Identity Theft

[Cheesy]

Some of you may recall that a few months ago my debit card was cloned and I lost nearly £3K (got it back eventually). Since then I've been really careful with personal info (to be fair I was before also) and I shred all personal documentation and am very careful where any personal stuff goes when online.

Yet this week I have had...

1. A letter from a finance company thanking them for my application for credit.
2. A letter confirming my application for a store card,
3. A letter confirming a new bank account along with a a debit card & pin.
4. A letter thanking me for taking out phone insurance.
5. A copy of an invoice for an iPhone 7 along with a new mobile phone contract with O2.
6. A copy of an application for a personal loan.

I haven't applied for a single one of these yet they are all in my name & address. They even have my date of birth. They know how long I've lived at this address and they know I'm married.

Be very careful folks!

 

[kaz7]

Someone has been trying to hack me for ages because yahoo lost a lot of e-mail addresses.they have tried to trick me into opening an e-mail but i realised just in time and they sent my brother an e-mail asking for money by me,luckily he told me about it,they have gone into my dormant facebook and twitter accounts,tried to get into my amazon account,i have changed all my passwords and told the bank about it so all safe for the moment and i only order from places i have used before on-line,can't be too careful

 

[urban genie]

I was wary last couple of weeks had 2 dodgy emails claiming to be HMRC with a tax rebate and a few other claiming to be official emails, thing is my card was cloned in January and some details in the emails have seemed too knowledgable, contacted the tax office and also my bank to check, luckily seems my details have not been used for anything.

 

[Barcon]

I won't open emails from anybody that I don't know and ignore all emails from anybody like Apple, e-bay, pay pal etc.
If anyone phones me from an unrecognised number I tell them to either pay half my phone bill or fuck off.

 

[denislawsbackheel]

I am Spartacus.

There is a terrifying article in today's Times about bank fraud.
It illustrates
A) how easy it is to access your accounts
B) how little the banks are doing about it
And, most worrying
C) more and more banks are blaming customers when it happens and not refunding.

 

[sir baconface]

I was wary last couple of weeks had 2 dodgy emails claiming to be HMRC with a tax rebate and a few other claiming to be official emails, thing is my card was cloned in January and some details in the emails have seemed too knowledgable, contacted the tax office and also my bank to check, luckily seems my details have not been used for anything.

I think this is a sign of the times. Scam attempts seem to get more numerous by the week and most of us are on umpteen fcukin mailing lists. Clearly most attempts are done on a scatter-gun basis, although you do say one of two e-mails have an uncomfortable level of detail.

There's a lot of info in the public domain on individuals. A company director, for example, has their date of birth published. So that alone covers thousands of self-employed people.

 

[Blue Smarties]

It's only going to increase. Your information is so easy to collect, even those who don't want to do anything with it can sell it on for £ to someone who will do something with it. Proper shit.

 

[talkativesprout]

You could stop all this shit in its tracks
Deedpoll change your name to Si k-swan

 

[BerkshireBlue]

I don't know why company's use DOB as a valid security question anymore. If you know the name and address of someone then you can find out their DOB online and who they are married to as well. The hard bit for the fraudsters is the linking of the bank details and also the employment details.

once they have all the details it's very hard to stop

I've mentioned it before but everyone should be using KeePass to generate and store passwords for them.

 

[talkativesprout]

I've mentioned it before but everyone should be using KeePass to generate and store passwords for them.

Safer writing them down in a little note book.