Great way to spend a day off... Fighting Identity Theft & Going to the DMV

Jerzsubbie

Jerzsubbie

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I took tomorrow off just to use up vacation time since it’s a “use it or lose it” deal. Unfortunately I learned today that my identity has been stolen.

Someone opened a Verizon Wireless account in my name, in person in VA, using my full SS, DOB, and of course name and address. I learned of this because Verizon sent me a bill for $388. I’ve never been a VZ customer at all. Thankfully the VZ fraud dept lady was very nice and helpful, but now I’ll be spending my day off making a police report, calling all 3 credit bureaus to put a security lock on my credit, and then I get to go to the DMV to finally register my new-to-me Jeep.

The stupid part of this is the thief didn’t buy a phone, just 2 lines of service that will now be shut off only 2.5wk after activation. So what’s the point in going through all of that effort? I could understand if they bought a couple new iPhones to flip overseas.

I just hope they haven’t bought any cars or anything else yet.

Silver lining for my day off, I get to pick up my Resonator K and we’re going out to a nice steak dinner to celebrate my best friend’s recent promotion.
 
Sorry to hear of your issues brother, glad they caught it before it got out of control.
Enjoy tme with your friend and new can!
 
Howland said:
I think you dodged a bullet. Verizon just stopped sending paper bills.
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That was the ironic part. I got a letter dated 10/11 saying they’ve updated my contact info, then one dated 10/15 thanking me for opting in to paperless billing and it had the $388 balance mentioned. Had it not been for this paper mail, I probably wouldn’t have known until they started collections.

The whole things is pretty annoying but I’m aware it could be a heck of a lot worse so it’s not gonna ruin my day.
 
Verizon called me from a town near Chicago but across the state line in Indiana and said some A-hole had came in the store and tried to open a line and buy phones. They had a fake SS card and my name and info on a license but his face on the ID. But he didn't know my current Verizon info like phone number etc. so they called the store security over (offduty cop) and the guy ran out the door.

I've had my credit frozen for about 9 months now with no issues
 
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Credit Freeze, end of story.
 
Don’t just freeze the credit, look at all current activity. Setting up the phones gives them a place for everyone to call and email “you”. 2.5 weeks, “you” may already own a house and an ethnic hair salon.
 
rdinatal said:
I have a credit freeze on all three. I know it works as we wanted to buy a piece of furniture last year on credit to get 10% off with 0%. Needed to authorize them in advance with the pin# previously setup.
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When your credit is frozen, the inquirer can’t even see you. I don’t know how the OP’s problem could have happened with all three frozen. I called a bank recently (happens they hold our mortgage) and asked about increasing the credit limit on a card that’s giving 4% back on everything (so, we’re using it almost exclusively).

The woman explained they’d have to check my credit. I told her that would be fine but I have mine frozen with all three agencies. I asked if she knew which agency they would use so I could unfreeze only that one. She’s didn’t know and suggested I unfreeze all three.

NO WAY!
 
Jeppo said:
When your credit is frozen, the inquirer can’t even see you. I don’t know how the OP’s problem could have happened with all three frozen. I called a bank recently (happens they hold our mortgage) and asked about increasing the credit limit on a card that’s giving 4% back on everything (so, we’re using it almost exclusively).

The woman explained they’d have to check my credit. I told her that would be fine but I have mine frozen with all three agencies. I asked if she knew which agency they would use so I could unfreeze only that one. She’s didn’t know and suggested I unfreeze all three.

NO WAY!
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To clarify, mine was not frozen until I did so this evening. I knew of the ability to freeze them but didn’t think it was necessary/worth the hassle. Of course this little scare changes my perspective. How often do you really apply for credit? Me, not very often at all so unfreezing, even if it’s all 3, isn’t that big of a deal when I do want to apply for something.
We’re going to freeze my wife’s this weekend as well.
 
I learned a lesson about the effectiveness of credit freezes when we had to apply for Obama Care. With our credit frozen, the US Government wasn’t even able to verify my identity. That convinced me.
 
Jerzsubbie said:
To clarify, mine was not frozen until I did so this evening. I knew of the ability to freeze them but didn’t think it was necessary/worth the hassle. Of course this little scare changes my perspective. How often do you really apply for credit?
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Before you freeze it (or temporarily thaw it) you can sign up to Credit Karma, which lets you watch for activity, including if something erroneously gets assigned to you. We keep ours frozen. I listened to an episode several years back of Clark Howard and he said it’s important to freeze yours because as more people do, those who don’t will become bigger targets. As far as inconvenience, the last time I thawed mine was almost two years ago when we bought a house.

Edit to add, keep the pin somewhere safe, e.g. a special spot in your gun safe.
 
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Jeppo said:
When your credit is frozen, the inquirer can’t even see you. I don’t know how the OP’s problem could have happened with all three frozen. I called a bank recently (happens they hold our mortgage) and asked about increasing the credit limit on a card that’s giving 4% back on everything (so, we’re using it almost exclusively).

The woman explained they’d have to check my credit. I told her that would be fine but I have mine frozen with all three agencies. I asked if she knew which agency they would use so I could unfreeze only that one. She’s didn’t know and suggested I unfreeze all three.

NO WAY!
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Wait a minute. She works at the bank and handles this kind of thing and doesn't know which credit agency they use? Then how the heck is she gonna call one?????
 
Schattenreiter said:
Wait a minute. She works at the bank and handles this kind of thing and doesn't know which credit agency they use? Then how the heck is she gonna call one?????
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She was a normal customer service person. My call wasn’t primarily to discuss a credit line increase. She handled my primary issue but just punted on the credit agency question.
 
noway2 said:
Before you freeze it (or temporarily thaw it) you can sign up to Credit Karma, which lets you watch for activity, including if something erroneously gets assigned to you. We keep ours frozen. I listened to an episode several years back of Clark Howard and he said it’s important to freeze yours because as more people do, those who don’t will become bigger targets. As far as inconvenience, the last time I thawed mine was almost two years ago when we bought a house.

Edit to add, keep the pin somewhere safe, e.g. a special spot in your gun safe.
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Credit karma is the biggest joke of credit watching there is. I went through this some time back. The karma didn't show the credit inquiry for 4 months.

Now thats how I found out about the inquiry, but 4 months cost me a bundle to sort out
 
Guys, not freezing your credit is playing Russian Roulette. Freezing (and temporarily unfreezing when necessary) costs nothing, isn’t difficult or time consuming. Why not? :oops:
 
@noway2 Kredit Karma just sells your info to everyone they can. That’s why it’s “free”. I’d rather pay someone $10/mo than sign up for even more spam/junk mail.
I have monitoring through Experian but since VZ did a soft inquiry, I never got notified.
 
Jeppo said:
Guys, not freezing your credit is playing Russian Roulette. Freezing (and temporarily unfreezing when necessary) costs nothing, isn’t difficult or time consuming. Why not? :oops:
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So for those of us who is ignat of such things would you give a brief run down of this? I never heard of it be4. :confused:
 
Schattenreiter said:
So for those of us who is ignat of such things would you give a brief run down of this? I never heard of it be4. :confused:
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Let me start by saying, it's very quick and easy to do and can be done online in under 30min for all 3 bureaus combined. Freezing your credit with all 3 bureaus (equifax, experian, transunion) prevents anyone from pulling your credit report and therefore prevents any thief from applying for credit in your name. You can easily login online and unfreeze it using your PIN in the event you do need to apply for credit.

Spend <30min now + an extra 2min whenever you want to apply for credit -OR- spend anywhere from a few hours to years fixing the damage that an identify thief has done. Thankfully, I'm a best case scenario of it only costing me a few hours of my time and $0 (so far).
 
Jerzsubbie said:
Let me start by saying, it's very quick and easy to do and can be done online in under 30min for all 3 bureaus combined. Freezing your credit with all 3 bureaus (equifax, experian, transunion) prevents anyone from pulling your credit report and therefore prevents any thief from applying for credit in your name. You can easily login online and unfreeze it using your PIN in the event you do need to apply for credit.

Spend <30min now + an extra 2min whenever you want to apply for credit -OR- spend anywhere from a few hours to years fixing the damage that an identify thief has done. Thankfully, I'm a best case scenario of it only costing me a few hours of my time and $0 (so far).
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Thanks. I never knew about this. I am going to have to look into it. Thanks again.
 
Jeppo said:
Guys, not freezing your credit is playing Russian Roulette. Freezing (and temporarily unfreezing when necessary) costs nothing, isn’t difficult or time consuming. Why not? :oops:
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Ive never heard of this...how do I do it?
 
Millie said:
PS Is it better to call them, or do it online? I don't like to give out my info!!
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I did it all online. Assuming your home connection is secure and there’s no malware on your device, you’re probably ok.
 
Perhaps they were going to use that phone line to apply for credit, many card issuers have 'Text Apply to XXXXX'.
 
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