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- How much of your coding is done by AI coding agents these days? Posted on June 21st, 2026 | 9269 votes
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- How much of your coding is done by AI coding agents these days? Posted on June 21st, 2026 | 33 comments
Regarding Identity Theft:
Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a soap bubble?
I don't care about identity heft (Score:5, Funny)
I suffer of multiple personality disorder, you insensitive clod!
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...And so do I
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I suffer of multiple personality disorder, you insensitive clod!
We do too!
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I suffer of multiple personality disorder, you insensitive clod!
How many use your credit cards and which ones are stuck with the bills?
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Identity heft? What, someone steal the "t" or does an identity have weight? Or is it about the differentiation between an identity of a human being and a soulless corporate entity?
Re:Identity heft? (Score:2)
I was once described as "heavy" but that was long ago. Nowadays I seem pretty irrelevant, and I'm okay with that.
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And the other You? Does he or she suffer from it, as well?
Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:2)
I don't know where to draw the line -- I've had my credit card number used, but nobody has ever registered for anything as me. As far as I can tell, having my card number used was someone programmed my number onto another magnetic card and used it at a gas pump. They could have gotten a black market card with my guessed or scraped the card number for all I know.
Does someone else using my card count as identity theft or does someone actually have to register for a new service/card/etc using my name, addres
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Every non-legitimate use has been out-of-state in states that I've never visited. They've been for attempted fuel purchases, and I suspect that a long-haul trucke
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:5, Interesting)
They were nice about dropping it all off my name once they saw I lived in a completely different state than where the card was applied for, etc.
One time, I was getting ready for work, and the DMV in another state (FL) called to ask if I was Mr. XYZ.
I said yes...and the short version of the story was, they said a large, long haired biker type with tatoos and scars....had a copy of my birth certificate, my SS #, and a copy of my college transcript...and was applying for a drivers license as me.
They said they were puzzled at the FL DMV....about a flag showing my license was still active in a different state.
The lady told me they were actually about to go ahead and give the guy a drivers license as me....but apparently it was taking too long and the guy freaked out and ran out, leaving all the materials there.
It was only then that the FL DMV started looking into the matter...called my states DMV and got ahold of me. This guy would have used that DL to likely apply for and get credit cards in my name.
So, now....well, I try to be careful, and my one main rule of thumb is.....
I don't give my fucking Social Security number to anyone if it isn't related to SS taxation. Period. The only exception is for the occasional credit check...if I want a home mortgage, etc.
I don't give it out to medical insurance co's....I don't give it out to utility companies....it takes some arguing at times...but they can and will generate you a different ID number, and on occasion, I had to leave a measly $100 deposit when moving to a new community where I had no track record with the power company. But, it is important to me.
If you're in the US, it should be important to you too. I've been VERY lucky that the ID theft hasn't caused me the hassles it has others.....it pays to know the importance of "not being seen".
Likely all of this...is an associated reason I don't participate in any social networking like FB or twitter...or Google+....
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't give my fucking Social Security number to anyone if it isn't related to SS taxation. Period. .... I don't give it out to medical insurance co's....I don't give it out to utility companies....
Yes! And I blame the insurance/utility companies for this crap
They are asking for things they are not entitled to and most people sheepishly assume they should give that info. The dental office had more or less admitted (when asked!) that they don't _have_ to have my SSN and the likeliest use for this information is to be able to easier collect unpaid bills from me.
It should be illegal for any business to ask for un-needed information. Utility companies should be fined for requesting your SSN!
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Many people will simply provide the information assuming the asker (insurance co, bank, whatever) has a legitimate or legal need for this info. Especially as in the US your SSN is used for personal identification so much - it is not strange for an insurance co, where your identity really matters, asks for such info. It's not like that when filling in that form you're going to ask them every time "do you really need that?", they would anyway say "yes, we need that".
And then, what is unneeded? As you say your
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:4, Insightful)
Utility companies should be fined for requesting your SSN!
Whoa, hold on there! The problem is not what you think. We are using SSNs for 2 incompatible purposes: public identity and authentication. The SSN is all over the place, in so many hands, yet we are expected to treat it as a big secret.
The answer is to quit treating SSNs as proof of identity, not to go crazy trying to turn them back into secrets. Ideally, it should not matter if the whole world can find out anyone's SSN. Likewise with handwriting. It's ridiculously easy to forge someone's signature. Even more so since no one pays much attention to them, for good reason. When is the last time a clerk compared your signature on the sales slip to the signature on the back of the credit card you just used?
For authentication purposes, we could use a new system, some sort of digital signature.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Not true; not true at all.
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Wrong.
http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/78/~/legal-requirements-to-provide-your-social-security-number [ssa.gov]
(and this was the FIRST RESULT on Google for "US SSN law").
Summary: you may be required to provide it to various state and federal government organizations to get their services, but they are required to tell you who needs it and how they will use it. You are never *required* to provide your SSN to a private business, but they are then not required to provide you with a product or servic
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Makes you wonder why it is not a routine check to see whether the old driving license has expired/cancelled/registered lost/whatever before issuing a duplicate. It can't be that hard to run a check on that using modern computer systems. Even the cops on the road can do just that for decades already - just a quick call back to the station and seconds later they have a confirmation.
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The fraud detection heuristics must be very strange. In my case I've never had a problem using a card traveling in foreign countries (and I never tell them I'm going aside from usually having purchased the plane ticket months in advance), no problem buying industrial equipment, but attempting to buy groceries at a place I frequently buy groceries? Yeah, that's suspicious and worth declining the transaction and shutting down the card until I call to have it reactivated. I've never had a true positive detecti
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and worth declining the transaction and shutting down the card until I call to have it reactivated. I've never had a true positive detection and wish they'd just give up trying with me and instead let me tell them if something is wrong.
Weird. My bank impressed me by ringing when I used my card on vacation. They mentioned the unusual transactions and asked me if it was suspicious, rather than just declining the card until I called them to complain. Even better, they called my home number first and left a message on the answering machine, that way if my phone+wallet had been stolen but not yet reported, they weren't just calling the thief.
Can you change banks or credit-card-company?
no problem buying industrial equipment
As the AC said, I assume large single purchases are more co
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:4, Informative)
If you want to minimize bank account fraud, use your wallet to block the view of the PIN pad from above when using your debit card. Skimmers that record card data at ATMs and other debit transaction points need to know your PIN in order to operate as a debit card, which would possibly give them more avenues of attack and probably longer usage before fraud is detected. Otherwise the credit card companies seem pretty good about dealing with it. If your bank account is drained by a fraudulent user, however, it's probably a lot harder to rectify the situation.
Between PIN theft and getting stolen money back, using a debit card for purchases just seems like a bad idea to me that asks for more potential trouble for no real increase in convenience. I know that not everyone has a credit card, and if you need to withdraw cash at an ATM you'll need to expose your PIN occasionally, but I try to keep usage to an absolute minimum.
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That's exactly what I figured. Someone probably scrapes the numbers at a shop or guesses the numbers or whatever, and then sells "prepaid $200 visa cards for $50" on some black market site. Then a trucker or whoever else that uses that much gas picks up a few trying to save himself a buck. The guy actually scraping and programming cards is never caught because he never uses them -- he just resells them to make the sale price. That way the scraper never gets caught, and the trucker is none the wiser [alt
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The guy actually scraping and programming cards is never caught because he never uses them -- he just resells them to make the sale price.
That's why Do Not Call lists will never work. "Take me off your list" gets you off the one list of the one company that called you. They buy master lists from people who never call anyone. Until the name is removed from the list where the caller got the name, it won't ever actually be removed from the list. And if you did that, they'd make another layer of lists to hide. Once you are on a list, you can't ever get off, and the person holding your name on the list will never get in trouble for reselling y
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Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:4, Insightful)
Fortunately, none of this cost me a dime, and it wasn't even really a hassle. 1 phone call and a document to sign and return and it was done.
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:5, Informative)
Using a printed card, they made numerous purchases of $500 to $1000 at a time ... Fortunately, none of this cost me a dime
That's _not_ an identity theft issue. That's credit card theft. Because if someone charges _your_ credit card, it isn't your responsibility and banks work hard to catch such problems.
On the other hand if someone opened _another_ credit card or took a loan in your name, then it would take you a lot more than 1 phone call to deal with this issue. Your credit history might take years to recover. And personally I am not sure why that is the case.
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There are too many people out there who'd take out a new credit card (or loan) take advantage of it then claim it wasn't them to get out of paying what they owe if that were the case. Yes, it sucks having to live down somebody else's dishonesty, but imagine how much it would cost each and every credit card issuer if they were too willing to trust you just because you said it wasn't you.
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but imagine how much it would cost each and every credit card issuer if they were too willing to trust you just because you said it wasn't you.
Yeah, and if that happened, they might have to revise their card-issuing policies to really ensure that they're issuing the card to the right person, instead of just assuming that if a person has access to a single, semi-private, government-issued number, he or she MUST be telling the truth. And they certainly wouldn't want that, because that would make it harder for people to get credit cards, and then people might think twice before doing it.
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Using a printed card, they made numerous purchases of $500 to $1000 at a time ... Fortunately, none of this cost me a dime
That's _not_ an identity theft issue. That's credit card theft. Because if someone charges _your_ credit card, it isn't your responsibility and banks work hard to catch such problems.
I occasionally read stories like this, and I'm curious. I live in Europe where we're big on debit cards rather than credit cards, but I do have one (a Mastercard). Whenever I use it (usually online), I have to electronically validate the transaction. The shop redirects me to my bank's web site, which generates a hash of the transaction, I put my credit card into a small pocket calculator-like device, type in the hash (8 digits or so), usually the total amount as a second check (yes, Mr. Schneier, they're au
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I haven't had a credit card for that long, but I think you used to have to sign something to pay (off-line, obviously) by credit card here, before we had all the electronic stuff, so that they could verify the signature on the card.
It's even funnier than that in US (perhaps Europe too?). The offline, real signature is mostly useful if you come back to contest charges. No one ever checks the signature against your card when you buy. Well, 2-3 times out of 100 they check.
Or is it really the case that there's basically no security at all, that you just need the number of the card and there's no verification that the person presenting the number actually is actually the owner of the card in question and that they wish to make that transaction?
Some websites demand a valid billing address - or at least a zip code. Others just check the little 3-digit pin which is typed on the card. So no, there is barely any verification online
How is that possible in a banking system of all things?
I am guessing because the buyer will not be held responsible for fraud. I imagi
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I haven't had a credit card for that long, but I think you used to have to sign something to pay (off-line, obviously) by credit card here, before we had all the electronic stuff, so that they could verify the signature on the card.
It's even funnier than that in US (perhaps Europe too?). The offline, real signature is mostly useful if you come back to contest charges. No one ever checks the signature against your card when you buy. Well, 2-3 times out of 100 they check.
All the "electronic stuff" was introduced in 2004 in the UK. Since then, I've never signed when paying in the UK, and only a couple of times in the rest of the EU -- though outside the UK it's not unusual for people at tourist places to assume I'm American, swipe the card, then look surprised when the machine shows an error and asks to read the chip on the card and have my PIN.
The standard is EMV: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMV [wikipedia.org]
I input a PIN when paying using most automated machines (e.g. to buy train tic
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My bank has an interesting feature for checking whether I am the one making the payment. I'm not even sure how that works from a tachnical perspective, but it's very efficient.
Here's what happens.
Whenever I buy something online with my credit or debit card, at the last step I get redirected to a web form belonging to my bank, where I have to input a "master password" (and I have a pretty lengthy, complex one) before finalizing the transaction. That means no online transaction gets through without that passw
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Which is exactly what happened to me.
My wife and I were separated and she made me move out of the marital residence. She stopped forwarding my mail and never answered requests for my mail, so I filed a forwarding at the post office without telling her.
Amongst the first mail I get is a letter from a
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I have a similar story. I'm not sure how it happened but there were a couple of charges on my account from accross the country where I'd never been. I still said that I haven't been the victim of identity theft though...
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+1. Worth about a day or two of pain and a few hours on the phone, but everything was cleared up. Actually rather refreshing to get a new CC # and discover how may things hit the old # each year and cancel the stuff I didn't need.
Re:Identity theft or scraped card number? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does someone else using my card count as identity theft or does someone actually have to register for a new service/card/etc using my name, address and SSN?
Identity theft is a weasel term that needs to be eliminated from use
If someone registers for a new card using your name/address/SSN, that's not identity theft, that's fraud permitted by a bank (that considers knowledge of your SSN and sometimes birth date to be a proof of your identity). It's more of an identity giveaway by the bank
Then they call it identity theft, that is done to pretend that this is your problem and shift the cost of fighting/cleaning it up to you. Clearly, it is working, because as I understand it, "identity theft" is your problem and not the bank's that issued the loan.
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When I moved out of the student house where I lived, I forgot to tell a credit company. I had paid my debt there, didn't want anything to do with them anymore. Then they decided to send me a new card and a new pin code without consulting me. Probably one of the new students living there decided to open the post and use the card. It took me several phone calls and a visit to the local police station before the credit company dropped the debt off my account.
... why did I get an AARP form? (Score:2)
To the best of my knowledge, I've never been the victim ... but I got an AARP membership form a couple of weeks back ... and I'm under 40.
Could this be a sign of identity theft?
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That explains a lot. I got one of those cards recently and was quite confused considering that I'm only 22 years old...
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It think it's now the "AARP Association of Retired People."
It's now the Association of Represented People - people represented by AARP.
I keep getting cards, too, with many miles to go before I sleep.
Minor consequences of a mistake (Score:2)
Some years ago someone opened up a bank account using my SSN, which inconvenienced me when I wanted to get a car loan (IIRC). That bank investigated and it turned out that someone had fat-fingered it, and I got my loan.
Pre-planning for Identity Theft (Score:5, Informative)
My first clue was a collection agency notice for outstanding bills, a couple of credit cards and an account with Gateway computers. I'd never received the original bills, of course, because they went to the phony address where the goods had been shipped, six months before, in a different state.
The collection agency managed to find the real me and demanded that I pay up. They wouldn't let up unless I had police report documenting that I'd been identity-thefted. My local precinct refused, saying I had to file in the state where the crime had actually been committed. I was considering calling up the FBI, but then I remembered that I had a copy of an old police report from getting my wallet lifted -- including my Social Security Card (Do they still say "Keep on your person at all times?" That was a dumb idea...) -- about 10 years before. Probably not actually related to the identity theft, but worth a try. I faxed the report to the collection agency, they closed the case, and my credit rating was cleared.
The moral of the story: Go to the police right now and report your wallet stolen, along with your Social Security card. Keep the paperwork on file. It may come in handy. If you want to cover your tracks, report a credit card or two missing and go to the Social Security office and get a new card. They won't give you a new SSN, though... not their fault that banks consider that number a secure way of verifying your identify.
Re:Pre-planning for Identity Theft (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you're encouraging people to file false police reports, attest to false affidavits, and commit perjury?
Yep, sounds like a real solid plan to me.
Re:Pre-planning for Identity Theft (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you're encouraging people to file false police reports, attest to false affidavits, and commit perjury?
The police won't investigate. That's the problem. If they aren't going to hold up their end of the social contract, why should you? Responsibility to follow the law needs to flow both ways. In our country, the law has become so complex nobody can know whether they're committing a crime right now or not. If the system is so thoroughly corrupted that nobody can be reasonably expected to abide by the law, because it's impossible to even know what the law is, then why should it be respected?
Most people I know go off their own moral compass anymore these days. The law has little relevance to them, other than avoiding it as much as possible. Until those problems are fixed, I find "it's illegal!" to be a poor reason to do (or not do) something. I ask myself whether it's right or not... and for most people, that ultimately is whether the benefits outweigh the risks.
Identity theft is a real problem. The police actually investigating your report isn't. I'm not saying it's right, but the argument can be made it's safer.
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The police won't investigate. That's the problem.
Yep quite true. One of my professors at the college I went to worked for the RCMP fraud division [rcmp-grc.gc.ca] in Ontario. The minimum amount that they would consider for investigations was $250k anything under that it would be referred back to the OPP(provincial police) who would then refer you to back to your local police 99% of the time unless you were serviced directly by the OPP. And in most cases the OPP and local police would simply keep the case open because they don't have the manpower to deal with crimes of
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So, you're encouraging people to file false police reports, attest to false affidavits, and commit perjury? Yep, sounds like a real solid plan to me.
And if the police do file a report to the database, likely as not you will find all your credit cards frozen and your bank account locked.
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And yet whenever someone suggests that the US should finally get a decent identity system so that its citizens can easily prove who they are and banks and such can accurately verify everyone's identity, everyone is up in arms because when the government can identify its citizens and people can show who they are, somehow the country will devolve into a fascist dictatorship. Meanwhile you have all sorts of issues with identity theft and fraud because banks and other organisations have to use other, inferior m
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Social Security Administration "killed" my Mom (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think it exactly counts as identity theft, but it is identity misplacement.
My Mom was the executrix of the estate of a friend of hers. As such, she reported the death to the SSA. Apparently, the form for that has a space for the SSN of the deceased and one for the person reporting the death, and somewhere in the transcription process the two were reversed. SS benefits were cut off -- among other inconveniences -- until Mom could prove that she was not dead, which is not as easy as proving that someone is dead.
So it wasn't strictly theft of identity, but the effects and the hassles of fixing it were similar.
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until Mom could prove that she was not dead, which is not as easy as proving that someone is dead.
Couldn't she just show her undeath certificate?
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You'll have to file a a request to rescind the certificate of death on form ten-stroke-249, in triplicate, accompanied by an SF-88-stroke-11-0-7, signed by three officers of equal or higher rank, followed by a personal written report on form 63-stroke-E-B-Y by a ranking officer who actually saw the deceased not die, in triplicate
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Nope (Score:5, Funny)
Never been a victim.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, you have.
Have so much debt... (Score:3, Funny)
they would probably give my id back.
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Reminds me of another one I heard
Some guys stole my wife's credit card. I let them keep it, because they spend less on it than she did.
DirecTV (Score:3)
A year later, the same thing happened again, different address, same scam.
DirecTV still sends junk mail to me, in the vain hope that I will forget what right bastards they are and buy their service.
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You know at a long shot I'd say they should send someone out and gather more then 2 relatively public pieces of identifying information. A copy of a recent bank statement in the name of subscriber would not be overly burdensome, and would prove that the person actually had the means to pay for the account.
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As for those poor little rich people with multiple homes, they can afford to spend a few minutes of their lives dealing with this.
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Screw PayPal and USBank (Score:5, Informative)
I had my old PayPal account stolen years back, which was tied to my USBank checking account. Ordinarily, I/my wife would make maybe 1-3 purchases a month, but then there were some 60 made in 2 days most for amounts under $50. PayPal didn't catch this. USBank didn't catch this... WE did.
We reported fraud (blatantly obvious fraud as the mailling address had been changed as well) and PayPal proceeded to look into it. In total, PayPal had some $2100 in charges on it waiting to be approved to be covered by checking. PayPal allowed them to all go through during the fraud investigation, which proceeded to overdraft my USBank account. I advised USBank of the error and what was going on with PayPal and they also began fraud investigation. Somehow, USBank did a chargeback against PayPal which made my PayPal balance negative $2100(est) while leaving my USBank account overdrawn PLUS FEES. PayPal dropped the fraud investigation for and said they didn't know what to do basically, and USBank followed suit. So, thanks to some a$$hole out there, I owe PayPal $2100 and USBank ~$2700 for the same event since both Fraud Depts are incompetant and downright stupid. Higher ups in both companies both basically told me to sit and spin, and pay up.
I refuse to use PayPal or USBank for these facts, and tell everyone who asks about their service to stay away! F*ck PayPal! F*ck USBank! And like hell will either of them ever get a dime from me XD
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Re:Screw PayPal and USBank (Score:5, Informative)
But, for all those, I wonder what paypal actually does. I bought something that didn't ever arrive. I argued with the seller, who charged an insane amount for insurance, so I declined, that the definition of a purchase in the US requires receipt. If it had been shipped, received by me, packed properly, but damaged, then I'd have gotten it and be out the product because I didn't get insurance. But it has to get to me. Sellers should use tracking to protect themselves. Buyers should *never* get insurance. Why? Because it's never in your best interests to pay someone else's insurance premiums. The insurance covers the shipper only because the item belongs to the shipper until you receive it. If it gets to you and looks beat up, just refuse to sign and insist they take it back.
But the item I never got, I opened a ticket with paypal They said "the seller says he shipped it, so you have to pay." I said "I never got it, so I don't have to pay." Paypal never gave me my money back, so I reversed the charges on my credit card. No idea if paypal took the money from the seller.
Sellers should always get tracking, buyers should never get insurance. Always pay by credit card. Never link a bank account to paypal (works better for buyers than sellers, but I'm mostly a buyer).
The day I came out of the closet on facebook. (Score:5, Funny)
I was straight all my life, until one day everything changed. I made the mistake of leaving my computer logged in around my jack arse room mates, when I came back I had suddenly become an outspoken proponent of gay rights on facebook, the reason being that I myself was gay. I also changed the recovery email and password so I could never change my mind.
Never, to my knowledge... (Score:4, Insightful)
Never, to my knowledge...
Ah yes. There's the rub.
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I wish someone would steal my identity. It sucks to be me. Good luck getting a credit card with my credit assholes.
What, exactly, do you classify as "identity theft" (Score:2)
I've had credit card info stolen and used on a couple of occassions (once they stole the credit cards themselves), but that was the extent of it. It was always settled immediately with the credit card issuers, who refunded the fraudulent charges promptly and issued me a new card. Is that "identity theft"? I selected the first choice because of those incidents.
Jinx (Score:2)
It's totally irrational, but I feel like answering this poll might jinx me.
Yes, but it improved my credit score. (Score:5, Interesting)
True story - my sister had her identity stolen by an illegal immigrant.
Her credit score went up, because the thief got a job and was a hard worker.
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This one is actually funny, interesting, and a little sad. Not knowing how old your sister is when this happened to her, I'm guessing young and only new to credit ratings, so that shows inexperience in protecting her information.
But if she was old enough to know better and knew better to keep her info safe and not have poor credit, then this is a bit sad too. For it is the responsibility of the to take care of their debts. If you buy things on credit, it should be remembered that this is a loan of funds
Share your data with a convicted felon? (Score:2)
When My Password Was Stolen On Sourceforge (Score:5, Interesting)
About 8 years ago someone had installed a password logger on Sourceforge's ssh server. It stole my password when I ssh'd back to my work computer. About a month or so later the hacker released all the stolen accounts and passwords on a hacker site. That day four different people tried to log into my computer. I say tried because two failed, but two succeeded. The second guy in noticed the first guy already there, so he killed his rival's session and quickly changed my password, which is why the last two couldn't log in. More evidence that there's no honor among thieves. The guy next tried to run a few root exploits, but they failed - I kept my Linux box up to date. Eventually he quit. He left behind no damage other than a few exploit files and a changed password.
My first inkling that something was wrong was when my user login password didn't work. I figured it was a corrupted file, so I just worked around it, logged in as root and gave myself a new password.
About 15 minutes later I read that day's Slashdot, and I read about the Sourceforge hack, and put two and two together. So I went back through my system logs and the ipaudit logs that I had. Then I had a good laugh over the story they told.
Theft? (Score:5, Insightful)
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How can someone steal my identify if I get to keep my own name? It's just illegal identity sharing.
How does one share an identity, exactly? An identity belongs to only one person and if someone else is using yours then you cannot possibly be sharing it with them. They must have stolen it. Especially if you didn't give them permission to use it. Taking (and using) without permission is theft.
Great Simpsons moment (Score:2)
They stole my ID once, but had no consequences. (Score:2)
Not Theft (Score:2)
Theft is denying someone access to something. In most cases, this isn't the case as the original person can still prove they are themselves too.
Lets look at how this is handled in the music industry.
Okay, so people are the victims of 'identity sharing'.
Credit card info taken - twice (Score:3)
Second time was more frustrating. Whoever took the information decided it would be fun to use it to try online dating and buy some WoW credits. Suddenly I had changes for jdate.com (once I told them I am neither Jewish nor single they reversed it) and some other sites I had never even seen advertising for. I was calling all over the place to get these companies to cancel the charges. Kudos to Blizzard for their fast action, thumbs down to some of the dating sites who not only would not cancel or reverse the charges, but would also not release to me the information that was posted with my credit card information (I would have taken the latter as a consolation as I could have had some useful information on who did this).
Needless to say, I don't buy anything from Nashbar anymore.
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As an FYI, whenever that happens, just call your CC company directly.
For general purposes, that is sage advice and usually adequate.
However in this case the card in question was my visa check card - issued by my regional bank (whom I don't care for much) - and the terms were not quite the same for this type of problem. When I noticed the charges (while they were still pending, yet already deducted from my checking account) I called and the bank said they couldn't do anything until after the charges were final. They did cancel the card and issue a new one, but that did n
Missing option (Score:2)
Three times now (Score:3)
Nobody (that I am aware of) has tried to use my info, but it's been stolen three times now.
1) Countrywide Mortgage lost a very large number of ID, including mine.
Name, address, SSN, bank details - everything you need to present for a mortgage
2) Sony
I didn't give them any more than a fake name & email address
3) Local insurance agent, working for one of the big agencies
They have name, DL#, SSN, all of it.
This is why I hate giving all that info to the insurance company, but they claim you can't get the good rates (which I have earned) without releasing every bit of info. Dicks.
Another missing option (Score:2)
Had ID info stolen/compromised, but no effects, other than getting a letter and free Credit Monitoring Service.
Does that mean 'not a victim', since no harm?
Hahaha! (Score:2)
I can't wait to see what SGDarkKnight does when he finds out what I'm posting on slashdot with his account!
Randomized SSN Theft (Score:2)
When I setup service with Sprint, the lady said I already had an active account when she plugged in my SSN. Another customer had appreantly been using it, thankfully whoever it was always paid their bill. Sprint had their fraud team investigate and deactivate that other account. I wonder how meny other companies are using my SSN in their customer accounting system, what's to stop someone from from giving a random SSN on an application if the company never verifies?
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Too many are using our SSNs in their accounting systems. Thus why it's so easy to steal one's identity.
Fool me once (Score:2)
My experience with identity theft was about a decade ago, but still motivates me to be more cautious.
Back in 2001 or so, we had ordered replacement checks, and had two boxes stolen out of the mail. The first clue was discovering one morning that our bank account was $500 overdrawn and we'd bounced like 20 checks that we had never written.
While we quickly closed the account, and filed a fraud affadavit with the bank, the nightmare was only beginning. For nearly a year, we received frequent collection notices
Credit card theft (Score:2)
I've had my credit card number stolen 3 times, and never once did the bank contact me about it. The first time someone bought a $600 plane ticket. The second time I was called by Walmart since someone ordered the same thing twice online and was calling to confirm (I never buy from Walmart). I found a bunch of X-Box transactions as well. The third time, a few months later it was more X-Box transactions.
Every time my bank has contacted me it was over approved transactions.
A few months later I started getting
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I had my debit card info stolen. The bank tracked it down to someone in Singapore. The guy was trying to withdraw some money, but he overshot with the amount a bit. And by a bit, I mean I had about 50 bucks on my account when he was trying to withdraw somewhere around $500.
This is the best defence, by far - stay broke, there's nothing for them to steal.
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Actually, my wife and I practice something similar now. We keep only what comes out for automatic payments, plus some light padding, in our checking and the rest we withdraw for cash. Even though I work for a bank, I don't trust them lol.
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I practice pretty much a similar theory, I have a transaction account for day-to-day transactions and bills which I keep a weeks worth of funds in and top up weekly.
If that account gets compromised, I will get a new number assigned by the bank, but anyone stealing the number would at most have access to a weeks worth of weekly transaction funds, everything else is locked away in a mortgage offset account.
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Like I said in my post... F Paypal! You got lucky in your case, they just blatantly denied any fault in my situations and I couldn't file a Police report as I didn't have any information on who it would be against.
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I can't tell if you're trolling or just New.
XX (Score:2)
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Interesting. I presume these incidents occurred before Steam and Google started offering multi-factor authentication?
Do you have the additional authentication features enabled on Steam/Google? Any issues with such badness after enabling them? I've had the features enabled for as long as they've been available and haven't had any issues.