Identity theft..fraud alert..wait for other shoe..

Back on May 1st I noted 2 one dollar charges on my BOA Visa account. When I contacted BOA they indicated that this is usually what is done to verify that you have a charge account. The charge was from Itunes. I instructed BOA then not to honor any charges from Itunes. Normally I guess a $2 charge would be unnoticed but I usually check my balances about every other day.

This morning I recieved a call from BOA fraud department asking if I had made $1100 charges to Itunes. When I indicated that I had not they advised me that My account would be frozen and new cards issued. The charges were not honored to Itune so I should be in the clear there.

I called Equifax and submitted a fraud alert on all of my accounts. They contacted the other two agencies. This alert will be for 3 months so I guess I need to see to it that all of my cards are changed before that time.

I can't imagine how my number got out there. This is a fairly new card with limited use. I have recurring charges every month that are for things like Internet service, etc that are paid off monthly just to get points. It appears that someones database is not secure, or something. I have never used this card where a paper copy of the transaction would be available.

I have since tried to get on to may BOA account to see where my card has been used but was unable to get into the account. When I called they informed me untill a new card is issued my old account is locked down.

I believe this must be a kid because if it had been an adult they would have gone after more than 1100 songs from Itunes. Maybe the fraud people from BOA can get to the bottom of this. I hope they do anyway.

I remember the day when this kind of stuff didn't happen, now you have to watch everything close because there are to many people, TO LAZY to get out there and make a honest living... :mad:

I avoided a phishing scam a couple of months ago.
A couple of days after I had used my Paypal account, I got an official looking email "supposedly" from Paypal. It was informing me that there was a 3rd party trying to access my account, and it instructed me to click on the link in the mail and follow the instructions, and until I did, they would freeze my account for security reasons. It would remain frozen until I did this, and they would close the account in x# of days if they didn't hear from me. I logged in to Paypal, but not thru the link, and sent a copy of the mail to their "spoof" department. They contacted me a day or so later and said that, indeed, it was a phishing attempt. Just one more reason not to use links provided in emails.
So any Paypal users out there - beware.

I'm very careful about my emails. I do not open anything I don't recognize. If it's from someone I know, and I don't recognize it, I'll also delete it and hope they ask me if I received it. Then I'll have them send it again with the re: line that I will recognize. I can't afford to buy another computer or have this one de-wormed.

That's scary, for sure. I was phished several months ago and I almost didn't catch on. It was a look-alike site of one of my credit cards. Honestly, it's ridiculous how hypervigilant we have to be now. I'm glad that your situation is under control.

Geeze - another phishing attempt this morning. This one told me that my email in box was approaching capacity, and to go to the provided link with my user name and password to obtain more storage, otherwise I would be unable to receive or send any more mail. Strange - seeing as I am only using 6% of my total storage as of this morning. :rolleyes:
Guess there are a lot of kids on summer vacation with nothing better to do than to try to create havoc! :(

I saw something on the web this morning that said if you post your full birthday anywhere, you at a higher risk for identity theft. I immediately went onto facebook and deleted the year of my birth.

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Originally Posted by moosmom

I saw something on the web this morning that said if you post your full birthday anywhere, you at a higher risk for identity theft. I immediately went onto facebook and deleted the year of my birth.

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I never post my full d.o.b. anywhere. And since there appears to be so much talk everywhere of problems with Facebook, I just deleted my account since I never went there anywhere. I only joined in the first place at the urging of an old school friend.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by moosmom

I saw something on the web this morning that said if you post your full birthday anywhere, you at a higher risk for identity theft. I immediately went onto facebook and deleted the year of my birth.

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My year of birth is nearly everywhere that I register. There isn't much identity to steal from me, though, so i'm not all that worried.

Reggie,

I hear ya. My attitude is, they want my identity that bad, let 'em take it!! My credit sucks and I have no credit cards so there's no loss there.