Sooo… A little background first. Eight years ago I got my identity stolen thanks to the post office, an internet provider and my former apartment complex…
To whit, the post office didn’t forward the mail on the correct date after I’d moved out, the internet provider didn’t shut off the connectivity as directed, nor did the apartment complex check to make sure the mailbox was clear before they rented the apartment to the next individuals. Seven months later, I get a dunning letter and start getting phone calls from an attorney’s office in Houston about non-payment of bills (over $4000 worth), tied to that apartment and internet connection.
It took almost a year to get that cleared up, involving NCIS, county LEOs, detectives and bank fraud investigators. As a result all of my accounts were put on fraud watch, with specific limits set that would ‘trip’ an alert (yes, it’s a pain in the butt to call in if making a bigger purchase, or setting up international travel). That has saved me five different times over the intervening years though!
Until a week before Christmas this year, and I got hit again. By the time I’d gotten the first email and responded, they’d already run up over $2500 in charges, including plane tickets (what they do is charge a ticket, then go to the airport and try to get a voucher as a ‘return’ of funds). Luckily, they were able to send a card to PP’s address, so I wasn’t cut off, per se.
I started trying to track down where/how I’d been frauded, and ran into a brick wall. Talking to the CC provider, they couldn’t answer exactly ‘where’ the fraud occurred, only give me a general timeframe…
Frustrating, to put it mildly… In the process of trying to find out, I ran across THIS article, which then linked to THIS article. Bottom line is it is damn near impossible to find out where the actual compromise occurred, but I narrowed it down to either a local gas station, or a major retailer… Sigh…
Word to the wise, fraud watch, while a PITA CAN save you from some major headaches! And make sure your computer has firewall and anti-virus software running. Even then, you can’t always be sure something/someone hasn’t gotten you.
The other thing is to check your CC bills, especially right after a major holiday to see if there are any ‘stray’ charges…
YMMV, IANAL, etc…