Saturday, April 19, 2008
Identify Theft
Hopefully none of you have experienced this yet, but sadly, you probably will at some point. My bank called yesterday to find out if I was in the LA area recently and of course, I knew right away that someone had once again gotten my credit card # and was having a great time at my expense. This is now the 3rd time in 2 years that this has happened to me. This time it was on my bank ATM debit MasterCard so I had to close my checking account and open a new one which is a pain in the butt. My advice is that you should review your bank and credit card statements carefully and often so that if someone does get your card # and is able to use it, you find out quickly and can cancel the card immediately. Be sure that your cards are covered against fraud too, luckily for me I have never had to be responsible for any of the charges - the stores are usually the ones who lose out. If you are an employee at any place where cards are often used as payment, ask for ID and also find out what to do if you are suspicious - can you call a manager or something? One of my cards was used at a Wal-Mart and it was a $700 purchase and they didn't even ask for ID - I am sure that employee probably doesn't work there anymore.
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2 comments:
I have mixed feelings about identity theft. It's more like monetary theft. People are stealing your assests or passing off as you. I think on the grand scheme of things, I wouldn't get so worked up about it.
But then again, I'm poor as dirt and don't have much that could be stolen. I would advise shredding your mail prior to throwing it out. This is one way people attain information.
In response to the previous comment, I always get "worked up" when I see how easy it is for criminals to find ways to steal from hard working people, like myself and I have to spend time straightening it all out with the bank. I do shred my mail - these people don't need to dig through the garbage anyway, they can just hack into computers and get your credit card # from department stores or write down the # when you use your card at a restaurant. You can be poor and still have this happen to you - if you have an ATM card that has the credit card ability and someone gets the #, your bank will just call and say that you are seriously overdrawn.
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