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Identity Theft Victim Gets Last Laugh 725

Posted by Zonk from the the-phone-is-mightier-than-the-sword dept.
Ovid writes "Being a bit of a hypocrite, I sometimes whine about privacy in my blog. I do, however, try to be careful about not letting anyone get information about me they shouldn't and I rarely, if ever, use a credit card online. This is why I was surprised to find out one morning that identity thieves had racked up thousands of dollars one two of my credit cards. By early afternoon, I caught them and the police arrested them."
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Identity Theft Victim Gets Last Laugh More

Identity Theft Victim Gets Last Laugh

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  • Canada (Score:5, Informative)

    by 2.7182 ( 819680 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:49PM (#12051375)
    The canadian mounties have a new branch devoted to identity theft and they solved my case in a week. They are amazing.

    • Re:Canada (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Seumas ( 6865 )
      In America, they'd laugh at you reported it and expected anything more than them simply filing it away on record. It's a lot like if your car is stolen. Just tough shit, as far as they're concerned.

    • Re:Canada (Score:5, Funny)

      by ChuckSchwab ( 813568 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:54PM (#12051403) Journal
      Similar experience here. Someone ran up $2000 dollars worth of condoms on my credit card. I turned all the information over the Mounties and by the next day they found the guy. I didn't even have to testify because he confessed, so strong was the evidence. I tried to kick him in the balls, but they wouldn't let me. :-(

      • Re:Canada (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Luddite ( 808273 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:17PM (#12051551)

        >>Someone ran up $2000 dollars worth of condoms on my credit card.

        Good god, he must have had a big weekend planned....

        • Re:Canada (Score:5, Funny)

          by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:42PM (#12051700) Homepage Journal
          "Good god, he must have had a big weekend planned...."

          Heh. At my high school they decided to deal with the teen pregnancy problem by handing out condoms. The water balloon fight was epic.

          • Re:Canada (Score:3, Funny)

            by ect5150 ( 700619 )

            The water balloon fight was epic

            It must have been as you obviously didn't have any other use for them?

            • Re:Canada (Score:3, Funny)

              by NanoGator ( 522640 )
              "It must have been as you obviously didn't have any other use for them?"

              Yeah right, as if you should be throwing stones.

              • Re:Canada (Score:3, Funny)

                by darkpixel2k ( 623900 )
                I don't really have anything of value to add to this thread--I just wanted to see if I could get the nested comments scroll off the end of my screen...

          • Re:Canada (Score:5, Funny)

            by mapmaker ( 140036 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:59PM (#12052122)
            At my high school they decided to deal with the teen pregnancy problem by handing out condoms. The water balloon fight was epic.

            I think I see why your school has a teen pregnancy problem...

          • Re:Canada (Score:3, Funny)

            by deltatype0 ( 843675 )
            yeah, a girl in our AV department did that as a senior prank my sophmore year, she took the air compressor and blew up a couple and tied them to her car and drove around. she had taped them all underneath the seats in the auditorium (the senior class has a class called "Current Issues" that's supposed to simulate college lecture style classes, mandatory for seniors, the class sucked -alot-)

          • Re:Canada (Score:5, Funny)

            by niittyniemi ( 740307 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @05:18AM (#12053273) Homepage


            My favourite condom story:

            During the war the Russians ran short of condoms and they asked the British government to ship some over on the next convoy.

            Churchill ordered that the London Rubber Company should ship a consignment of extra large condoms over but mark them all as "extra small".

            The story maybe apocryphal but it's well known Winston had a well-developed sense of humour and didn't like Stalin, so I tend to believe it :)

      • Re:Canada (Score:3, Funny)

        by kalel666 ( 587116 )
        Anyone who's balls can stand up to $2000 worth of condoms is not someone I would attempt to kick there. They'd probably grab your foot and break it off.

    • Re:Canada (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jdwest ( 760759 )
      Evidently, the CRMP [securityfocus.com] are great at sifting through Mac OS X, too.

  • Reminds me of another well known scam (Score:5, Funny)

    by kizzbizz ( 870017 ) * <kizzer AT gmail DOT com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:49PM (#12051379)
    For those who haven't seen it (Like anyone in this crowd wouldnt have seen this), I'd suggest reading the P-P-P-Powerbook [zug.com] Story as a great compliment. These stories of Scammers getting Scammed never get old.

    • Re:Reminds me of another well known scam (Score:5, Interesting)

      by volve ( 592475 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:41PM (#12052049) Homepage
      Careful now, messing with scammers could get you whacked. Case-in-point, the final paragraph of the aforementioned P-P-P-Powerbook story [zug.com]:
      3) Finally, and most disturbingly, Jeff was not heard from again. I personally e-mailed him for permission to run his story on ZUG, but after an initial response, I never heard from him again. All of his Web sites have come down, and he is nowhere to be found.


      Jeff, wherever you are, this P-P-P-Powerbook's for you.
      Uh oh! :-/

      • Re:Reminds me of another well known scam (Score:4, Interesting)

        by benzapp ( 464105 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @12:15AM (#12052412)
        More proof that the only safe vengeance results in the death of the your mark.

      • Tired of the fanboys (Score:3, Informative)

        by KalvinB ( 205500 )
        All his web-sites have not come down.

        www.bootsix.net informs the reader that he's busy on a video project. Most likely he gave persmission to distribute the story and then really didn't care to talk to random fanboys on the net about it.

        It's like writting a fan mail to someone famous, getting a response out of them and then pretending they're dead because they won't continue responding to your letters.

        I've done that many times as the reciever of e-mails from random people. I will typically respond to s

  • Uh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:49PM (#12051381)


    > and I rarely, if ever, use a credit card online.

    Don't you know whether you do or not?

  • I always say... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LokieLizzy ( 858962 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:52PM (#12051394)
    never use a card when cash will get the job done. It might sound "cute", but it's the best way to protect your privacy - not to mention your bank account.

    • Nah, cards++ (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Peter Cooper ( 660482 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:56PM (#12051417) Homepage Journal
      Cash can be stolen and used easily. Cards can be stolen and used, but you can get the money back. Big difference.

      Cards are way more convenient, less hassle in the long run, and let you get an accurate tally of what you spend. Cash just means constant trips to the ATM, spending money in dribs and drabs and forgetting about it, and the risk of getting mugged when you flash it too much.

      • Re:Nah, cards++ (Score:4, Insightful)

        by LokieLizzy ( 858962 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:02PM (#12051459)
        One crucial difference between cards and cash:

        Your purchases aren't monitored and stored in huge server farms God-knows-where when you shop with cash. And that, to me, makes a hell of a difference.

        • Your purchases aren't monitored and stored in huge server farms God-knows-where when you shop with cash. And that, to me, makes a hell of a difference.

          Yes, and "they" have been doing this for years, and what harm has it caused me in all this time? None. What are they going to do, send me an advertisement for something I might want to buy. THE HORROR! How can I refuse to buy something I like?!

          If I am concerned about a purchase being monitored, I'll use cash.

          Or someone else's credit card.

      • Re:Nah, cards++ (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:34PM (#12051655)

        Some tips for carrying cash, from a semi-professional gambler who occasionally carries thousands of dollars around:

        • Keep the main stash in one pocket or your wallet, and keep a smaller amount of flash money in another pocket. If you are mugged, you can use the flash money for the tip below.
        • If mugged and asked for your money, take out your cash (or flash money above), and throw it in one direction while you run in the other! 99% of robbers want the money. If you can get the money to spread out when you throw it, so much the better.
        • Life and limb are infinitely more valuable than any amount of money.

        • Re:Nah, cards++ (Score:4, Informative)

          by stanleypane ( 729903 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @11:11AM (#12054291)
          No offense, but you sound like someone that has never actually been mugged before. And it's no surprise the slashdot community found your misguided words to be insightful.

          I have been mugged. Several times. And if the person mugging you has a gun don't - I repeat, DON'T - do anything sudden. You are not in the movies and you aren't going to be a hero. Any sudden movements could easily scare someone who probably isn't very stable at the moment. And believe me, you don't want to add any stress to that unstable persons life when they have a gun in your back.

          At least, not in my neighborhood.

      • Re:Nah, cards++ (Score:5, Funny)

        by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:36PM (#12051667)
        Cash can be stolen and used easily. Cards can be stolen and used, but you can get the money back. Big difference.

        Pay by value is much better than pay by reference.
        If you lose cash, you lose the value, but no pointer escapes the transaction. If you pay by reference, you leave a trail of pointers around increasing the risk of someone dereferencing your wallet.

  • Identity theft protection (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:56PM (#12051414)
    If you just send your full name, birth date, address, social security number, credit card numbers with expiration dates to securemyidentity@gmail.com, we will monitor your credit record and make sure that you never have to worry about your good credit record ever again.
  • about privacy has come to an end?

    The sheep don't care about the affairs of the shepherders until the wolf gets by...

  • Be careful... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LokieLizzy ( 858962 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:57PM (#12051420)
    "Shortly afterwards, the police led the two thieves by me. They were in handcuffs and I had the biggest grin on my face."

    You might have outsmarted them this time, but it's never a good idea to gloat. This is something you'll forget in time, but they're going to remember it for a lot longer than you are because they'll be the ones doing time for the crime. If they got really rough sentences because of you and spent several years in the slammer as a result, ten years later they could come looking for you to take away your life. Your credit cards would be the least of your problems.

    • Re:Be careful... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by XorNand ( 517466 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:07PM (#12051496)
      That attitude is rather alarmist. By the same logic, anyone who's ever been a victim of any type of crime should forever being looking over their shoulder. Real life doesn't work the same way as the movies.

    • Re:Be careful... (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:12PM (#12051520)
      (Score:-1, Pussy)

    • Re:Be careful... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Almost-Retired ( 637760 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:28PM (#12051616) Homepage
      And you are forgetting the 2nd ammendment to our constitution.

      And its backed in my case by a state law that says no matter how you get along with the local sheriff, if your record is clean, and you have passed the safe handling checks and have proved on the range in the presence of an licensed instructor that you can shoot reasonably accurately given the capability of the weapon in hand, he must issue a CCW to all who qualify as stated above.

      Like the sign showing the raging dog and the loaded revolver pointed directly at the viewer says, "Never mind the dog, beware of the owner".

      Do I carry? Damn betcha. Any chance of it being used? Only in my own home, or at work alone, and possibly if I should walk into a situation at a local convienience store, but the latter would have to be done under shots already fired circumstances. Otherwise the perp had better be in condition to get up from his face time on the floor and walk to the squad car.

      The bleeding hearts among us all tend to forget that the perp who does this, usually makes a consious choice to take what he wants/needs illegally from those who earned it legally. Generally speaking, society as a whole isn't going to miss those that claim a darwin award for their miss-guided efforts.

      --
      Cheers, Gene
      "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
      soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
      -Ed Howdershelt (Author)
      99.34% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly

  • It's real hard to resist confrontation (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oriumpor ( 446718 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:57PM (#12051426) Homepage Journal
    In a situation like this where you know the culprit is standing only a few meters away from you its so tempting to confront the thief. I admire his resolve.

    I never really thought how much power you the credit card holder have in these situations. A few proactive measures can go a great deal further than a phone call to a dusty beurocrat.

  • this is why (Score:4, Interesting)

    by indy_Muad'Dib ( 869913 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:57PM (#12051428) Homepage
    this is wnhy you get a prepaid visa or mastercard for online purchases. id rather spend the 30 minutes to put the cash on the card and buy something online with it than than let some druggy scum waltz off with my hard earned money. http://www.netspend.com/ [netspend.com] Netspend offers inexpensive prepaid visa and mastercards that are useable anywhere.

    • Re:this is why (Score:5, Interesting)

      by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:33PM (#12051643)
      Except they don't really walk off with your hard earned money. I worked at XYZ credit card bank in their inward fraud department and it was usually something as simple as saying "These charges aren't mine." I say, "OK", tag them as such, and the merchant needs to come up with proof otherwise they pay. Usually, if we suspected it is a family member (say, calls to 900#s originating from their home), we ask them if they are willing to prosecute. That's the tough choice usually, if they know their $relative has been using their card.

      But usually the maximum you are responsible under federal law is $50 for any fraud (not per charge, for all the fraud). A lot of places will waive that and pay it themselves so you don't get pissed off.

      One time, I got a call in from someone who suspected this person was using a stolen card. They were at an electronics store buying a big screen TV and the teller said the guy looked suspicious. Well, we get the card info while the manager acts like he's "processing the order", we call the number associated with the account, and I ask, "Sir, are you in a store right now buying a big screen TV?"

      He says, "No, I am not."

      "Do you have your XYS Visa on you?"

      "Yeah, it's right her--- where'd it go?"

      We called the cops while the guy was waiting around for his TV to get prepared.

      Anyway, long story short,the article is not about "identity theft" since the guy just stole the guy's credit card number / mail somehow, just regular fraud. It is an interesting article though. And what he described is pretty common. Figure we havd a group of about 50 people working full-time just talking on the phone with people who suspected fraud. This was not counting the people who called customers who may have fraud, nor the people investigating the fraud either.

  • more restraint than me .... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by icebrrrg ( 123867 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:59PM (#12051439) Homepage
    ... i would have found it very difficult to resist the urge to take some very gratifying physical revenge on the perps. bravo to ovidius. this won't stop identity theft, but it surely promotes a bit more vigilance on the potential victims ...

  • For that matter... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LokieLizzy ( 858962 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @08:59PM (#12051445)
    It seems a tad arrogant to declare "I caught them and had them arrested by afternoon." Why? Because if not for Discover, and Visa's fraud-alert services, you wouldn't have been the wiser for quite a while longer - days or weeks, perhaps. You didn't do this by yourself. To imply otherwise denies the actions of many people working behind the scenes to make sure that when this stuff happens, it doesn't ruin innocent people's lives.
    • No, law prevents credit card fraud from ruining people's lives.

      Discover and Visa are simply looking out for their own financial losses. The quicker they stem the fraudulent use, the less they have to pay out to cover it.

    • Re:For that matter... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:39PM (#12051686) Homepage
      No one EVER works alone and does a task entirely by themselves. Are you going to give credit to Alexander Graham Bell for inventing the telephone he used to call the police too? The distinguishing factor here is that he is the only person who would have even possibily caught this guy. The credit card company would have just written it off as a loss. The police would have written it up as a statistic. Ovid is by far the person most responsible for catching them.

      It's great the the CC company has fraud detection, but that's really not intended to catch anyone, merely to reduce losses.

  • Violence Can Solve All (Score:4, Funny)

    by ellem ( 147712 ) * <<moc.liamg> <ta> <25melle>> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:00PM (#12051446) Homepage Journal
    No joke. I would have gutted those two like pigs. Throat to groin. Wouldn't have thought twice about it. Not any issue at all.

    Ovid, you are a sane man.

    * hey are you Ovid from Perl Monks & the Perl Monks Seti team?

  • Purchases were not made online (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mincognito ( 839071 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:02PM (#12051460)
    More evidence that credit card signatures are useless. [slashdot.org]
    • Not that I disagree with your point, but they didn't mention most of the purchases being online or not. They didn't spend several thousand dollars at Denny's and the hotel (which was online, by the way). The only other merchant they mention was Costco, and that could well have been online.
      -N

  • First of many (Score:5, Funny)

    by ryantate ( 97606 ) <ryantate@ryantate.com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:03PM (#12051468) Homepage
    Calling the cops three times on your cellphone: 68 cents.

    Driving to Denny's at 96 miles per hour: $1.10 in gas.

    Seeing identity-thieving bastards hauled off in handcuffs before your very eyes: priceless.

    There are some things money can buy. For everything else, there's adrenaline and instincts.

  • Nothing being done about fraud at all (Score:4, Interesting)

    by auzy ( 680819 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:06PM (#12051491)
    In fact, I'd like to add that companies like paypal penalise those who get frauded by others. In one case, a friend of mine was "paid $1000" over paypal, and a week later, paypal took it away and charged him $500 for a really dodgy reason. I constantly hear of such cases over paypal and the end result is that the frauder wins in one way or another.

    Whats even worse is that I have never seen any online store do a basic check to see if users were on a proxy or not, which could easily help reduce fraud if they did.

    Unrelated, if you want to see just how much credit card companies care about fraud, a rather funny link can be found at http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/ [zug.com]. It explains why I dont have a credit card...

  • poor ovid (Score:2, Funny)

    by Stalyn ( 662 )
    he's happy today but just wait until tomorrow when a group of street punks beat him and take his dungeon master's guide. :(

  • Amazon alerted me... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lp-habu ( 734825 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:13PM (#12051527)
    About three years ago I got an email from Amazon telling me that a new account had been opened using a credit card I used from my account.

    They closed that account and notified me immediately without authorizing any sales. I called the credit card company and found that in fact there had been three or four transactions on my card which I hadn't made. They weren't for a lot: there was one for a tank of gas, and the total was for less than a thousand dollars. The credit card company took care of the charges but seemed totally uninterested in pursuing the matter, even after I provided them contact information at Amazon. Amazon could not give me the information directly, but were anxious to provide it to the issuing bank. and urged me to contact my local law enforcement agencies.

    Stupidly, I didn't contact local law, but kept badgering the issuing bank. Finally I gave up and cancelled the account. The original card had of course been cancelled immediately when I reported the problem, but I no longer had any confidence in the bank.

    It's pretty bad when Amazon does a better job of tracking my credit card than the issuing bank does. Of course, I still do business with Amazon and I don't do business with that bank so maybe there's a moral there somewhere.

  • Yes you do (Score:4, Informative)

    by nate nice ( 672391 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:16PM (#12051542) Journal
    "I do, however, try to be careful about not letting anyone get information about me they shouldn't and I rarely, if ever, use a credit card online."

    If you go to any store or use your credit card just about anywhere, it's on the Internet regardless of if you actually go to a Website to buy something.

    When you swipe your card to get groceries, where is that data sent? How does it get there? Through the Internet. It stays on a company database like anywhere else.

    I don't use my credit card on "shady" Websites, but I do realize when I use my card just about anywhere, that data is sent over the Internet and into a database somewhere where someone savvy enough could get access to it.

    It's for this reason I try and not use my debit card often as if someone takes my credit info and buys things, I'm not responsible for it. they haven't taken any money form me. However, if I use a debit and they take money, then that is money I have lost and it is much harder to get back.

  • CC Fraud Not Identity theft (Score:5, Informative)

    by coloneyb ( 168242 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:16PM (#12051544)
    People sure have been jumping on this identity theft band wagon for about the last year. This isn't identity theft, it is Credit Card Fraud.

    Identity theft would be if I opened up a credit card using your social or if I obtained a loan using your social.

    Credit Card Fraud is stealing your credit card information and using it.

    Too bad the media just keeps misleading people to believe the two are one and the same.

  • Chief Wiggum (Score:5, Funny)

    by Poeir ( 637508 ) <poeir.geo@yDALIahoo.com minus painter> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:17PM (#12051550) Journal
    Looks like this guy caught his own criminal. Unlike the rest of you lazy slobs.

  • I RTFA (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cytlid ( 95255 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:21PM (#12051580)
    And all I can say is ... "SHRED THOSE CHECKS, DUMMY!". I have a discover card and get those all the time. I *Do NOT* toss them out. They get shredded in about 1 million little pieces.

    I shred just about anything that might have any information about me, my family, or my bills or creditors/debtors. This guy coulda saved himself some grief. The kid prolly saw him check his mail from a PO box and then shake his head and toss the checks in the trash, where he retrieved them.

    In fact, it bugs me Discover sends me those checks all the time. I never use them, probably never will, and wish they wouldn't send them so frequently.

  • Got to watch hotels.com (Score:5, Informative)

    by (H)elix1 ( 231155 ) <slashdot.helix@nOSPaM.gmail.com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:21PM (#12051581) Homepage Journal
    I spend a lot of time on the road, so she audits the hell out of my cards. Turns out there were a couple charges at a local hotel - weird, because it was not anything I would book! Weirder yet when she realized it was her card. My wife's credit card info got swiped at Target.

    Anyhow, the way the scam worked is they booked the room with hotels.com using my bride's card info. They checked in, tried to pay with a card that was expired (or did not work - they were not clear on that). When the hotel attempted to charge for the room service and the time they were there, it defaults to the card used to make the reservation. Card canceled, new one issued, no cost to us - but dang, you really have to watch your statements.

  • Online Credit Card Use Not Considered Harmful (Score:5, Insightful)

    by chezmarshall ( 694493 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:24PM (#12051591) Homepage

    Come on, now.

    Using a credit card online is much safer than using it at any restaurant in which someone takes it out of your sight, using it at a store at which an imprint is taken, or giving its number to someone on the telephone.

    I do all of these, and like the vast majority of everyone else, I've never had a problem.

    Many, if not most, online merchants, don't ever store your credit card number. The exceptions would be those who have a recurring charge capability and those who explicitly have the capability to store it.

    Being aware of the security of your information is fine, but rejecting convenience without adquately weighing the relative risk is damned silly.

    This isn't to say that the original poster doesn't have good practices when it comes to using his credit card at restaurants as well. However, nearly everyone I know who won't use a credit card online will pony it up at a restaurant without a second thought.

  • congratulations, ovid. (Score:5, Funny)

    by croddy ( 659025 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:26PM (#12051603)
    you got your personal web log linked on the front page of slashdot.

    now go upstairs and help your mom with the dishes.

  • It could have been me. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dallask ( 320655 ) <codeninja@nOSPAm.gmail.com> on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:28PM (#12051615) Homepage
    As a former scammer and hacker turned security consultant... I have to say that it is surprisingly FREAKING EASY!!! to get someones CC numbers... from social engineering tactics, dumpster diving, or just slight of hand / eye tricks... its possible to get almost anyones card number these days.

    Maybe not a single person as a target mind you, but valid card numbers none the less.

    Once you get the card numbers youll also find that it is stupidly simple to make large purchases with them. Online buys can be made to drop houses for obscurity... and in person purchases can be made with a $300 3M card writer and a good inkjet printer and a bit of photoshop to create a physical card...

    People NEVER verify the card holders name to the ID these days so having the actual card stolen from someone is just about as safe. (When they did attempt to ID me I would claim that I didnt bring my wallet, just the card and they would let me make a $599 purchase at best buy).

    I commend him quick thinking and 'dumb luck' in your of your credit attackers... I have to say that if some people had been as vigilant I may have had their fate.

    On the flip side of the coin, While I once had a stack of 50 valid and working credit cards obtained from one method or another... I now manage and secure online companies from attack and fraud using counter techniques which I used to skirt in MY efforts. I now have access to between 75 and 100K customer's information which Is locked down tighter than Fort Knocks if I do say so myself... not that this makes up for any of my past exploits, but to me, its a way of atoning.

    • Re:It could have been me. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anthony Boyd ( 242971 ) on Saturday March 26, 2005 @12:22AM (#12052434) Homepage
      People NEVER verify the card holders name to the ID these days so having the actual card stolen from someone is just about as safe.

      I seem to have stumbled upon a way to make every clerk ask me for ID, every time. I wrote on the back of my card in permanent marker, "ASK TO SEE ID." The first few times cashiers asked to see my ID, I was actually rather snotty about it, like they were wasting my time. Then I remembered what I had written and that it was working. I was stunned.

      There is a small fallout though -- although 99% of my transactions over the past year have been really nice, I got one last week at Barnes & Noble that was just completely uncomfortable. The lady at the register saw the back of my card, took a hardass stance and assumed I was a criminal. She said (loud enough for the other customers to look up and stare), "Excuse me sir, could I have your name?" I told her my name. Then even louder she said, "UH HUH. RIGHT. WELL 'MR. BOYD' YOU'RE GOING TO NEED TO SHOW ME SOME ID." Then, apparently disappointed that I actually had confirming ID, she muttered quietly, "well sir everything appears to be in order. Just doing as instructed." Oh well. At least she asked. If it had been a card thief, she probably would have leapt across the counter to make a citizen's arrest while she shouted "COVER ME!" to her coworker.

  • Authories don't care about this crime at all... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wernst ( 536414 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:33PM (#12051642) Homepage
    I commend this fellow. I wish I had similar luck in the past...

    Last year Wells Fargo calls me. It seems some doofus used my Wells Fargo Mastercard to buy, among other things, $1000 in Victoria's Secret gift certificates from the VS Website. The expriation date was wrong, and the transaction flagged. Wells Fargo did NOT authorize the purchase, and I wasn't billed. (Other smaller purchases, under $50, had been authorized earlier in the day, but they were now being charged back since I said I didn't make them.) Bravo to Wells Fargo for being diligent about this.

    Of course, I want to catch these shitheats. Victoria's Secret has their shipping address, so I think it should be pretty easy to get that address, call the police, and have justice done.

    WRONGO!!

    I call Victorias Secret. They say they can only give the shipping address out to a police officer/detective conducting an investigation, or at the request of the Credit Card company (Wells Fargo.). OK. Fine. They don't want vigilantes.

    I call local PD. They say that since I didn't lose any money (WF blocked or refunded all charges) there was no crime for them to persue. If anyone lost money, Wells Fargo did. Call them and have them call police.

    I call Wells Fargo. They say THEY didn't lose any money; they cancelled or blocked the charges. If anyone lost anything of value, it is Victorias Secret for (apparently) shipping out the gift certificates immediately without a valid payment now, or a valid expiration date eariler. They would need to call the Police to start an investigation.

    "But I just called them! They don't care about who did this. They sent me to the local PD, and they sent me to you," I say. "I just want to know who did this. They have an address, but they'll only issue it to you or the PD."

    The conversation took TWO more laps around these three parties before I gave up.

    The story linked to in this post gives basically the same story in the sense that the local PD didn't give a shit about this crime in terms of investing ANY investigational effort. It was up to the poor victim to do all the legwork, and even THEN, the police seem like they take their sweet time getting there to catch the jerk-off criminals.

    I bet the local DA pleads them down to nothing without a trial too.

    In short, it seems that only determined application of stupidity on the part of credit card theives, along with an angry, lucky, motivated victom working hard at finding the theif, is the ONLY way these shitheads will ever get caught.

    I don't even know why I work for a living...

    • Actually, they have them on several issues, including drug charges, probably laundering, and other charges in addition to the identity theft. It was the ID theft that got them busted, but by tacking on the other stuff, they will probably get jail time. We also don't know if there were other ID's stolen, which it sounds like they had given the repeat visits to the same hotel (probably on another ID).
    • The conversation took TWO more laps around these three parties before I gave up.

      You think that was fun? How about this...

      Sombody charged my card AND changes the address for getting statements. Since I had not used the card in like two years, statements had stopped coming (a FEATURE!). So, I never learned about the fraud (or the supsequent, desperate pleas for payment, or the harassing phone calls from the collections agency...)

      Eventually the credit had been sold around to two or three credit agencies

  • What I want to know... (Score:3, Funny)

    by unladen swallow ( 844965 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:43PM (#12051714)
    Is what type of person steals 2 credit cards, racks up thousands of dollars in charges. Then proceeds to order breakfast from Denney's? Come on the meal is free live it up a little.

  • Syringes... (and protection) (Score:5, Insightful)

    by droopus ( 33472 ) * on Friday March 25, 2005 @09:57PM (#12051809)
    Well done man, but the syringe portion gave me a chill. The syringe part is more than just evidence...what the cop did was both illegal and insanely dangerous. "Sharps" are considered hazardous medical waste and in every state MUST be disposed of in a proper labeled container (NOT a Coke bottle.) They must be given to a company licensed to dispose of hazardous or medical waste and destroyed, usually in these massive incinerators. (I was a med student once...)

    Ironic as this sounds, what the cop did with those sharps (syringes) was more dangerous than your identity theft. Most likely, the manager chucked the bottle in the trash, and those needles are possibly now being reused by some dumpster diving junkie. Who knows what viruses, bacteria, whatnot those kids had lurking in their blood.

    I'm insanely proud of your victory but I gently suggest calling the Red Lion, and TELL them that 'dirty needles' are somewhere in their trash. Two asshole identity theives in jail is small change compared to a trash collector or Red Lion employee getting Lyme, AIDS or septicemia, and spreading it to his family.

    Also, those guys know who you are, are obvious heavy druggies and probably don't like you very much right now. They'll be out one day. Consider a pistol permit. I ALWAYS carry, and that's saved my life twice. Get some professional training [blackwaterusa.com], and practice every week, too. My close scrapes: Three guys went at me with crowbars (carjacking attempt in a parking lot...liked my M3) and their eyes got as large as frisbees when in under half a second they saw the business end of my Les Baer .45. Never had to fire a shot, but I was absolutely ready to drop all three of them and they knew it. The other time I just opened my vest to a knife wielding mugger, we both smiled and he ran off like Carl Lewis doing the 100. Protect yourself!

    • Er..... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jotaeleemeese ( 303437 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @10:15PM (#12051926) Homepage Journal
      .... you USians never stop to amaze us.

      In similar situations I just handed over my stuff.

      Nobody was hurt, I was protected (insured) so I did not lose anything. One of the thieves was later caught.

      With all due respect I think you USian guys should consider what firearms are doing to your society.

  • Red Lion = Red Devil (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Baby Duck ( 176251 ) on Friday March 25, 2005 @11:55PM (#12052337) Homepage
    1) I have stayed at that Red Lion in Portland.
    2) I have eaten at that Denny's as well.
    3) I have checked my email on the computer in the lobby.
    4) A PuTTY icon on the desktop should have clued me in that I should not have checked my email there.
    5) Over the next 3 days, my ISP account was used to spam strangers like crazy, before I finally changed my password.
    6) This was almost 2 years ago.

    Nice to see the Red Lion is still such a hotbed of criminal activity ;-)

  • MBNA (Score:4, Informative)

    by Johnny Mnemonic ( 176043 ) <mdinsmore&gmail,com> on Saturday March 26, 2005 @12:24AM (#12052443) Homepage Journal

    Since losing a credit card number in an online purchase to a dbase hacker, I now use MBNA [mbnanetaccess.com] for all of my online shopping. It gives me a new credit card number everytime I use it, for which I can set an arbitrary $ amount before that number is consumed and also any expiration date for out to a year.

    I generate new numbers using my browser, and even Safari works on OS X. I rest easy knowing that the particular number is set at just over the amount of my purchase, so even if the cc number was compromised it would have no more value attached.

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