Identity Theft

[luwayo]

Has it happened to you yet?

 

Yesterday, discovered that the cell phone has been incurring several thousand dollars worth of overdue payments, billed to an address unknown to me. RCMP & credit bureau notified. Phone company conducting investigation of course, and results pending until then.

 

Always careful to destroy sensitive mail; discretion used on applications; no i-net shopping.

 

Sux!

[Weekend_Climberz]

Always careful to destroy sensitive mail; discretion used on applications; no i-net shopping.

 

Need to add: No parking at exit 38

[Big_Lebowski]

I know what ya mean, any ol Foo thinks he can snake my dudeness.

[G-spotter]

http://www.isaac.cs.berkeley.edu/isaac/gsm.html

 

take home point: "over-the-air GSM cloning a real possibility"

[Big_Lebowski]

How many people on the 39.99 program are going to claim cloning for their overages?

[G-spotter]

Maybe they got the wrong Lebowski, man.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Hey cut him some slack. He's just trying to get his rug back, man.

[magellan]

Internet shopping is the same as swiping your card at the gas pump or grocery. At a restaurant, I hand a stranger my card and he walks away. He could easily dupe it before returning it, hoping I will give him a tip.

[RogerJ]

I had my checking account debit card # jacked and Wells Fargo was really good about putting the money back after faxing one simple form to them. Both fraud reps I talked to asked me if I was at restaurants lately as opposed to asking if I did I-Net shopping lately. Seems like the card gets handed to 1 or more people and is exposed to many sets of eyes.

 

The dipshit that jacked my card paid their past due electric bill with the card, and it was fun to see them nail the SOB.

 

Take care.

 

-r

[Chad_A]

Ate breakfast in Terrebonne, got gas in Madras on the way back from Smith; by the time I rolled into Portland City Limits, someone had rung up +1500 bucks at a Home Depot here, somewhere.

 

Someone mysteriously spent over 3000 bucks on my g/f's card....in England, at an Inn. It's funny how fast and how far a card # can travel. Or, rather, it's NOT funny...

[olyclimber]

i suggest keeping all your money in your mattress.

[G-spotter]

i suggest keeping all your money in your mattress.

 

'why buy a money-filled mattress anywhere else?'

[archenemy]

and your credit cards in the microwave

[billcoe]

Not identity theft:

 

I'd seen what looked like "fake" charges from Shell Gas station. One was like $6 and the other like $4. I didn't remember them, but hey, I go to shell, BUT I have an actual Shell card, and this was on my personal credit card, not a gas card.

 

I don't track petty crap so I let it go.

 

Next thing I know I'm getting calls at work (my son got the calls at home and forwarded them to me). "Sir, I'm up here in Canada and we are trying to verify you want to buy one of our servers". "uuuuuhhh, no, I just bought one from Dell last month, don't need another". "Oh, we were suspicious as the call came from Brazil".

 

Next call, same thing except it's a condo in Florida from somebody who'd taken a call from somebody from Brazil. I'm like "Is it a nice one?".

 

Anyway, turns out, the merchant would have been stuck for the fee if the merchandise had shipped and they'ed accepted the call. In fact - the Visa people make money on fraud as they charge a fee to fix it up after the fact and stick any $ lost onto the merchant.

 

I never know that Visa and Mastercharge not only have no or little $ exposure, but an actual $ incentive to see fraud perpetrated till I heard it from 2 vendors during this experience.

 

I lost nothing of course.

[olyclimber]

i lost my viginity to a horrible woman. she just took it and left, and to this day i am reliving the event.

[G-spotter]

Your poor viginity. That's something like a mangina, isn't it?

[olyclimber]

Your poor viginity. That's something like a mangina, isn't it?

 

for you, i suppose so.

[G-spotter]

for you, the war is over.

[olyclimber]

it was over before it started

[G-spotter]

That means your viginity

extends to infinity.

[olyclimber]

i try to start each day with a fresh perspective

[Big_Lebowski]

I AM OLYCLIMBER!!!!!

 

That was easy.

[TREETOAD]

I try to start each day with a new Visa card!!

[Jens]

Always careful to destroy sensitive mail; discretion used on applications; no i-net shopping.

 

Need to add: No parking at exit 38

Do you pull your registration and take it with you?

should I?

A dude told me that 38 is starting to see a rash of break-ins again. -sad

[knelson]

I never know that Visa and Mastercharge not only have no or little $ exposure, but an actual $ incentive to see fraud perpetrated till I heard it from 2 vendors during this experience.

 

MC/VISA have a great racket. You pay them interest and maybe a yearly fee. Vendor pays them a percentage of transaction + per charge fee. (Between 1.5% and 2.2% or so depending on the transaction, plus somewhere around $0.25 per charge.) If any fraud happens, vendor pays "chargeback" fee and gets money IMMEDIATELY taken from their account. Vendor has to prove and jump through hoops to get money back... assuming that they dotted all their i's and crossed every single t... AND even if the vendor is cleared and gets their money back, they STILL have to pay the chargeback fee. ($20, at least, per chargeback).

 

And here's the new one - y'know those "rewards" VISA/MC cards where you get something back for every dollar you spend? Vendors get the priviledge of paying another 0.1% to 0.2% EXTRA to process those cards! Oh... and we can't deny them if we accept VISA/MC.

 

And you know what... it costs the consumer nothing. I had a customer deny a charge one time (mail order/telephone order transaction) and when I called her regarding the "fraud/chargeback report" I received, she said "Oops... sorry. I had a bunch of charges around Christmas that I just didn't remember doing so I reported them as fraud. I guess I forgot about yours. Sorry. But I really liked your product!"

 

Gee. Thanks. So long story short, 6 weeks later and having to have the lady call her bank twice, I finally get my money back... less the $20 chargeback fee even though the lady filed a fraudulent fraud claim. Nothing I can do but just suck it up... and complain here. Does she get a spanking? Nope. Just a shiny new card and a big "thank you" from VISA/MC.

 

Yes sir... they're really hurting from all that fraud.