Possible Identity theft - any experience?
 

I enjoy umpiring high school baseball for a hobby. All school sports officials are paid a small fee per game. To be legit, we all have to fill out a W-4 form to declare the income with the IRS. Well, last week one of the association's board members had his briefcase stolen from his car. In it, were the W-4 forms for 180 baseball umpires. So, now our names, addresses, and s/s numbers are floating around somewhere, and I'm not very comfortable with that. Any suggestions as to how to protect myself from having this info being used to steal my identity?

Thanks.

You might be able to put a 'fraud watch' on your CC accounts, other than that, just be super-duper vigilant.

The bigger question is, why are people so careless with this stuff? Last week, a laptop was stolen with thousands of HP employees' and former employees' retirement account info. The laptop was purportedly to be used in a 'business meeting,' but honestly, what do you need all that data on a laptop for? It seems there was also data on there from people who not only no longer worked for HP, but who had also long ago pulled their funds out of this company's accounts.

Call the credit reporting companies:

Exuifax - 1-888-766-0008

Experian - 1 888 397 3742

Social Security - 1-800-772-1213 <---- you need to call them right now and tell them what is going on. They will issue a fraud alert on your SS# and make it difficult for any new lines of credit to be opened without your personal consent.


Lots of info:
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

Agree with Jim. Contact the credit people and give them a copy of the police report.

Then every 3-6 months get a copy of your credit report and scan it. As well you can request that you are contacted anytime someone accesses your credit report and now might be a good time to do this.

Joe A

(who is just back from shreading piles of crap from the mail. More and more most of the junk stuff trying to give me another credit card and such goes in the shreader)

Man, do I feel your pain, Joe! I've actually considered hiring a neighborhood kid for some part time work to just sit there a couple of Saturdays each month and shred stuff.

It's really quite disgusting how carelessly these credit companies treat personal information. Why can't they just send their advertisements with a phone number to call if I'm interested? Instead, they list all sorts of sensitive information in their mass mailing pieces and then take no responsibility when fraud takes place.

Unbelievable!

Randy

We are heading to our house in North Carolina in a couple of weeks. I have a whole box of "paper" that will be used in the fire pit as kindling. Should burn for days.

Jim beat me to it! I actually use much of the shreaded paper to start fires in the fireplace! That way I know that no one will every use it against me.

Joe

We seperate our shreds and compost all of the compostable stuff.
-Jeremy

PS thanks for the tip on alerting SS, I had my car broken into in Jan and my planner was stolen, in the front were four copies of passport, SScard, and DL, I know I'm stupid but I needed the stuff as I was sub contracting for different companies that week.

First USA (Now Bank one) is staffed with idiots.

I had someone call them and change my Billing Addy. Then go on a shopping spree buying about 5K worth of computer gear.

A red flag went up at Visa and they attempted to call me. I was out of town at the time and the call went to voice mail. I was actually making a purchase with my Visa and it was cock blocked.

I called Visa (not knowing about the voice mail) and wanted to know WTF was up. They said they were trying to call em that some suspicious activity was occuring. I informed them I was out of town, they said that was not the problem and asked if I had purchased all the computer stuff.

This is where it gets crazy. The shipping address was to a Mail Boxes Etc. in Anchorage Alaska. It gets even more nuts. I found out the persons name and home phone #. The internet can work both ways. HP begged me not to do anything to tip them off so I laid back and let them do their thing. Their supposidly sent a drone package to try to trap the person.

This person actually called my CC company a SECOND time and changed the addy again!! I called them up and let them have it!! They only asked for my 4 SS# digits and were ready to do anything I asked. I have since spoken to management and have a super secret number that I do not even remember anymore to access my account by phone.

It was obvious someone got hold of some of my info online. I am unsure how they did it but they did. The other sad thing is that Dell was ready to ship a computer, I letteraly caught them hours before it shipped.

A year later some stupid teens used my Amex# to order some 1st class plane tickets from Madison to Ft. Lauderdale for spring break. The stupid jerks had the E-tickets sent to my home.

Amex supposidly was going to have allt he Brittneys and Ashlees arrested when they showed up at the terminal to get their tickets. Again, I had all their names and Cities but was told to stay clear.

Any of you pilots know if anyone has been arrested in an Airport trying to pick up their tickets like this?

I put a pre-emptive fraud alert on my credit report, and the CC offers dropped by 90%.

???

how do you put a pre-emptive fraud alert out???

I do this once every six months. Call the three credit agencies, tell them who you are, and that you want a 'fraud alert' placed on your account. They don't ask why, even. It stops any new credit offerings coming to you, and every once in a while, you'll get a call asking about a purchase you are making. Is only an inconvienience to the guy who is scamming you.

I just keep it on my account all the time. Lasts six months before dropping automatically.

Cool, Thank You!!