My Social Security # Was Stolen!!

[1BAD80]

Any body had this happen to them? Some chick in Ok. used my security number to open a cable account then not pay. $401.31 this collection company is trying to get from me. I called the cops in Oklahoma city were she use my number, called and filed a ID theft Affidavit with the Federal Trade Communication people. I also called Equifax to place a fraud alert with the top three credit companies. I'm going to request a free copy of my report also.. This sucks guys and girls.. I thought I was pretty sucure with my stuff. I guess you never know..

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Any body had this happen to them? Some chick in Ok. used my security number to open a cable account then not pay. $401.31 this collection company is trying to get from me. I called the cops in Oklahoma city were she use my number, called and filed a ID theft Affidavit with the Federal Trade Communication people. I also called Equifax to place a fraud alert with the top three credit companies. I'm going to request a free copy of my report also.. This sucks guys and girls.. I thought I was pretty sucure with my stuff. I guess you never know..

Yup, been there. Luckily the credit card companies fraud departments were top notch and got me taken care of. File the reports and make sure to add a statement on all three credit reporting agencies. Mine told companies I was a victim of identity theft, and credit was not to be issues without mailing something to xxx address and seeing picture ID. Check your reports often to make sure that this is the only issue. Unfortunately identity fraud is all too common, the only bright side of that is it's getting easier to get corrected than it used to be. Good luck man I hope this is the only thing they did.

The hardest part I had was getting a police report. The fraud was in LA so the Riverside sheriff's department wouldn't take a report, and LA said since I lived in Riverside they wouldn't have time to take the report. With no report I was unable to proceed. The Riverside District Attorneys office had the Sheriff's department take a courtesy report and forward it to LA. Kind of messed up. Like I said the CC companies are the ones that did me right and canceled the accounts with no hassle and never came after me for the cash. If it wasn't for Chase I would have never know it was going on until too late.

How did you find out?

 

[1BAD80]

Thanks knuckle dragger.. Ya im going to take a much more active role in watching my credit stuff. It hasn't hit my credit so far so I have that going for me..

 

[Aceshigh]

300,000,000 million people (give or take) in the USA as of July 2006.
9-20,000,000 illegal aliens inside the country using falsified SSN's.

That gives you about a 5% chance of having your identity stolen. Every 1 in 20 people.
Nice ain't it ?? Like Knuckle said, watch your credit at least 2 times a year.

 

[1BAD80]

Those are insane numbers!!!

 

[Eric]

Government personnel don't help the issue either. Couple weeks ago I got a notice from the tax-man saying I owe them a couple hundred $$$'s (didn't know it- was apparently some leftover interest from awhile back). Apparently they were sending the collection notices to my old address (2 years old and two tax returns ago) despite the fact my most recent tax returns had the correct address on them.

Anyways, I call them up and say I want to know why they think I owe them money. They tell me about the interest bit. I complain about them apparently not looking at my tax form to get the correct address to send notices to me- they basically say "whatever" and I request any/all of the missing notices that were sent to the wrong address, or a summary of them, be sent to my proper, current address.

So, last week, I open my mailbox to find a document from them. I look at the little clear-plastic address window and see my name, address, birthday and SS number in plain view to any a$$hole looking at the sealed envelope. Seems the paper inside was the communique from one part of the revenue people to another part to send out my notices- but somehow it got stuck in a windowed envelope and put in the outgoing mail. So, there's Big Brother, finding new ways to protect me from the criminals- through their tireless efforts at becoming increasingly incompetent.

 

[Aceshigh]

Wow.....nothing surprises me anymore. But that's pretty crappy.
What sucks more is when you try to fight the big green machine, you get steamrolled.

 

[2bassbob]

My son had his ss# stolen 5 years ago while in the hospital for brain surgery. We didn't know for months until collection people started calling from all over the eastern US. Over $25,000 was charged before we could stop it. He could not even get a credit card for about 3 years because of it. Police were of little help because it is such an overwhelming problem. You should check your credit report once a year to see if you have a problem. We did not pay any of the debts ,but as you can imagine it was a nightmare.

 

[Joekool]

Had it happen to me, almost lost my job because of it, the company did a background check when I was hired and two names popped up on my SS#. I had to go down to the SS office three times and wait 2 hours each time until they fixed it. Luckily the person only used my SS# to get a job and not to buy anything but still I missed three days of worked trying to fix it.

 

[Aceshigh]

What is sad is the system is setup in favor of the corporations to use OUR information,
and then WE have to pay to get OUR information that THEY make money off of.

It is just as bad as getting your name off the post office mailer listings.