identity theft warning

Not to sound too paranoid, but these internet games like "find your porno name" kind of scare me a little.....

I noticed on some of these sites you need to give your mother's maiden name....hum....got me wondering...they capture your email address, right? Now they know your mother's maiden name....

and that's the same info my bank requires for some things...!!!

Just something to think about...because although a lot of sites are perfectly innocent....why WOULD someone take the time to make a nonsense site, maintain it, etc..if there were not something in it for them?

Good point Tiki Mick, and besides, if you want to find your porn name you would have to combine the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on, nothing to do with maiden names!

BTW, I'm Tibby Haultain :wink:

I once stole Tiki Micks identity. After about 3 hours I begged him to take it back...

Jiminy crickets!!!!

Therefore, my porno name is "spaski mirasol"...

sounds more like a milwaukee brewery shop foreman then a porno star!!!

Or maybe a minnesota polka band tuba player?

I only give my personal information out to people I think I can trust, like those polite Nigerians who want me to help them recover their family fortunes.

I had my identity 'borrowed' from Tiki Central! (Well, my user-name at least).

Here's the old thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=2751&forum=5&start=15

Makes me sad that old Midnite Tiki hasn't posted here for a while. A very nice, funny guy.

Trader Woody

This is a GREAT post, Mick. Thanks for bringing it up ...

You know, you can visit a site that offers a free service, let's say free photo hosting. Now, they'll ask you for an email address and a password. No money, mind you.

Commonly people will enter their email address and the SAME password they use for that email address! If the website is crooked, they have just been handed the keys to their member's email account, which could be quite dangerous.

While you can probably trust your password to Yahoo or Amazon, can you trust your same password to freephotohosting.com for example? For paypal, the login IS your email address, so you might have just handed some website your paypal login and password if you use the same password for everything. Once they have access to paypal, they have access to cash. Hell, they could automate a paypal check for every new user that logs in ....

But think about it ... you're handing a password and your email address over to a website. How much do you know about this website? Can you trust them with this infomation? Who knows if it's just a guy running the site, reading everyone's passwords and trying the password on the email account? On the ebay or paypal account? The best method to use here is to have a different password -- a low security password -- to enter in websites like that. Make your email or ISP login password unique and never give that out.

Early on when I started Tiki Central I started getting bounced registration emails from users who entered their email address incorrectly. At the time this email included their name, email address, and password in plain text. I didn't like the idea of seeing other people's passwords, so I changed that email to say "password not displayed for security purposes" or something like that. And Tiki Central saves people's passwords in an encrypted form that is non-decryptable, not even by me.

My suggestion is to have "trust levels" for passwords. have a High-security password for the few websites you trust with money and personal info. Have a low security password(s) for sites you don't trust, which should only be sites that won't be dealing with your sensitive data.

Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now.

~Hanford

Hanford, you just gave me the willies! I am off to change my Paypal password right now!

I am one of those suckers who likes to enter online contests, and I just realized I have been giving them all my Paypal password. I feel like a total idiot.

your welcome, hanford!
It's just something I have been thinking about recently, because I know that in this life, no person rides for free! There is always some catch....

At the very minimum, if you enter those contests, you are opening yourself up to huge amounts of spam. And trading and selling email addresses is a lucrative business!

You know, I must confess that I started this email address just for Tiki Central because I thought it might draw spam like other internet groups on which I have a profile that lists my email..so far, not a drop of spam.
And I always avoid those games that ask for such info...and my biggest pet peeve is when I get a forewarded email from someone with my address...and about 100 others in the "to" line.
This past weekend at a baseball game, Discover Card had a table set up to take applications. A guy who seemed a little discombobulated by the crowd was taking them, complete with social security numbers, at a folding table surrounded by a throng of people looking at the free prizes at the table.
Who would hand their SSNs to a guy who left them stacked on a table in a crowd of people, I wondered? Lots of people, was the answer. I wasn't one of them.

I bumped this topic because Monday I became a victim of identity theft.

I am so careful about not sharing info, I shred all of my mail, I never give out info on the phone, etc. I have a special e-mail address for all non-biz related items, I use an alias so as to not get spammed and tons of junk mail clogging up my e-mail box and my home mail box.

Someone, somehow, got access to my checking account and took all but $94. They took it all in one chunk so they had to have knowledge of how much I had in there. There is a possibility that they may have called the bank office (presenting themselves as a business) for a check verification, then wrote the fake check and transferred the money. They left enough in the account to not close it and raise suspicion. When I realized what was going on, it took me three days of red tape, filing reports and closing old and opening new accounts. It is completely exhausting. The bank already had a printed pamphlet with step by step instructions of what to do and who to contact, along with a copy of the "Patriot Act". The Policeman taking my report told me in this little one horse town alone, they get about 30 a week. He said in the old days people would break into your house or steal your purse or wallet to rob you, now all they have to do is intercept a mailed bill with a check payment enclosed. A lot of crack heads have mastered the art of check washing and can make some really convincing counterfeit checks. I must say he really didn't calm my fears with that statement. He also said the chance of actually finding these guys is slim, the banks are all insured so they take the hit and it's very rare the criminals are found are prosecuted. The company who "wire transferred" the money out of my account was NexTel, so maybe the only thing in my favor is the guy may have left a paper trail. In the end, the bank did cover the money taken but I am still so angry!

Has anyone else encountered this and what was the outcome?

You can buy special ink pens that prevent check washing.

In December someone made a bet online for $700 using my debit card. It wasn't a lost card, but somehow they got my #. It could have been recorded anywhere - at a gas station or restaurant where they might have you card out of sight for a while, or online where I made a purchase. Lately there have been reports of banks being hacked into and customer info stolen so it may have been done that way.

I noticed the charge looking at my online statement the same day it posted, so I immediately phoned my bank (Wells Fargo) and reported it. They opened a fraud claim and told me it may take 7-10 business days to clear up. I destroyed my card. I also notified the online gambling company, but they just told me to notify my bank. They said they could do nothing.

10 days passed. I called the bank and they seemed to have "misplaced" my claim, so I had to start over with a new claim! Meanwhile Christmas wass approaching, I needed to do some shopping, and I was out $700. I told the bank I wanted a $700 credit placed into my account immediately. They had the gall to ask me if I ever gamble online! I have been a customer of theirs since 1988, and they ask me if I am trying to fraud them!

The next day the credit appeared as a "provisional" credit. 10 days later (just before Christmas, now it had been 20 days since the charge appeared) I received a letter saying it was still under investigation and the credit was still "provisional". So I promtly emptied my account so I wouldn't be cut off from access to my money during my trip to San Diego over New Years.

Since then I opened a new account with a credit union, and I closed my Wells Fargo accounts. I just received a letter in the mail from Wells Fargo saying they are still investigating the matter, 7 weeks after the transaction!

I urge everyone who reads this to not bank with Wells Fargo because they will not protect you against fraudulent transactions.

I also learned a lesson about debit cards. Using one as a credit card is risky because if you someone uses your debit card your cash is gone. And as far as I have experienced, with credit cards if you file a fraudulent transaction claim you are only responsible for $50.

In 2004 somebody got hold of my Visa number, and went on a shopping spree in Manhattan (while I was making purchases in Greenville, NC mind you) - totalling up about $1200 in purchases at Banana Republic and the Virgin Mega Store.

Fortunately, my card company refunded the money to me, and began an investigation. UNfortunately, they don't seem to have caught the perp or figured out how they got that info.

Now I check my statements very carefully every month, and I take my payments to the post office directly (if I don't just pay the bill online). The scary thing about this is that I'm scrupulously careful - have been for years - about mixing up my passwords, changing them regularly, and completely avoiding game or contest sites, or any sites (that I don't have full trust in) that require registration that includes ANY personal info other than a user name and/or password.

Like the old saying goes...Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

amiotiki

Tibby Haultain, did you order a pizza?

Yeeeikes. I need to change some passwords... When I was in college someone stole my new checks from the mailbox, and starting writing checks for hundreds of $$ at mail order places. I never had any money and usually had a balance of about $2.37 in my account, so when I started getting bounced check notices for $1200 and $900 purchases, the first thing I thought was "did I go shopping drunk again?" (that's what I really thought, for a second) And then I realized I did not buy 4 pairs of cowboy boots. I called the bank and they dealt with it. The crazy thing is, that the next week I got my student loan check and if it had been in the account at the time the checks would have cleared, which would have made the whole thing a HUGE nightmare. I got a few calls from the collection agency that the place that took the check hired, and told them the bank claim, police report # and told them they should maybe tell their client not to take checks without ID or at least not ship merchandise until the check clears.

On 2006-01-28 08:52, Jungle Trader wrote:
You can buy special ink pens that prevent check washing.

Thanks for the reminder about those pens. I do use them and will continue to do so. But in my case they took the routing number of the bank and my account number and made their own checks... that's what really scared the crapola out of me. The banks use a new system in which businesses can scan a check and do an electronic withdrawal so they don't have to deal with the paper trail/transfer. It is up to the individual accepting the check to catch the fraud or counterfeit check in this process.

Jab, I don't know what I would've done if my bank didn't come through. They originally told me they had to hold the funds for 10 days while under investigation, but the head bank manager is a customer of mine and she pulled rank for me. Otherwise I would've really been screwed. I agree with Wells Fargo being evil, I also learned the hard way with them a few years ago. I now only bank locally. I think a quick call to the District Attorneys Office might light a fire under them. San Luis Obispo's District Attorney's Office has a special department for bad checks and credit card fraud, I would think such a thing exists in the Bay Area as well.

In the horrible event this happens to anyone, here is a resource guide.

Most states have made it possible for you to view your credit report for free annually. The Federal Trade Commission has a web site link that you can obtain copies from the 3 credit companies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. It is recommended that you review your credit report for inaccuracies and unauthorized activity. You will not be able to see your "credit score" without paying extra, but you can see what accounts are opened in your name.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm

If there is questionable activity, you can put a fraud alert on your credit reports for no charge for 3 months. They will also try to get you to buy a paid service in which you can review it monthly to watch for fraud.

here is the link to the legal rights for identity theft victims (downloadable pdf file)

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtsummary.pdf

Wow, thejab, that totally sucks. I used to bank at Wells Fargo, and I got a little jerked around too, not on something so serious thankfully, but I started using credit unions 10 years ago, and I'll never go back!
I think I have some passwords to go change. Also, I think that whenever possible, it's safer to use a credit card for all your daily transactions, and then pay off that credit card each month using your checking account. I think it would sort of reduce the visibility of your checking account, and all credit card companies now pretty much guarantee you won't be liable for fraudulent charges.
Citibank even does this thing where you get a "virtual" credit card number for shoppping online. They issue you a temporary account number for use online, that when used, equates back to your actual account. The virtual account is only live for a little while, so even if it gets intercepted, it won't be any good later on, and your real account number is protected.