Slashdot Mirror


FTC Recruiting Identity Theft Victims

coondoggie writes "In an effort to buttress its enforcement and better understand the scourge that is identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission said today its plans to conduct a wide-ranging study of victims of the crime. The FTC is looking for people harmed by the crime and said the survey will examine the remedies available to victims under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act). Among other things, the FACT Act gave consumers the right to place fraud alerts on their credit files if they are, or suspect they may become, victims of identity theft; block information on their credit reports that resulted from identity theft; and obtain copies of their credit reports free of charge."

5 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Just got a phone call from the FTC by HermDog · · Score: 5, Funny

    They asked me for my social security number and date of birth to verify I was the person they meant to call and told me they'd be getting back to me real soon.

    --
    JADBP
  2. and obtain copies of their credit reports free by JohnnyGTO · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ha what a joke! Ever since doing the "free credit report" I've been getting spammed by trans union offering their pay for service. Frankly it's MY life, MY history and MY credit data why the #&$%@#%& should I have to pay them at ALL to correct their constant screw ups? They are making money selling it they should be forced to pay ME to use it.

    THEY SHOULD ALSO BE 100% LIABLE WHEN IT IS ABUSED!!!!! Credit reporting agencies are the source of the problem and the enablers of credit fraud.

    --
    Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
  3. WTF? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I tried volunteering for this
    But they said I had already signed up yesterday.

  4. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  5. My identity theft story from this week by Layth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These people have some balls, it's actually kind of funny.

    They sent me a letter in the mail pretending to be my bank, saying there are suspicious charges and to call this fraud number. Had the right mailing address and all of the logo's..etc

    Of course the number was a phishing scam! They were asking me security questions to verify I was the cardholder, and little did I know my card was already maxed out 4 days ago. I'm guessing they wanted to reuse my information to call my bank and request the credit limit to be increased so they could keep on spending.

    Fortunately my bullshit detector went off and I hung up, cross referenced the number..etc which confirmed my suspicions. I called the actual fraud line about 30 seconds later to take care of my slip up, and that's when I found out about all of the other charges. The BS part about it all is that none of the charges ever showed up on my online transaction history, so even if I were checking that by the hour I never would have been tipped off.

    Anyway these guys can be pretty sneaky, but I was really disappointed in Chase for not having the transactions posted. At least I'm told that I won't have to pay any of the fees.