Several years ago I got a lifelock account when I rented the house I moved out of to (what turned out to be) some deadbeats. As things went south, knowing they were probably still getting some of my mail, and knowing they were deadbeats, I got lifelock (before all the lifelock stuff went down)
If nothing else, it was a way for me to toss money somewhere to supposedly get a "good night's sleep."
Well... Lo and behold, I had forgotten I had even signed up for it, and on Monday a.m., I was getting notifications of someone applying for credit cards with my name and SSC.
In general, I really hate Mondays. I woke up thinking about the thread "applying for stress leave.. or something" I was starting with that arm crushing stress on my left shoulder already just walking in the door. Then the lifelock alert. As identity theft was thrown in, my hatred of that Monday grew exponentially.
Anyway... I hated Monday....
So, here's what happened, I got the notification someone was up to no good. Lifelock informed me of the credit company who had gotten the request. I called there and inquired. The credit person suggested I call law enforcement immediately.
Great Monday!
Within several hours, I had frozen all credit reporting agencies and had fraud alerts on all. I also contacted all banks and etc about the issue.
Today... Lifelock called to start the process of reporting the issue to the original agency that received the credit request...
So basically, I am happy lifelock notified me, but I am confused why it took them two days to start the process of shutting down the potentially fraudulent account.
My paranoid brain even thinks lifelock did it to make themselves relevant!
What I have learned- you can freeze your credit reporting score. Mine will remain frozen. I hate all that s#$ anyway. If (and only if) I "need" credit I can reactivate them when needed to get approval.
So anyway, what are some good tips? I am almost embarrassed to say I had Lifelock at all, but it kind of saved my ass. I could have done all that stuff myself so to speak, just as we can all change our motor oil... yet you get to a point where you don't necessarily want to, and opt to have someone else do it for you..
Also, I changed all my passwords (well except for pp), and lo and behold, my ebay account / passwords come up in Russian yesterday. WTF?
(yes, I'm looking for suggestions there too...
)
What say ye mighty braintrust?