Credit Alert
 

My wallet was taken in NYC last year. Credit card, bank card, DL, Reg., Ins. for 3 cars were all in there. Since I was on the way to a job interview the previous day, my SS card was in there,too :eek: :eek: :eek:
Basically, they had everything needed aside from Mom's maiden name for identity theft.
Luckily, this happened at 7:10 in the AM and I had my cell phone. I immediately called home to my wife who had all our cards photocopied front and back and had everything cancelled. Everything was cancelled and 3 credit bureaus were alerted by 7:25 AM.
As a result, I have a credit alert on all my stuff. Nothing can really be processed unless my home is called first. This doesn't affect credit card purchases unless I'm someplace away from home. If I'm going away and will be using my credit card, I call the company to tell them where I'll be so there's not a denial of credit if I'm out of state.
The most difficult to replace was the Driver's License.
Check this out. 6 points ID NJ

I got one like that for Ebay... saying someone was attempting to use my credit card fraudulently......I needed to contact them before they closed my account.......

Even provided a link....yes right......since when do you pay ebay with a credit card?

Got two in fact ....one several days later saying I never responded before....with a link again.....

Only a fool would answer that and give away your ID info....Phishing if I ever saw it.

Laughing gravy, it's a great thing your wife did for you. I think I'll do the same.... Did you have any problem getting your license back? What did SS do? Issue another number or what?

Had to cancel my credit card. I had that number for 24 years.

Ebay was very gracious in understanding my situation and also very helpful getting me set back up to buy/sell.

BTW---No bogus charges had been placed on my card. Whew/that was close. Had webwench not posted that link, some crook would've gotten all kinds of stuff. You can imagine the huge limit on a card I've had 24 years.

Boneheaddoctor--Did you click on the link and look at the page I got? Very convincing but never again will I fall for that one. I'm a computer retard and didn't know any better.

Cheers,

Bill

No I didn't........the link you see is not always the link you get sent to. I knew that about Phishing...........But I can think the fooled a LOT of people...particularly with the follow up email. Since some hitting a questionible website CAN leave a trojon or a worm on your machine I chose to ignore it. IF they were that good they would do that very thing.

Well, I don't have any viruses yet. But you're right.

Click on the link that webwench left a few posts back and you will see the exact email I got. Looks authentic for sure and it just so happened that ebay had just notified me that my credit card had expired back in June and they needed me to update with a current expiration date. I did update, but did so by going to their site and not by email. So when I got the second email, seemingly from ebay, I responded.

Cheers,

Bill

Think about it......You Pay with Paypal, not Ebay. And Both of them tell you they will never ask for personal Info lie that. (yes I know Ebay ownes paypal)

Recently if I typed in hotmail.com rather than www.hotmail.com, I got a prompt saying "redirect in process" whch then asked for my email address and password.

I smelled a rat and typed the entire url and immediately got hotmail's hompage.

I think I saved myself a lot of trouble.

PS I just checked and the redirect is no longer there.

Yeah when you buy you pay with paypal.

But I also sell and my selling charges come off my credit card as well. It's the same CC # I use for paypal.

And, I don't think I saw anything before this happened saying ebay would not ask for info through email. Since this has happened I have seen that somewhere in ebays huge files of policy.

Thats why no alarms went off....


So far as the hotmail goes, That is my service as well and I haven't had that prompt appear, but thanks for the heads up.

Cheers,

Bill

Never sold on Ebay yet......but they have been telling users for well over a year about them never asking for log-in info, or personal stuff......because they already have it, why would they need to ask for it again.

I avoid links in emails from people who are not personal friends......and trash everything that appears to be spam directly.

And I got a pile of that as a result of the bigoted jerk who banned me under my old id..............Couldn't prove it , but I know he was responsible for it. Timing was too coincidental to be anything else.

HOW has ebay been telling their users? Like I said, I saw under policies or terms and conditions after the fact and not before.

True, Ebay already had it, but the day before ebay had informed me that my credit card had expired and I needed to update the expiration date. The next day I got the bogus email and figured it was just a followup.

Its amazing what people can do with a computer. I just can't fathom how someone can do such devious things when I have a difficult [at best] time just figuring out how to post pics.LOL....
:D

Cheers,

Bill

Well there were emails reminding users that they would not email their users asking for personal information. Do I remember the specific wording, NO, nor do I have any of them.....

There also was references to that on thier site under fraud reports.... I have filed 3 of those against sellers, only one of those three made any effort to resolve the problem.

Oh, I am very computer savy.......but I do know a few GURU types that make me look like someone who never even saw a PC before.

Some of these are becoming quite convincing. Not long ago, I got a very convincing email from someone pretending to be Citibank, and it was convincing enough (grammatically correct and carrying all the graphic elements of the Citi website) that my first impulse was to call up Citibank and ask them if they were crazy, sending requests for information like that via email. I can see how someone could be taken in by a well-done scam like this.

The key is, no matter what a site or vendor tells you, no legitimate vendor will ask you over email for your social security number, credit card numbers, or passwords. Only supply this information on the web if you initiated contact with the website and you are certain you are in fact dealing with who you think you are. If you're unsure, call or email the company directly and make sure.

Hmmmm...maybe my wife or one of the kids got that email and deleted without telling me. I know I never saw anything like that.

Webwench, after this occured you best believe I will intiate contact before disclosing any pertinent information.

Cheers,

Bill

To avoid any possible confusion for a newbie, I want to spell this out. Do not ever click on a link in an email that is asking you to update information. That link may take you to a legitimate looking web site run by the crook. If you think that account information might need to be updated, open a browser window and type the web address you know to be correct (or select from favorites).

I got one of these that I knew to be a fake, but it used a very real looking link and a very sneaky redirection technique to a site that looked EXACTLY like my internet provider's site. One has to be extremely careful with these things.

Come to think of it, I need to tell my neighbor about this, as she just got connected to the internet yesterday. Talk about a newbie!

The best rule of thumb is to never respond to anything initiated by another party who is asking you for personal info. Only give out info when you initiate the transaction yourself.