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Identity Thief Apprehended By Victim
ewhac writes "Karen Lodrick was entering her sixth month of hell dealing with the repercussions of having her identity stolen and used to loot her accounts. But while she was waiting for a beverage, there standing in line was the woman who appeared on Wells Fargo security video emptying her accounts. What followed was a 45 minute chase through San Francisco streets that ended with the thief being taken into custody by police."
Lucky for the identity thief they ended up in the police station and not the morgue. If you were on the jury and the victim had beaten the thief to death... would you convict? I'm not sure I would.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
With a little bit of digging, I got the name, address and phone of two of the people who got to use my debit card three years ago. One bought a Nextel cell phone, the other paid their Progressive insurance bill. I called Progressive and escalated this, and asked them what they were going to do. The answer? "I guess next time she'll have to pay cash."
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Someone had used my credit card number to buy a cell phone. When I saw the charge on my CC statement, I called the cell phone company (can't remember which one it was anymore) and asked what address it went to. Even though they paid for it with my credit card, they said they weren't allowed to provide me with any information. I called my credit card company, got a new card, and told them what I knew. Since the money came out of their pocket and not mine, I assume they didn't quit that easily.
Ben Hocking
Need a professional organizer?
This woman was in a department store and was purchasing something. As she approached the counter, she handed the clerk her credit card. The clerk went to use the machine but it apparently wasn't working, so she had to use a phone to call in the card. A short time later, a security guard came over and grabbed the customer. The cashier had actually called in a code to have the guard come by. The clerk said that she realized the woman was committing identity theft.
The astonished customer couldn't believe it, and asked the cashier how on earth she knew. She said, "Because that's my name on the card, and that's my credit card that had been stolen."
-- Paul Robinson - My BlogThe lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
While real problems and challenges like privacy and identity theft go ignored, they waste their time on crap like "National milk drinking day" and raising funds so they can leave more problems unsolved.
We are in the midst of an identity fraud crime wave, made possible by more intrusive technology and fewer regulations that limit the sharing of that information. There is a limit to the solutions that the individual can do - it can only be accomplished on a national level. Unfortunately, there is no leadership of any sort at the national level in the US. The head of the fish has completely rotted away.
"First you get the Linux, then you get the power, THEN you get the women"
We as a society really have our priorities out of whack. DUI? Home confinement in your mansion (no, I'm not linking to the stories about you-know-who). One teenager has consensual sex with another teenager? Throw him in jail for 10 years.
Steal someones identity, multiple times, costing the victims thousands of dollars in cash and lost time? Probation. Hell, I got people in my city getting probation for serious gun crimes. WTF?
Wells Fargo doesn't give a damn about fraud. A few years ago I noticed a charge for under 10 bucks to a business in Tijuana. I called WF. They told me not to worry about it since it was still a pending charge because someone "probably just entered one of the digits on the card wrong." (yes, i know all about checksums...) Not satisfied, I called back and spoke with someone else. In all, three different WF employees told me not to worry about it.
A week later, it was a firm charge, no longer pending. I called back. Explained what happened again. They transferred me to a bilingual account specialist because the fraud happened in Mexico, yet I've never been there, don't speak Spanish, and I live 2,000 miles away. "They told you not to worry about it?!?!!"
Instead of issuing me a new card like they said they would, all they did was vow to block all activity to my account from the one place that it had been abused with. No new card. And they never made a fraud report because "it was only 10 bucks." Uh, someone has my card details and you're not going to do anything.
WF wasn't pleased when I closed my accounts the next day.
"Amount to be determined"? How about ALL OF IT?
That would be funny if it weren't so personally painful. If I were still on Paxil it would make a good Paxil Diary (actually I wrote it up but haven't yet put it online anywhere). I had my car (mint condition 2002 $10K) that I hadn't even made one payment on yet, my debit card, and checks stolen last fall. I knew the theif; she apparently had watched me punch in my PIN number at an ATM at a bar where she picked dumbass nerd me up to take home. No, I am NOT good with women...
Any way, making a long story short she wrote $200 worth of obviously forged checks and withdrew $450 from the ATM. The down payment for the car bounced costing me another $400 fees, plus I don't know how many other fees from other bounced checks; my account was $650 shorter than I thought it was. The bank only reimbursed me for the checks, saying if she had the PIN I must have given her permission to use it!
After stealing the car she traded it for crack cocaine, and the woman she traded the car to used it to try and kill her parents with, breaking both of her mother's legs. Her father broke out the driver window with a baseball bat (almost another $200 to fix that). The damage to the car was estimated at almost $3500, and with a $1000 deductable, all the dents, dings, scratches, etc. are still there. The woman who traded crack for my car was arrested for attempted murder, the last I heard from the State's Attorney they would ask the judge for restitution but the woman was in a nuthouse unfit for trial.
The girl's parents' insurance company tried to collect from my insurance company!
The woman who originally stole the car, debit, and checks had the gall to call me from a drug rehab center and beg me to not press charges.
You guys thought my life was wild back in the Paxil Diary days...
-mcgrew
The identity theft victim pulls a gun and tells the thief to freeze. The thief screams for help and that the woman holding the gun is trying to kill her. The identity theft victim explains that the woman she has at gunpoint is a thief. The thief says the identity theft victim is crazy and has the wrong person. Another well meaning hero to be pulls their gun and points it at the obviously angry woman with a gun telling her to calm down. Person number three pulls their gun and picks a side or generally points it at the other two people with guns in the coffee shop and tells them all to calm down. Everyone with a gun is convinced they are doing the right thing.
Ask a working police officer, this is a good way to get people shot and or killed.
Seriously, look at how people drive cars, and you want to give them concealed weapons permits to have guns on them all the time?