Victim of identity theft, what else do I need to do?

[bill dennison]

Block Electronic Access If you know your Social Security information has been compromised, you can request to Block Electronic Access. This is done by calling our National 800 number (Toll Free 1-800-772-1213 or at our TTY number at 1-800-325-0778). Once requested, any automated telephone and electronic access to your Social Security record is blocked. No one, including you, will be able to see or change your personal information on the internet or through our automated telephone service. If you have requested that we block access to your record and change your mind in the future, you can contact us and ask to have the block removed. You will need to prove your identity when you call

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10220.pdf

[Eisberg]

Yup, the Police department closed both reports (burglary report and credit card fraud report) with no action taken by the police at all.

Also Access Corrections is disputing our dispute, saying that our dispute is invalid because the correct billing address with zipcode was used, which of course because they got my wife's driver license which has our address and zipcode on it.

Our bank contacted us about the dispute needing us to state that we do not recognize the charge, we do not know who the person is that is in prison that the money went too, they did give us the name of the person. I also provided them the case numbers of both police reports.

I did look up this person, and these are the charges that were against him back in 2020, though I don't know what he was found guilty for. I could only find notice of his hearing online.

F2 - POSS W/ INTENT TO DIST C/SUBSTANCE - 01/26/20
F3 - PURCH, TRANS, POSSESS, USE OF A FIREARM BY
RESTRICTED PERSON - 01/26/20
MA - POSSESSION OR USE OF A CONTROLLED
SUBSTANCE - 01/26/20
MB - USE OR POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA - 01/26/20
MC - OPERATE VEH W/O LICENSE OR REGIST
(SUSPENDED OR REVOKED) - 01/26/20
IN - FAILURE TO REGISTER OR EXPIRED VEHICLE
REGISTRATION - 01/26/20

Also since this time, we have seen no new credit report activity for my wife, they tried to get a Target credit card and it failed due to the lock and fraud warning we put on all 3 credit reporting agencies, so looks like that put a stop on them trying to use her identity.

Though I am not sure how we find out if her social security is being used to gain employment by someone else.

[Munkus]

I hope that our case would be "low hanging fruit" because the thief literally sent money from our debit card to a specific inmate. I think that is a huge lead, because obviously the thief is someone that knows that inmate.

You'd be surprised at how little interest law enforcement has in such things. Especially when the amount of theft is relatively low. Use the police report for the credit card dispute, but don't count on the cops lifting a finger.

[Eisberg]

Police reports won't be useful. They may take a report, but they won't do anything about it. I guess it's good to have it on record though at least, but they won't do any investigations on it.

He did the right thing contacting the agencies and his bank though.

I hope that our case would be "low hanging fruit" because the thief literally sent money from our debit card to a specific inmate. I think that is a huge lead, because obviously the thief is someone that knows that inmate.

[acroig]

I know the cops won't actually do anything, but I believe that a police report is sometimes required when you are claiming that charges on your card are fraudulent. Depends on many things, but I do know that credit card companies can use this report as "proof" that the card was indeed stolen and you are not responsible for the charge.

This.

[Munkus]

Police reports won't be useful. They may take a report, but they won't do anything about it. I guess it's good to have it on record though at least, but they won't do any investigations on it.

He did the right thing contacting the agencies and his bank though.

I know the cops won't actually do anything, but I believe that a police report is sometimes required when you are claiming that charges on your card are fraudulent. Depends on many things, but I do know that credit card companies can use this report as "proof" that the card was indeed stolen and you are not responsible for the charge.

[xCLAVEx]

Sorry to hear that. Fking thieves.

Check out: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-e...s-been-stolen/

Did you file a police report?

Police reports won't be useful. They may take a report, but they won't do anything about it. I guess it's good to have it on record though at least, but they won't do any investigations on it.

He did the right thing contacting the agencies and his bank though.

[SubCog]

My dad recently went through something similar. He's 70+ and seems to be getting more gullible every day. He got an email saying that Norton Security had charged him $300 for an auto-renewal, and that he should call them to reverse it if it was a mistake. He let them take over his desktop, sign into his bank account, etc. They were able to get all of the passwords off of his computer.

So at one stage in the scam, they moved $3,000 between accounts within his bank profile (they couldn't move $$ out of his account without a two-factor authentication), then told him they had accidentally refunded him too much $$, and he would have to transfer the remaining $2,700 back to them. At that point, my dad realized it was a scam and called my brother. They called the bank and had all of his cards cancelled, reset all of his passwords, etc. They spent 2 weekends going through all of my dad's accounts, passwords, etc., and setting up a password manager for everything.

So my dad didn't lose any $$, but it was a bit of a wake-up call for him. Traditionally he's been a reasonably savvy man, and would not have fallen for such a scheme 10 years ago. He seems to be losing some of his mental faculties generally, and he's been falling for alot of crazy stuff (political, conspiracy theories, etc.) in his old age. Not sure whether there's a long-term solution, as he's not going to be getting younger/smarter over the next several years. Luckily, I've got other siblings who are closer to my parents, and are expected to be the ones assisting them with stuff as they age, so I don't have to think much about it myself.

I can see why scammers target elderly people.

[bill dennison]

reading that, I don't it will apply to my wife, at least yet:



So far the only thing that has happened is an attempt to get a credit card, which failed because I froze her credit report with all the credit agencies.

they they keep trying or sell the number

i think i would call or contact your local Social Security office and see what they say

[Eisberg]

i think the best thing is to get a new social security number

https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02220

reading that, I don't it will apply to my wife, at least yet:

A victim of identity theft continues to be disadvantaged by using the original number

So far the only thing that has happened is an attempt to get a credit card, which failed because I froze her credit report with all the credit agencies.

[JZL]

When my wife was scammed last year we had to open and close all the accounts, including checking and savings at the bank.

This was the old Amazon fake iPhone purchase scam.
She gave the imposters access to her laptop, which she used to do all her money stuff. I thought I posted here at the time but maybe not.

I'm surprised since your wife's debit card was stolen that the bank didn't have you burn down that account.

[bill dennison]

i think the best thing is to get a new social security number

https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02220

[koralis]

A coworker had someone filing a false tax return on his behalf. You might want to proactively contact the irs and talk to them about it.

[Canesfan2020]

I already filed the police report.

I just want to make sure there isn't anything else that I need to do to protect my wife's identity.

I wonder if the IRS online account will show us employment history/pay, so if we see employment pay that doesn't belong to her show up that we can inform the IRS about that fraud? That is the only thing I can think of that her SSN can potentially be used for at this time.

Unemployment fraud largely comes down to the employer. They get notification when a claim is made. If they are paying attention that should be detected so you can make a report.

[bill dennison]

I already filed the police report.

I just want to make sure there isn't anything else that I need to do to protect my wife's identity.

I wonder if the IRS online account will show us employment history/pay, so if we see employment pay that doesn't belong to her show up that we can inform the IRS about that fraud? That is the only thing I can think of that her SSN can potentially be used for at this time.

https://www.equifax.com/personal/edu...security-card/

[Eisberg]

I already filed the police report.

I just want to make sure there isn't anything else that I need to do to protect my wife's identity.

I wonder if the IRS online account will show us employment history/pay, so if we see employment pay that doesn't belong to her show up that we can inform the IRS about that fraud? That is the only thing I can think of that her SSN can potentially be used for at this time.

[Lazy8s]

Yep file that police report. The more info they have the better.

Best of luck Eisberg.

[bill dennison]

any keys in the bag ?

may need to change locks


.........

my social security card is in a draw somehere since the last time i wahsed my wallet and it

[Munkus]

Sorry to hear that. Fking thieves.

Check out: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-e...s-been-stolen/

Did you file a police report?

[Eisberg]

Yesterday our car was broken into and they stole my wife's backpack, which had 5 books and a kindle paperwhite in it. Unfortunately her wallet was also in it and she had her social security card inside due to needing it for proof of identity earlier this week.

What I have done so far is:

- Freeze all credit with the credit reporting agency's
- Set up Fraud Alert with all credit reporting agency's
- reported the debit card as stolen.
- Set up a pin with the IRS so that a pin must be used in order to file taxes

Am I missing anything?

The thieves did try to set up a Target credit card account, in which the credit report freezing prevented them from doing that.

The thieves were able to use the debit card once before it was reported stolen, in which they used it online to send money to someone in prison through a service called access.
https://www.accesscorrections.com/#/
They spent $406 through that service. I reported it as fraud.