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Identity Theft Victim Gets Last Laugh
Ovid writes "Being a bit of a hypocrite, I sometimes whine about privacy in my blog. I do, however, try to be careful about not letting anyone get information about me they shouldn't and I rarely, if ever, use a credit card online. This is why I was surprised to find out one morning that identity thieves had racked up thousands of dollars one two of my credit cards. By early afternoon, I caught them and the police arrested them."
never use a card when cash will get the job done. It might sound "cute", but it's the best way to protect your privacy - not to mention your bank account.
My digital rights don't need management.
In America, they'd laugh at you reported it and expected anything more than them simply filing it away on record. It's a lot like if your car is stolen. Just tough shit, as far as they're concerned.
Cash can be stolen and used easily. Cards can be stolen and used, but you can get the money back. Big difference.
Cards are way more convenient, less hassle in the long run, and let you get an accurate tally of what you spend. Cash just means constant trips to the ATM, spending money in dribs and drabs and forgetting about it, and the risk of getting mugged when you flash it too much.
You might have outsmarted them this time, but it's never a good idea to gloat. This is something you'll forget in time, but they're going to remember it for a lot longer than you are because they'll be the ones doing time for the crime. If they got really rough sentences because of you and spent several years in the slammer as a result, ten years later they could come looking for you to take away your life. Your credit cards would be the least of your problems.
My digital rights don't need management.
It seems a tad arrogant to declare "I caught them and had them arrested by afternoon." Why? Because if not for Discover, and Visa's fraud-alert services, you wouldn't have been the wiser for quite a while longer - days or weeks, perhaps. You didn't do this by yourself. To imply otherwise denies the actions of many people working behind the scenes to make sure that when this stuff happens, it doesn't ruin innocent people's lives.
My digital rights don't need management.
More evidence that credit card signatures are useless.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Come on, now.
Using a credit card online is much safer than using it at any restaurant in which someone takes it out of your sight, using it at a store at which an imprint is taken, or giving its number to someone on the telephone.
I do all of these, and like the vast majority of everyone else, I've never had a problem.
Many, if not most, online merchants, don't ever store your credit card number. The exceptions would be those who have a recurring charge capability and those who explicitly have the capability to store it.
Being aware of the security of your information is fine, but rejecting convenience without adquately weighing the relative risk is damned silly.
This isn't to say that the original poster doesn't have good practices when it comes to using his credit card at restaurants as well. However, nearly everyone I know who won't use a credit card online will pony it up at a restaurant without a second thought.
That some kid stole a couple thousand dollars from Discover Card and some Visa merchant - so what? This guy acts like they were stealing the money from him.
Don't you get it? This isn't play money. It's real money that the merchants, banks, and card processors have to cough up. Where do you think it comes from? Higher merchandise prices (or, eroded retail margins, and fewer mom-and-pop retailers as a result), higher bank fees, and higher transaction fees. All of that, all of it, trickles down to the paying consumer in one way or the other.
Thieves like this are taking it from all of us, however indirectly. They're parasites. I completely tip my hat to someone who busted a couple of these punks while their greasy (stolen) Denny's breakfast was still impacting their short-term blood pressure. Truly delightful.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Last year Wells Fargo calls me. It seems some doofus used my Wells Fargo Mastercard to buy, among other things, $1000 in Victoria's Secret gift certificates from the VS Website. The expriation date was wrong, and the transaction flagged. Wells Fargo did NOT authorize the purchase, and I wasn't billed. (Other smaller purchases, under $50, had been authorized earlier in the day, but they were now being charged back since I said I didn't make them.) Bravo to Wells Fargo for being diligent about this.
Of course, I want to catch these shitheats. Victoria's Secret has their shipping address, so I think it should be pretty easy to get that address, call the police, and have justice done.
WRONGO!!
I call Victorias Secret. They say they can only give the shipping address out to a police officer/detective conducting an investigation, or at the request of the Credit Card company (Wells Fargo.). OK. Fine. They don't want vigilantes.
I call local PD. They say that since I didn't lose any money (WF blocked or refunded all charges) there was no crime for them to persue. If anyone lost money, Wells Fargo did. Call them and have them call police.
I call Wells Fargo. They say THEY didn't lose any money; they cancelled or blocked the charges. If anyone lost anything of value, it is Victorias Secret for (apparently) shipping out the gift certificates immediately without a valid payment now, or a valid expiration date eariler. They would need to call the Police to start an investigation.
"But I just called them! They don't care about who did this. They sent me to the local PD, and they sent me to you," I say. "I just want to know who did this. They have an address, but they'll only issue it to you or the PD."
The conversation took TWO more laps around these three parties before I gave up.
The story linked to in this post gives basically the same story in the sense that the local PD didn't give a shit about this crime in terms of investing ANY investigational effort. It was up to the poor victim to do all the legwork, and even THEN, the police seem like they take their sweet time getting there to catch the jerk-off criminals.
I bet the local DA pleads them down to nothing without a trial too.
In short, it seems that only determined application of stupidity on the part of credit card theives, along with an angry, lucky, motivated victom working hard at finding the theif, is the ONLY way these shitheads will ever get caught.
I don't even know why I work for a living...
leave it to /. readers to get upset about credit card frauders getting caught.
Excessive taxes help prevent school shootings?
Why don't we see anti-gun campaigners making more of this revelation?
Well done man, but the syringe portion gave me a chill. The syringe part is more than just evidence...what the cop did was both illegal and insanely dangerous. "Sharps" are considered hazardous medical waste and in every state MUST be disposed of in a proper labeled container (NOT a Coke bottle.) They must be given to a company licensed to dispose of hazardous or medical waste and destroyed, usually in these massive incinerators. (I was a med student once...)
.45. Never had to fire a shot, but I was absolutely ready to drop all three of them and they knew it. The other time I just opened my vest to a knife wielding mugger, we both smiled and he ran off like Carl Lewis doing the 100. Protect yourself!
Ironic as this sounds, what the cop did with those sharps (syringes) was more dangerous than your identity theft. Most likely, the manager chucked the bottle in the trash, and those needles are possibly now being reused by some dumpster diving junkie. Who knows what viruses, bacteria, whatnot those kids had lurking in their blood.
I'm insanely proud of your victory but I gently suggest calling the Red Lion, and TELL them that 'dirty needles' are somewhere in their trash. Two asshole identity theives in jail is small change compared to a trash collector or Red Lion employee getting Lyme, AIDS or septicemia, and spreading it to his family.
Also, those guys know who you are, are obvious heavy druggies and probably don't like you very much right now. They'll be out one day. Consider a pistol permit. I ALWAYS carry, and that's saved my life twice. Get some professional training , and practice every week, too. My close scrapes: Three guys went at me with crowbars (carjacking attempt in a parking lot...liked my M3) and their eyes got as large as frisbees when in under half a second they saw the business end of my Les Baer
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
I think you have "thief" confused with thief. They really stole his money. And why wouldn't the people at Denny's help him? He has his credit card and ID to prove that he is who he says he is. If someone else used the same card number they obviously weren't supposed to.
That some kid stole a couple thousand dollars from Discover Card and some Visa merchant - so what? This guy acts like they were stealing the money from him.If someone stole your car, would you say, "So what? They're only stealing from the insurance company."? A defrauded man, his credit card companies, restaurant & hotel employees, and the police come together to arrest two thieves and somehow this is a bad thing? This is the way things should work, people taking responsibility and looking after their own interests and those of others.
I mean, whatever, how much food does Denny's throw away every day anyway?
Well, that's just stupid. Tell that to the waitress who served them and didn't get a dime when she could have gotten a real tip from non-criminals. Probably an overworked old lady who needed the money, too.
One thing that people should realize is that when an anonymous big corporation gets hurt, it's not really a corporation that's getting hurt. It's the stockholders. It's everyone that has a 401(k) or a mutual fund or any other diversified investment. These aren't rich day-traders, these are old people living off this money, or young people trying to save a few bucks for when they can't work any more.
What this guy did was every bit as noble as if he tackled a purse-snatcher. No, it's not his money, but it's someone's money, and that's a real, normal person just like you. He won't get a direct benefit, but he contributed to society.
Social scientists are inspired by theories; scientists are humbled by facts.
Amazing what can be accomplished by excessive taxs and a fraction of the number of people, isn't it.
Yeah, that's something... Canada gets universal healthcare, and a police force that actually works FOR the people... And we get two pieces of desert that we'll eventually have to give back.
Yeah, it's a great deal, ain't it? So much for the so called "conservatives"... The only thing they're interested in conserving is their bank accounts.
It might be fun to think about, but in real life the situation is much more straightforward if there is only one set of criminals in the picture. Battery is a crime, and the story wouldn't be nearly as compelling if it ended with our protagonist going to jail instead of the thieves.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
believe what youd like...
I know what Ive done...
And I know how to keep others from doing it.. so I may as well put that knowlege to use.
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
Ive been watching this thread, and it seems to me you're the common ilk that does these very "exploits".
Anybody can double-scan a CC. Hell, I even made a card-scanner/rewriter from casette parts. Didnt work very well, but it worked. I can also copy down 20 digit numbers, just like everybody else.
And really, I do know how simple it is to "rip CC #'s off". Thats what the script kiddies usually start at. Seems you just ended at that point, which says a whole lot about yourself.
And no, I dont need to talk about me. Im not the one with the over-inflated ego to brag on Slashdot.
Sad, sad, sad.
1st time you saved your car
With great respect, I don't agree, I saved my life. One was sitting on my car's bumper. The other then two ran towards at me full speed with full length crowbars. You think a raised 4 foot crowbar in the hands of a running attacker just wants to gently ask for my keys?
One hit on the head and bye bye droopus. The police caught the same theives days later after they had bludgeoned a woman into a coma, and stole her car.
Ok here are your choices: feel good about being PC and unarmed, and (God forbid) possibly end up a vegetable in a hospice or on a slab. Or learn to protect yourself, professionally, safely and effectively and live to a ripe old age.
Which do you want to bet your life on?
Do what you feel is right for YOU, all I ask is that you extend me the same courtesy. Unless you threaten me or my family with deadly force (and for NO other reason whatsoever) I wouldn't harm a fly. Fair?
I will admit, training is every bit as important as the decision. I have taken hundreds of hours of training, up to the SWAT level at Blackwater, and am probably better than 90% of AMericans who carry, including cops (many of whom are terrible shots.) Owning and carrying firearms is an awesome responsibility, I do not take it lightly, and unlike the NRA and most gun owners I SUPPORT yearly, tough, proficiency tests, which makes me rather unpopular in the gun world. But that's the way I see it.
It gets even tougher for criminals in my home where I keep my Winchester 1300 SWAT shotgun with 8 rounds of 00 Buck under the bed.
My 180 pound bloodhound, Flop, who can smell an unfamiliar person anywhere near my property and is gun trained is added protection.
NO ONE is going to fuck with my family. And yes, my line of work makes me have reasons to be this secure.
Murderers carry guns too.
Damn right they do. So, we should allow them to be the only ones who do?
If they carry one into my house they get carried out in a body bag, though.
"The pie shall be cut in half and each man shall receive.....death. I'll eat the pie."
Yea, right. I bet it will be difficult to find anyone on this thread that knows you personally to back you up on this. what? Next thing you'll tell me I'm supposed to see Ovid on Sunday...
Even if the transmission is encrypted, it won't do much good if there's a keylogger on the system.
Thanks Matt. Really, though, many in the /. crowd just want a chance to take someone down a peg. And while my story's true, you have to admit, it's pretty weird. I can understand a few people doubting me.