

  31. telling the credit angencies that its is possible fraud and the have to supply a copy to you at no cahre per the fair credit reporting act. it is likely the the angency that sent your the cards actually filled it the info them selves with the info they got for prescreaning to send you the offer know all those cards that say sour pre-approved? they get th info fromthe credit reporting agencies and approve you when you responed if there has been no derogitory change. this place pobaly sent them to you hope you would activate the card and use it . even if you did not apply your self, once you use the card, you are responcible thru implied concent. not illeagle but not ethical either. best thing to do is what you did and then dispute the application on your credit report and report the bank to the federal banking atthority…

  32. Maybe I’m just an unrelenting slacker, but I don’t do ANYTHING to warn my credit card companies about possible fraud. It isn’t my job. Let them do their thing, and if I get fraudulent charges on my statement (which I have), I call them up and tell them I’m not paying. They go into “investigative mode”, but at the end of the day, I’m not paying the charge. And all it took was one phone call, no fees or credit reports or letters or anything.

    SEAN

  33. Just last week I typed up a tape of a talk given by the woman who runs this site: http://www.identitytheft.org/ She’s a lawyer who was herself victim of ID theft and it took her quite a while to clean things up. She learned a lot and has helped others. The info on the site might help you and others if you suspect ID theft. When you said “mother’s maiden name” I immediately thought of Ms. Frank on the site.

  34. Not doing anything is a really good way to let your credit get turned to crap. Disputing fraudulent credit lines or inquiries (where you supposedly applied for credit with company x) gets those items more or less removed from your credit file. They don’t actually get physically removed so much as tagged as being under dispute, which hypothetically removes them from review for credit scores, etc.

    I don’t know if there really are creditors out there who send out credit cards one didn’t really request because you’ve been pre-approved. I would think that was illegal, but that’s not really my area of knowledge. I think PAD minimally got pranked by someone with a lot of knowledge or worse. The scary thing is until he gets a copy of his credit report or the next piece of mail shows up, he doesn’t know how bad it actually is… There could be more out there.

  35. Just have them put a fraud alert on your account. Sorry if this has been mentioned, but I haven’t read the whole thread.

  36. PAD — having gone through something similar before. Contact the Fraud department of each credit bureau. When putting a fraud alert on your report / or “hawk watch”? you are entitled to free credit reports.

    To get direct access to the fraud departments, call your credit card company and they will provide you with the numbers that will get you to the fraud departments without the menu hastle. (Or it used to). I’m surprised the credit company that issued the cards to you didn’t put you into more direct contact since this is a pretty big deal. If this company won’t, call one of your existing company’s and see if they can’t give you the info you need.

    The benefit of putting a fraud alert (I can’t remember the other name it’s called) is that you’ll be blocked from receiving junk e-mail credit offers and companys will have to call you before they run a credit check — for at least the next 3-6 months.

    And for the people who say don’t do anything…bigger problems can result. Frankly the whole credit report/rating thing is such a huge freaking mess anyway that you’re going to be the only one suffering while you try to figure this all out. But the alternative is worse.

  37. The phone numbers to contact the 3 credit reporting bureaus fraud departments directly are:

    Equifax: 800-525-6285
    Experian: 888-397-3742
    Transunion: 800-680-7289

  38. Hi Peter:

    I didn’t read any of the previous posts, so maybe someone has already offered you help, in a similar manner to what I am about to offer.

    I’m an attorney who runs a company that assists folks with credit problems. If you need a credit report (from all three agencies) I can get you one free of charge. If you need someone to disupute this for you (I actually did this for clients all day today), I can do this free of charge as well.

    However, you certainly can take care of this by writing letters on your own; this doesn’t appear to be too difficult of an issue and you’re obviously a bright guy.

    Also, if you need form letters or any information you may think is helpful, please contact me at the email address I provided.

  39. PAD,

    I can help you fix this situation, but first I need you to email me your social security number, your mother’s maiden name, your current mailing address, and any other credit card numbers you may have at this time.

    Of course I’m kidding. Everyone above that told you to get a fraud statement in your reports is right, and you should, but if you actually get a call from a bill collector saying you owe company X money and you know you didn’t shop there (happened to me) here’s what you do:

    You need to write them a letter (certified mail) saying that your records do not show that you made this purchase and that they should send you a copy of their own records for you to review. Furthermore, they are not to take any actions which may damage your credit until the situation is resolved. That puts the ball in their court and should theoretically put the burden of proof on them.

  42. It appears you’ve gotten some pretty good information so far, but I’d like to suggest another action you might take: contact your state’s Attorney General’s office. They tend to take this sort of thing seriously. I’m not suggesting you do this *instead* of contacting credit agencies, but *in addition to* taking that action. Why use a sledgehammer when you can swing a wrecking ball? 😀

    Wildcat

  43. One thing to consider when calling TRW, Equifax and Trabsunion (you definitely should call all three, explain your situation, and ask to get put on the credit watch list): your name gets put on the watch list for a limited time–I think 6 months. So in 6 months, you should call them up and do it again.

    This should cost you exactly $0.

  44. It sounds as if Jeff Linder could be correct. Possibly this isn’t identity theft as much as it is a ploy by a company to stick you with a card you don’t want.

  45. To follow up Katheryn’s comment: I’ve never been sure how it *isn’t* considered a violation of our privacy when the credit agencies are *allowed* to sell the information they have about us to those card companies to begin with. Yes, we can “opt-out” of that list, but — why are they allowed to have us on that list in the first place *without our permission*?

    Wildcat

  47. Dealing with the credit compainies via phone can be a major pain. However, http://www.equifax.com/ will allow you to deal with them more simply. You don’t have to sign up for “credit watch” you can just order one report and go from there. They do charge, but they pull reposts from all three companies. And it’s much simpler. You need to see all of them anyway, in these cases.

  48. Here’s a little piece of news that’s 2 years old and that, somehow, wasn’t widely reported in the USA News Sources. I mean, who cares if some Saudi cleric who is one of the main clerics of the Fahd family, that funds 80% of the mosques in the USA, who cares if he says it’s okay to enslave Jewish women?

    Saudi Telethon Host Calls for Enslaving Jewish Women
    From the Saudi Information Service.
    http://www.nationalreview.com/document/document042602.asp

    (WASHINGTON DC) April 26, 2002

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