My identity has been STOLEN

[noviapriani]

A few days ago I received a Walmart card good for up to $400.  Got it registered, but don't think I will use it as I don't like making monthly payments.  Then I received a letter from PayPal that said I had asked for $188.11 credit to shop at Walmart.  Fortunately, they refused me.  I called one credit check company who said they would notify the other two and my account now has an "Alert" on it, and none will take any action of sending a credit report until they call me.

I called Walmart and cancelled the card.

I do my shopping on line and wonder if I should also notify anyone else I shop with, like Chewys for my cat food; Montgomery Ward; Penneys; Overstock.  And I pay my bills with my credit card by calling their 800 numbers - telephone, Montgomery Ward, other bills.

[1713901160]

1713901160

[MsCollec]

You don't need to buy ID theft protection to protect your identity? Think again...

[Decksperiment]

Thank fuck for cash

[Darude Sandstorm]

I don't get how you think your identiity has been stolen from this? Looks like they got into your paypal all Walmart account but that's about it.

[sana8410]

I would notify all of the companies you shop with and make sure no purchases are sent to any other address but yours and notify your credit card company as well and ask for a new card.

[(oYo)]

And that my friends is why I don't participate in all the phishing threads in the forum, except for maybe a little harmless fun where I'll post something bogus. There was even a thread that had the audacity to ask for your mother's maiden name a while back. People are far too trusting with their personal information.

[Rigon]

A few days ago I received a Walmart card good for up to $400.  Got it registered, but don't think I will use it as I don't like making monthly payments.  Then I received a letter from PayPal that said I had asked for $188.11 credit to shop at Walmart.  Fortunately, they refused me.  I called one credit check company who said they would notify the other two and my account now has an "Alert" on it, and none will take any action of sending a credit report until they call me.

I called Walmart and cancelled the card.

I do my shopping on line and wonder if I should also notify anyone else I shop with, like Chewys for my cat food; Montgomery Ward; Penneys; Overstock.  And I pay my bills with my credit card by calling their 800 numbers - telephone, Montgomery Ward, other bills.

Don't accept or follow up on any unsolicited "gifts" from people you don't know.  That's the first thing.  No one just gifts people out of the blue, for no apparent or fathomable reason, especially if they are fronting for a "business".    The problem as I see it is you are naive to a fault, and suspicious always, particularly when you've been had.  You don't have to invite it in, in the first place.  Long way to say if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

[umair127]

If you did not solicited a $400 gift card for Walmart, I would think when you went to "register" it, you gave information that probably gave the scammers enough identifying information to try and rip you off. 

[noviapriani]

I don't get how you think your identiity has been stolen from this? Looks like they got into your paypal all Walmart account but that's about it.

Walmart said I was pre-approved if I wanted the card, and I decided that I did want it.  So they sent out via postal service.  I had not used it at all when this PayPal thing cropped up.  I have cancelled the card, and I am calling all to whom I have given my card so they know not to charge anything until they call me.

Walmart has done nothing wrong, and I am not being scammed by them.

[Rigon]

Has anyone else experienced this?
Actually not a lot except for the past few weeks this same Indian (probably Delhi or Calcutta) man keeps calling me because he doesn't have enough sense to take this landline # off his list.  He can't decide if he's from Microsoft Windows or if he's Robert or Michael or Barbara from one day to the next.  One day he wanted very badly to help me get my government grant.  I think he was Margaret that day. 

I've developed this shtick I do with him and have great fun with it.  I'm the addled man (senior) who is very excited to hear from...Nelson, is it?  bearing gifts and concern.

[umair127]

Has anyone else experienced this?

I went in to the local IRS office to file and pay my annual taxes.

The lady drew up my SS # and said I had already filed.

I said I had NOT, and she gave me the bogus town I had supposedly filed from. She said they had sent my refund there. I have NEVER received any refund per plan.

I gave her my CPA created tax return and a check for my delta owed, and asked what would happen. She said that two or four agents would go to the bogus address, collect license plate numbers, names from their mailbox, run those names through their system to create a file on the perp.

Once they had all the evidence they needed they would arrest the perp with Fraud charges plus half a dozen others, and take them to trial. She said that unfortunately they would probably be out of prison within a decade.

[Mr.Bitty]

As you know this is becoming a serious problem.  If I were you I would call your bank and ask them what they recommend.  All it usually takes is for them to send you a new card with a different number. Also by law you are responsible only for the first 5o dollars if they do honor the purchase. However you usually have to tell them that you will write to the attorney general if they do not want to do this.  Notice I said write as business knows that just  phone call to the district attorney will not mean anything it must be in writing.

[PeanutCoins]

You are not alone.  Last month I had a charge on my credit card that was not mine.  It is a credit card that I do not use often, only for medical bills mostly so I know the theft occurred at the doctor's office or the billing center.  None one else had access to the number.  I promptly canceled the card and got a new number.  I would recommend that you check your credit card activity daily.

[Rigon]

Has anyone else experienced this?

I went in to the local IRS office to file and pay my annual taxes.

The lady drew up my SS # and said I had already filed.

I said I had NOT, and she gave me the bogus town I had supposedly filed from. She said they had sent my refund there. I have NEVER received any refund per plan.

I gave her my CPA created tax return and a check for my delta owed, and asked what would happen. She said that two or four agents would go to the bogus address, collect license plate numbers, names from their mailbox, run those names through their system to create a file on the perp.

Once they had all the evidence they needed they would arrest the perp with Fraud charges plus half a dozen others, and take them to trial. She said that unfortunately they would probably be out of prison within a decade.

there is always Karma.  A few years back I had a case of mistaken ident, FUBAR records----  some guy was stopped on a routine traffic stop, gave the cop his DL, which included his name, dob, and pob.  Cop ran W/W and he came up wanted for homicide in state of Washington.  After he was fingerprinted and had spent three days in jail, it turns out he had stolen the identity of someone, got a DL and matching documents, ran up a lot of bills, and the only ID handy when he was stopped was this fraudulent ID.

[noviapriani]

You are not alone.  Last month I had a charge on my credit card that was not mine.  It is a credit card that I do not use often, only for medical bills mostly so I know the theft occurred at the doctor's office or the billing center.  None one else had access to the number.  I promptly canceled the card and got a new number.  I would recommend that you check your credit card activity daily.

I did that once, cancelled my credit card before a charge was able to be put on it.  That was a case of someone offering me something I thought was legit and turned out to be a scam.  In a way, I'm glad I'm not alone in this and in another way I'm sorry this kind of thing happens.  I will be diligent from now on.  I do keep running tabs on my bank account and when there's a charge I don't recognize, I call the bank.  It has always turned out to be myself who paid for something and forgot to write it down in the register.

[umair127]

Has anyone else experienced this?
Actually not a lot except for the past few weeks this same Indian (probably Delhi or Calcutta) man keeps calling me because he doesn't have enough sense to take this landline # off his list.  He can't decide if he's from Microsoft Windows or if he's Robert or Michael or Barbara from one day to the next.  One day he wanted very badly to help me get my government grant.  I think he was Margaret that day. 

I've developed this shtick I do with him and have great fun with it.  I'm the addled man (senior) who is very excited to hear from...Nelson, is it?  bearing gifts and concern.

Yes, I was getting calls from someone (with an Indian accent) who was supposedly representing Windows and needed to help me fix problems that my computer was having.  They knew this supposedly because my computer was sending them error messages.  Yeah, right.  The first couple of times I actually tried to argue with him.  But I've cut down on the number of calls I'm getting from them by just simply saying "I don't have a computer", they immediately hang up.