I would like to think we live in a perfect world but we don't.
I was looking through our bank account online to see what transactions had posted and I came across one that didn't look familiar. I looked at it and it said ATTBusPhone for $139.95. Well, we don't even have a phone with AT&T. So I called them and gave them my husbands debit card number which was the card that the transaction was linked with. All they could tell me was that the payment was for a house phone, they couldn't give me that persons name (privacy), which I can understand than they told me to call my bank to dispute the charges.
I immediately called my bank (I love my bank) and was sent to the fraud department where they took all of the information about the incident, canceled my husbands card, and than were told we should get our money back in about 3-5 business days.
I am still just dumbfounded that someone would take our information. I am not new to this, I use to work in a bank where I would deal with these issues for other people and help them get their money back. I thought that I was safe and that this couldn't happen to me. Just goes to show that people can do anything to anybody at any time.
So till further notice we will have to take a few tips from Dave Ramsey and just take cash out and use that to pay for everything. They can't get our information from cash!
Funny thing is that even if you use an ATM, that too is subject to theft. It is sad that we even have this problem. If the people that do these things took even some of that energy and put it to other use, that might be more prosperous.
People that do steal our information will make small charges that might go more undetected. We keep our receipts to all of our purchases and than I go through our account to make sure that everything matches up. Well, I haven't ever had a problem before but I am glad that I keep an eye on our bank account.
Now if you are one of those people who were like me who thought, 'oh this will never happen to me, I am safe', let this be a warning to you. No one is safe from this.
***If this has happened to you or if this ever happens in the future, the Federal Trade Commission has some great information to help direct you in the right areas to take care of the matter, such as canceling accounts, alerting the credit agencies, etc. We will be following these steps to try to make sure that nothing else happens and to help prevent this from happening again in the future.
***If you would like to know more about identity theft and how to try and avoid it you can go to FTC or Identity Theft Facts .
***Here are some tips from myself that you might find useful to help prevent and/or help in the event of your information being stolen.
-COPIES. Make copies or scans of everything that is in your wallet so that if it is stolen you know exactly what was in it and you will have all the card numbers and telephone numbers of the companies so you can call them. There is usually a 24 hour fraud number on that back of your bank and credit cards.
-DISPOSING OF INFORMATION. Buy a nice shredder so you can shred anything that has your address, account numbers, transactions, and any other information you wouldn't want others to have. We like to shred our cards when they are closed instead of just cutting it up with scissors.
-CHECKS. Make sure you know where all of your checks are located and any other cards and keep them in a safe that you can hide somewhere in your house...just make sure it is a place that you will remember where you put it. If you don't want it in your house you can get a box at a bank and leave your important papers in their.
-PASSWORDS. Be careful when someone ask you for your information such as health insurance cards, account information, etc. You do not need to give out personal information, it is okay to question even the companies you have and just maybe go through the information once than ask them to have an account password that they can use for when you make phone calls in the future. Even if you like to walk into your bank you can ask them to put a code/password on your account so that even when you walk up to a window you have to tell them what it is. Some people can make fake id's in your name with their picture. Don't assume the teller will always remember who you are.
-GIVING INFORMATION. If you have to give a SSN, account number, password to someone don't say it outloud. Write it on a piece of paper and pass it to the person so others around you can't hear it. Make sure to get that paper back when you are done so you can shred it! Also don't give any information through text messages or online. Even if it is your bank, they should not send you an email or ask for personal information like that. If you notice that your login process is a little different, call your company to see if they have changed anything. Don't assume anything. Always, always call if you are unsure.
-PINS. If you have to use your card try to cover the keypad so someone who is behind you can't take video with their phone or a picture and get your information that way.
-MILITARY. If you are military, know that it is against the law to photocopy a military id. If you would like to know some of the law codes or regulations you can find them at this Tricare website. So don't let anyone copy it, but at the Tricare sight it gives the exception of when you can and from what I gather it is just for medical purposes. So if some place says that they need to copy it in order to give you military discount or to verify that you are military you can just tell them, "I can show you my id but it is against the law to copy it." If they have a problem that is just too bad.
-PURSES AND WALLETS. Don't leave your purse or wallet unattended when at work or elsewhere in public. It is very easy for someone to grab your wallet or purse and get what information they want and put it back and you wouldn't even know that anything had happened. If possible, put it in a drawer that locks if you must leave.
-DOCUMENTS. Make sure you know where all your important documents are. Birth certificates, social security cards, etc. Keep them in a safe place and make copies of them and keep those in a safe place like a bank or with someone you trust. If something happened to your home and you lost your paperwork, you would have something to go off of.
-CREDIT/DEBIT CARDS. If you don't have to use your debit card or credit card...don't! Just use cash and keep that in your wallet. There is technology now that you don't even need to swipe your card, you just need to be close enough to the device and it can read your cards information while it is still in your wallet. If you need to use your card, use it like a credit card instead of using your pin because VISA, Master Card, etc. can cover you like it was a credit card.
-CHECKS. If you like using checks, don't put your first and middle name on their, just use your initials...i.e. for Kermit The Frog you could put K.T. Frog that way the person wouldn't know if you are a man or a woman. Don't put your driver's license number or any other identification on there. We don't put our telephone number on there because people can look that up and find our information that way. We just use our names and PO Box. If someone says that must have a physical address than just pay in cash. We haven't had a problem with using our PO Box. There are also pens out there that are suppose to help with check fraud. You can find them at most stores.
-POST OFFICE BOX. Get one! You won't have to worry about someone coming and stealing your mail. If you aren't home and packages get delivered you won't have to worry about someone stealing them. It is much more convenient for us and they really don't cost much at all. The only thing I wouldn't have you do is open your mail while you are in the post office, wait till you get to your car or home and open it there. If you have to use a regular mail box don't leave outgoing mail in there.
-JUNK MAIL. If you don't want people sending you things ask to be removed from mailing list. Here are a few places you can go that have some good information. http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/ http://www.ecocycle.org/junkmail/index.cfm http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm
-BANK ACCOUNT. Check it! Keep up-to-date with the transactions that are going on with your account. There are time limits to when you can file. If you notice something wrong you generally only have 30 days to file. You will have to check with your bank and see what their policy has.
-RECEIPTS. Keep them! If you have a receipt that says you only spent $5.50 and than you notice that $25.00 came out of your account for that transaction, than you have proof and than can go dispute and figure out what happened to that $20.
-HOMEWORK. Do your homework. Research what you don't know about. YouTube has some good videos about identity theft so you can see for yourself just how easy it is.
I hope that this helps. Even if this hasn't happened to you and you know someone else that this has happened to, just send them my link so they can find all of this information. Also if you have any other tips that can be useful, please let me know so I can add them. Thank you.
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