Alright, so.. I get home from ChicagoCon late last night, do my typical Sunday routine of church, house stuff, then visit with my parents. I just got home a few minutes ago and logged into my bank account to pay a couple of bills. I select 'transfer' to move money from my account to the credit card, and I notice that I have more than one credit card to choose to pay off (I only ever use 1 of my cards).

I go back to my 'overview' page, and sure enough, my Amazon card has several attempted charges out of New York (Brooklyn) and New Jersey. Apparently a couple gas stations and a grocery store. I immediately called the CC company and told them the charges were fraudulent and to terminate my account.

Now obviously I'm a paranoid security guy, so I don't just throw my card #'s out there. In addition, these cards (I have 2; mine and my wife's) have never been taken outside of my house since I recived them (they still have stickers on them). The only time they were used, was when I made a purchase through Amazon and signed up for the card to get a discount (and I didn't even know what the account # was for that purchase, so it was never typed in).

So this brings me to the big question, how the hell did they get a hold of my numbers? Lucky guess?

damn that sucks. 

one of the many databases that stuff is floating around in probably got nabbed, i'm glad you caught it early.

Luckily the only time I've been 'Frauded' was from Alienware.  One of their employees used my card numbers and such from a previous purchase with thier company.... to buy 3600$ computer and have it sent somewhere besides my address.  When I went WTF, called Alienware.. within a couple days they were able to track down who had done it, and whatnot.  Thankfully that's all I've ever had to deal with... and since they never called me, and it was obvious the computer was sent to a totally different state on the other side of the country... from where I live... it was an obvious and quickly fixed issue.  Sorry to hear about your probs Bill, all we can do is hope Karma burns them in the britches eh?

Yeah, agreed. Just have no idea how they got access to a physical copy of my card.

Quick update on this... The bank pretty much took care of it. They sent me something in the mail that I had to sign stating I wasn't the one that made the charges.

Also, I have since signed up for LifeLock Identity Theft Prevention and surprisingly feel a lot less worried. Anyone else use them, or considering it, and have any feedback?

BillV

Thanks for the links and heads up. I had not heard of that stuff, or of Maynards background/story.

At first glance of just the article titles, the one that jumped out at me most was that last one about Experian filing a lawsuit against LifeLock.

The first 2 articles are pretty short, and the 3rd is a little more detailed. All 3 are pretty much covering the same topic, Maynard's history. Personally, his background/history of whether he had his identity stolen, who he owes money, what stuff he's done, etc. doesn't really concern me in any way. I could care less whether his story is true or not as it really doesn't have an affect on me either way.

Now, as far as the ruling about his past business, that's a bit different. If his past company was taking money out of the bank accounts of customers, that's certainly something to be concerned with. Is that going to cause me to cancel my subscription (or had it have changed my mind in the first place)? Probably not. I keep a pretty close eye on my bank account and credit cards as it is, so I'd certainly notice an extra charge. In addition, I signed up with my credit card so any extra charges should be fairly easily disputed if needed.

As for the whole Experian lawsuit, it seems a little ridiculous to me according to that article. I'm not quite sure what their motive would be for going after LifeLock though. Experian is calling it "illegal" to place fraud alerts consecutively? Come on.. It should be my decision if I want fraud alerts enabled. It seems much safer to me that way too, so why would they want to argue that? Their next complaint is deceptive advertising. I'm well aware that nothing is 100% and that LifeLock can't guarantee your protected identity. That's not what I signed up for. I signed up to have them take care of stuff that, yes, I could do myself and also for the added protection in the event my identity is stolen. Seems like something worthwhile to have rather than not have it. I think LifeLock pretty clearly states what they do and how they do it (as well as the fact that you can do it yourself) on their website. The next two complaints are just as stupid... "can't stop all identity theft" and "most services are free." I already covered that first one, and as for the second since when is it wrong to sell something that someone else can do on their own? I don't see anyone filing lawsuits against an auto shop since you can purchase parts and repair your vehicle on your own. I also don't see anyone filing lawsuits against Geek Squad for offering virus removal for $260 when someone can download/remove the virus for free on their own. You're paying for convenience, plain and simple. I'll be surprised if that lawsuit gets anywhere.

Thanks again for pointing that stuff out though. I'm certainly going to do some more research into this Maynard guy and LifeLock as well to see if I do come across anything that makes me change my mind.

BillV

Yeah, I'll certainly keep you/everyone updated. I've only been signed up for less than 2 weeks, so not so much experience with them thus far.

I did send them an email asking about the credit reports though. It's part of their program to request them and send them to you. I had asked if they are sent via postal mail or email, if they could be sent electronically, and if they can be sent encrypted. The reply was "you'll receive your report in X number of weeks via postal mail." No acknowledgment of my other questions. I guess they feel confident enough in their program to mail that stuff to you.

I have tested out the fraud alerts though, and that worked just as I would expect. I had attempted to open a new line of credit at a jewelry store and within 5 minutes a representative of the credit company called the store and asked to speak with me. They asked me questions regarding currently open lines of credit, previous addresses, and whether or not I pay a mortgage and if so how much (now I just need to worry about phone taps ). Right after that the credit was approved.

Pretty neat feature to have turned on even if you don't want to sign-up for LifeLock. It'd be worth the call to the credit bureau's to turn on fraud alerts (despite the fact that according to that article, Experian believes that should be illegal unless you feel identity theft is imminent... I suppose you could argue that you always feel like you may be a victim )

Ahh now that's interesting. I wasn't aware that they were doing that.

Hrmm scary....


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