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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."
The canadian mounties have a new branch devoted to identity theft and they solved my case in a week. They are amazing.
For those who haven't seen it (Like anyone in this crowd wouldnt have seen this), I'd suggest reading the P-P-P-Powerbook Story as a great compliment. These stories of Scammers getting Scammed never get old.
> and I rarely, if ever, use a credit card online.
Don't you know whether you do or not?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
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.
If you just send your full name, birth date, address, social security number, credit card numbers with expiration dates to securemyidentity@gmail.com, we will monitor your credit record and make sure that you never have to worry about your good credit record ever again.
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.
More evidence that credit card signatures are useless.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Calling the cops three times on your cellphone: 68 cents.
Driving to Denny's at 96 miles per hour: $1.10 in gas.
Seeing identity-thieving bastards hauled off in handcuffs before your very eyes: priceless.
There are some things money can buy. For everything else, there's adrenaline and instincts.
Yup. I'm the same Ovid.
That's a fair question.
In this case, I happen to be "Curtis Poe", a grant manager for The Perl Foundation and in the small world of Perl, I'm moderately well-known. If I were caught making up stories like this, my reputation, and possibly my career, would be ruined.
Also, I hope to post the police report when I get it.
They closed that account and notified me immediately without authorizing any sales. I called the credit card company and found that in fact there had been three or four transactions on my card which I hadn't made. They weren't for a lot: there was one for a tank of gas, and the total was for less than a thousand dollars. The credit card company took care of the charges but seemed totally uninterested in pursuing the matter, even after I provided them contact information at Amazon. Amazon could not give me the information directly, but were anxious to provide it to the issuing bank. and urged me to contact my local law enforcement agencies.
Stupidly, I didn't contact local law, but kept badgering the issuing bank. Finally I gave up and cancelled the account. The original card had of course been cancelled immediately when I reported the problem, but I no longer had any confidence in the bank.
It's pretty bad when Amazon does a better job of tracking my credit card than the issuing bank does. Of course, I still do business with Amazon and I don't do business with that bank so maybe there's a moral there somewhere.
People sure have been jumping on this identity theft band wagon for about the last year. This isn't identity theft, it is Credit Card Fraud.
Identity theft would be if I opened up a credit card using your social or if I obtained a loan using your social.
Credit Card Fraud is stealing your credit card information and using it.
Too bad the media just keeps misleading people to believe the two are one and the same.
Looks like this guy caught his own criminal. Unlike the rest of you lazy slobs.
Sigs are like bumper stickers.
And all I can say is ... "SHRED THOSE CHECKS, DUMMY!". I have a discover card and get those all the time. I *Do NOT* toss them out. They get shredded in about 1 million little pieces.
I shred just about anything that might have any information about me, my family, or my bills or creditors/debtors. This guy coulda saved himself some grief. The kid prolly saw him check his mail from a PO box and then shake his head and toss the checks in the trash, where he retrieved them.
In fact, it bugs me Discover sends me those checks all the time. I never use them, probably never will, and wish they wouldn't send them so frequently.
FLR
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.
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...
Except they don't really walk off with your hard earned money. I worked at XYZ credit card bank in their inward fraud department and it was usually something as simple as saying "These charges aren't mine." I say, "OK", tag them as such, and the merchant needs to come up with proof otherwise they pay. Usually, if we suspected it is a family member (say, calls to 900#s originating from their home), we ask them if they are willing to prosecute. That's the tough choice usually, if they know their $relative has been using their card.
But usually the maximum you are responsible under federal law is $50 for any fraud (not per charge, for all the fraud). A lot of places will waive that and pay it themselves so you don't get pissed off.
One time, I got a call in from someone who suspected this person was using a stolen card. They were at an electronics store buying a big screen TV and the teller said the guy looked suspicious. Well, we get the card info while the manager acts like he's "processing the order", we call the number associated with the account, and I ask, "Sir, are you in a store right now buying a big screen TV?"
He says, "No, I am not."
"Do you have your XYS Visa on you?"
"Yeah, it's right her--- where'd it go?"
We called the cops while the guy was waiting around for his TV to get prepared.
Anyway, long story short,the article is not about "identity theft" since the guy just stole the guy's credit card number / mail somehow, just regular fraud. It is an interesting article though. And what he described is pretty common. Figure we havd a group of about 50 people working full-time just talking on the phone with people who suspected fraud. This was not counting the people who called customers who may have fraud, nor the people investigating the fraud either.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Some tips for carrying cash, from a semi-professional gambler who occasionally carries thousands of dollars around:
Cash can be stolen and used easily. Cards can be stolen and used, but you can get the money back. Big difference.
Pay by value is much better than pay by reference.
If you lose cash, you lose the value, but no pointer escapes the transaction. If you pay by reference, you leave a trail of pointers around increasing the risk of someone dereferencing your wallet.
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."
Wrong answer. Thank you for playing. We have wonderful consolation prizes for you (or not.)
For what it's worth, and as I noted earlier in this thread, I'm actually fairly well-known in the Perl community. I'm a grant manager for the Perl Foundation, a scheduled speaker at the next OSCON, and an occasional technical book reviewer for O'Reilly. If I dared to create a lie this huge, my reputation would be ruined. I generally get job offers because of who I am. That would go away. Regardless of what you may think of my story, I'm not so stupid as to make this up.
They did have a photocopy of ID of one of the thieves. However, the registration (made through hotels.com) was still billed to me. And as for your info about the credit card companies, I know nothing about your experience, but it is vastly different from mine. If you have any credit cards, call and ask to speak to their fraud department (or, more likely, navigate through all of the damned menus they have.) I'm sure they'll be happy to set you straight.
1) I have stayed at that Red Lion in Portland.
;-)
2) I have eaten at that Denny's as well.
3) I have checked my email on the computer in the lobby.
4) A PuTTY icon on the desktop should have clued me in that I should not have checked my email there.
5) Over the next 3 days, my ISP account was used to spam strangers like crazy, before I finally changed my password.
6) This was almost 2 years ago.
Nice to see the Red Lion is still such a hotbed of criminal activity
"Love heals scars love left." -- Henry Rollins