The San Francisco Chronicle has a unbelievable story about a woman who literally chased down and caught a perpetrator who had stolen her identity. By breaking into the victim’s mailbox the thief managed to capture social security numbers and debit and credit cards in the victim’s name. With this information she was able to forge driver licenses that enabled her to continually open new accounts. When the victim recognized the perpetrator in a Starbucks one morning the chase was on.
Check out the article. It’s a reminder to ask your bank to stop sending secure information through the mail.
M says
Wow, that was quite the story. Scary! I need to look into how to better protect myself against identity theft. Strange things we have to worry about these days, huh?
I am a pharmacist says
I am continuously sending emails and calling my credit card companies to stop send me ‘convenience’ checks. I usually get a response of o.k., but it will take up to 6 weeks to stop them….sigh.
Anonymous says
Wow! Thanks for sharing
credit card sceptic says
Have you heard the story about a bank issueing a credit card in a cat’s name? That’s it for banks’ security system. That’s why we have this huge identity theft problem. It’s not because the fraudsters are so smart – it’s because the banks are so careless!
Credit Card Analyst says
We can’t throw all the responsibilities to the bankers. We need to insure our mailbox is safe and checked often.