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Corporate Identity Theft on the Rise
prostoalex writes "As millions of Americans lose their identities to online and offline thieves, a new kind of crime has been cooked up by the criminals who are not bothering with doing pesky credit card charges. They steal entire companies, opening up merchant accounts for existing businesses and running up charges from aforementioned stolen credit card numbers. What's worse, is that the hole the criminals exploit seems to be built into the system. According to Bob Sullivan from MSNBC, "Many of the processing firms interviewed for this article claimed they caught on to the fraud after the transactions had cleared, but before the suspects had withdrawn the money from various checking accounts around the country. One did concede, however, that the scheme has real potential.""
I hate it when the mass media call it "identify theft." If someone impersonates me, he's not taking away my identity, he's committing fraud.
Repeat after me... intangible and intellectual "property" cannot be "stolen." It can only be used in unauthorized ways.
If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out? - Will Rogers
Does anyone else have a problem with the level of detail in the article? They not only report on the scam, but tell exactly how it was carried off. They've even provided the names of the merchant transaction companies which can be suckered.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
Never mistake silence for disinterest (or assent, for that matter).
The FBI could be very interested in the Pakistan and Russian connections. However they are very unlikely to be discussing details of the case with regular civilians.
Or they could be disinterested.
Why cant you just go and legitimately buy a whole series of off the shelf companies?
Then you get a totally legit and above board merchant account to run your stolen cards through.
Here in the uk you can see ads for pre-created legitimate shell companies that you can buy cheaply and rename to cut out the hassle and legal niceities of creating a limited company from scratch.
another Roadkill on the Information Superhighway
1. Start off as a person not using credit.
;-)
2. Apply for a moderately difficult to get account, such as a 9.5% preferred visa card, and not a simple card to get (i.e. a 21% Sears card).
3. On the application, list a low income, a job like "writer", and stipulate your income is irregular.
4. You now have been rejected for credit, and this will stay on your credit score for at least 2 years. At this point, the companies that would have issued you a small limit - high interest card won't see the reasons you were rejected, just that you were.
5. If you want to make really sure, repeat steps 2-4 a few times.
If you ever need to reverse this, complete a new application with a (hopefully true) higher listed income from a steadier paying job, voluntarily requesting a smaller line of credit that the maximum they will offer that income bracket.
At the worst, you may have to write a letter to one of the credit review agencies to make sure your record is properly updated, but no one in the more responsible side of the credit industry is going to blacklist you, and the less responsible side of the industry just looks at the highlights of the records Providian and the other review services provide.
This will not stop real fools from sending you letters that say you have been pre-approved for a line of credit based on your home ownership, even though you don't own a home. There are companies that have sent tens of thousands of offers out to minor children, and even one that sent several thousands of credit offers out to a list of people's pets some scammer had sold them after obtaining it from veterinary records.
These companies typically charge high rates and have lots of hidden penalties, have a lot of fraud committed against them, and in return play dirty in trying to collect from most of their clients. They work with collection agencies that will violate state laws whenever they think they can get away with it. They often fall afoul of the law themselves, and actually have a poor return on investment. Nothing short of finally going out of business will stop such fools from being scammed and wasting your time in return if someone commits a fraud agaisnt them using your identity.
Sorry I couldn't leave out step 2
Who is John Cabal?
You only use 2% of your DNA
Thus the credit card companies who repay the merchant but don't persecute
the fraudsters even with a lot of evidence are PART OF THE PROBLEM
Yes, the credit card companies have it nailed down to the last dollar - Will it cost more to
a) Prosecute the fraudsters
b) Repay the merchant
They choose B in most cases. There's a high cost of litigation in this country.
Same with car insurance. I was sued in an obviously bogus manner once, AAA even admitted when I called them that the lawsuit was a total fraud. Yet, they paid the $15,000 (and raised my insurance a couple hundred a year) because it would have cost them too much to take the case to court.
This is a smart business decision for credit card and insurance companies in the short term, but not in the long run.
"Teachers leave us kids alone
Actually, we tried to have fraud alerts placed in all three credit reporting agencies. The problem is that credit reporting agencies are just as bad (if not worse) than the credit card companies themselves. Since the credit card companies are their customers, and not the people they're gathering information on, they won't actually talk to you. To get a fraud alert, you have to send them a request, in writing. One of the agencies did this immediately. Another did so after a lot of harrassment. The third never did put it on. This was after following all the correct procedures. Once the fraud alerts were on, we ran into them exactly one time while applying for instant credit. In this case, it was a home depot card. The people at the store put me on the phone with their credit department. The woman asked, "Do you know why I'm talking to you?" I mentioned the fraud alert and that was it. Here's your card. No other proof was required. I bought a car without a word from the bank who wrote the loan. Fraud alerts are a joke.
If someone gets your information, you're hosed. There's only one thing you can do. It was modded +5 funny, but another post hit the nail on the head. Burn your credit rating.
Disconnect your television. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions. They're probably lying. Don't be a sheep.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=disint