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Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Ongoing Suspected Identity Theft?
njnnja writes: My wife receives periodic emails (about once every other month) from a cable company that is not in our service area that purport to confirm that she has made changes to her account, such as re-setting her password. Her email address is not a common one so we do not believe that it is someone accidentally using it; rather, we believe that an identity thief is subscribing to cable services intentionally using her name and email address.
Whenever we have gotten an email we have called the cable company, been forwarded to their security department, and we are assured that her social security number is not being used and that they will clear her name and email address out of their system. Yet a few weeks later we get another email. Our concern is that when the cable company goes after my wife for the unpaid balance on the account I am sure that neither they nor a collection agency will care much that it's not her social security number — it's her name and they will demand she pays.
We have a very strong password (long, completely random string of chars, nums, and symbols) and 2-factor authentication on the email account so we are fairly certain that no one is currently hacking into her email (at least, it's not worth it for however many thousands of dollars they can actually steal off this scam), But we think that the cable company should be doing more to not be complicit in an attempted identity theft. We have made it clear that we don't live in the area they cover so we should not have an account, but the fact that they keep setting up an account in her name means that they just don't care. Which is fine; I don't expect a cable company to care that they inconvenience us, but I would like to know if there is any way that we can make them care about it (liability, regulations, etc). I know YANAL but does anyone have any ideas about how to handle this? Thanks. Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.
Whenever we have gotten an email we have called the cable company, been forwarded to their security department, and we are assured that her social security number is not being used and that they will clear her name and email address out of their system. Yet a few weeks later we get another email. Our concern is that when the cable company goes after my wife for the unpaid balance on the account I am sure that neither they nor a collection agency will care much that it's not her social security number — it's her name and they will demand she pays.
We have a very strong password (long, completely random string of chars, nums, and symbols) and 2-factor authentication on the email account so we are fairly certain that no one is currently hacking into her email (at least, it's not worth it for however many thousands of dollars they can actually steal off this scam), But we think that the cable company should be doing more to not be complicit in an attempted identity theft. We have made it clear that we don't live in the area they cover so we should not have an account, but the fact that they keep setting up an account in her name means that they just don't care. Which is fine; I don't expect a cable company to care that they inconvenience us, but I would like to know if there is any way that we can make them care about it (liability, regulations, etc). I know YANAL but does anyone have any ideas about how to handle this? Thanks. Have a question for Slashdot's readers? Take a look at other recent questions first to see if someone else has had a similar question. And if not, ask away! The more details and context you include, the more likely your question will be selected.
My wife has a common first and last name... her email address is her first name and last name @gmail... She gets everything from electric bills to HOME MORTGAGE CLOSING PAPERS for other people. When she emails back and explains that this is not that person's email address... the idiots become hostile and accuse her of being a hacker.
Now any time she gets a bill for any service, her first step is to recover the password, then schedule service disconnect. Seems harsh, but it is the only way. She has dealt with this for years... Hell if she were malicious, she has the account balance, social security number, bank account numbers, credit history, and/or University staff login credentials for half a dozen people who have targeted her for "reverse identity theft." No matter how much she begs them to stop.
Oh by the way... other woman who lives in NYC, 5 guys burgers emailed and said your order is ready for pick-up.... Maybe eating burgers and fries 6 times a week isn't the best for you though.
This aligns with my question, so he feels there is some malicious person doing identity theft.... except that for some reason they used his wifes real email address? An identity thief does everything they can to ensure the original person isn't aware that someone is using their identity, not use an address that goes directly to the original person.
I did similar. One day I got a metric crapton of emails letting me know that my mortgage had been pre-approved. Only problem... I never applied for a mortgage. I found that someone had used my email on a brokerage web site to get a ton of quotes. now my name is unusual so I doubt someone picked my email at random.
The brokerage house would not help me saying I needed a subpoena for more information. But I am concerned about identity theft so I had "my" password reset (I am probably guilty of some hacking crime now). I found some personal information there and did some digging.
I got an address and did a phone number lookup. A lady answers. After convincing her that I am not a scammer, I find out her son has the same name as me and this guy with the same name used his name dot gmail dot com as a false email account just to set up this brokerage account. So no identity theft, but about 60 minutes of me doing detective work and a story that I get to tell.
Every so often, I get email intended for some 40+ year-old guy who has [myemailaddress]@yahoo.com (instead of at gmail). Most of it is spam or websites that he's trying to sign up for, but occasionally it's a human being on the other end.
The first time this happened, it was information about his ongoing domestic violence court case (legal documents, copy of police report, etc). I notified them that they had the wrong address, and they proceeded to email me three more times with more information. Eventually I yelled at them enough and they corrected it.
The second time this happened was a few years later - it was some tiny ~20 year old girl who desperately wanted to convince him to get back with her (by sending him nudes). I can't say that I didn't take a little joy in telling her to check out his domestic violence record. I got a really angry email from him a couple days later (subject line: FUCKING IDIOT), so I think she must have heeded my advice (and dodged a bullet).
It was kind of wild.