So I get a call today from a Web hosting company requesting information to 'confirm' the charges on a new account that was opened today in my name. The individual used my current address, phone number, and credit card information. At first, I was suspicious of the girl caller because she was asking for card information and would not provide me any data to identify which card of mine it may be other than that it was a Visa that expired in 2008. Ironically, I don't have a card that expires in 2008. At this point, I figured the whole thing was bs. I declined to give her any information and told her I would call back after contacting my credit card issuers.
First, I logged into my online account to see my account activity for my most commonly used Visa card. I didn't see any charges on there that looked funny, but I called them to follow up just in case. As it turns out, there were in fact several charges put through on my account today... one of which was to the web hosting company that called me. The card was cancelled immediately and an 'investigation' was opened up by my card issuer. I don't have much faith in quick action from them, so I started to dig around myself.
After I verified the phone number I was given by the web hosting company matched their public listing, I called the girl back who originally called me to confirm the charge. I thanked her for alerting me to this and let her know that this person was actively trying to make charges using my identity. I asked her if there was anything more she could provide me to shed more light on the b@st@rd doing this (minus the profanity of course)? She said that ‘he’ provided an email address to use as the contact for the web hosting account he tried to open. She gave me the email address he used. It was my name along with a few numbers added @yahoo.com. The use of my name ticked me off a bit, even though it is no worse than someone stealing my personal info to begin with. I also asked if they had inbound caller id since the person opened the account over the phone. They do have caller id and they also have the time at which the account was opened. Theoretically, this could allow them to correlate the two to pick out the right number from the call log. I imagine the perp blocked their number though... so I don't think this will lead to much. Either way, they are going to check the call log belonging to the operator who took the call when he gets back in the office tomorrow.
I called my credit card security group back and gave them the yahoo email address the person used in hopes that they can get more information out of yahoo than I can. I went ahead and filled out a fraud complaint form with Yahoo anyway just in case they would provide information to me directly.
There are a few odd things going on here. First, the card in question has never been out of my possession. Second, the perp somehow got my card's expiration date wrong on both the charges they made today. On top of that, I never had a card with an expiration date that was given... so that should eliminate any old card that I may have had getting picked up. Lastly, the person had my name, the phone number registered with this particular credit card, and my address to go along with my credit card number. I am recounting all my steps recently trying to identify all the times in which someone could get access to all those pieces of information. My primary hope at this point is that yahoo has some type of IP access data logging for that email account... which was most likely created in the recent past. I would love to catch this guy/girl!
I will add updates if anything interesting happens with this.
First, I logged into my online account to see my account activity for my most commonly used Visa card. I didn't see any charges on there that looked funny, but I called them to follow up just in case. As it turns out, there were in fact several charges put through on my account today... one of which was to the web hosting company that called me. The card was cancelled immediately and an 'investigation' was opened up by my card issuer. I don't have much faith in quick action from them, so I started to dig around myself.
After I verified the phone number I was given by the web hosting company matched their public listing, I called the girl back who originally called me to confirm the charge. I thanked her for alerting me to this and let her know that this person was actively trying to make charges using my identity. I asked her if there was anything more she could provide me to shed more light on the b@st@rd doing this (minus the profanity of course)? She said that ‘he’ provided an email address to use as the contact for the web hosting account he tried to open. She gave me the email address he used. It was my name along with a few numbers added @yahoo.com. The use of my name ticked me off a bit, even though it is no worse than someone stealing my personal info to begin with. I also asked if they had inbound caller id since the person opened the account over the phone. They do have caller id and they also have the time at which the account was opened. Theoretically, this could allow them to correlate the two to pick out the right number from the call log. I imagine the perp blocked their number though... so I don't think this will lead to much. Either way, they are going to check the call log belonging to the operator who took the call when he gets back in the office tomorrow.
I called my credit card security group back and gave them the yahoo email address the person used in hopes that they can get more information out of yahoo than I can. I went ahead and filled out a fraud complaint form with Yahoo anyway just in case they would provide information to me directly.
There are a few odd things going on here. First, the card in question has never been out of my possession. Second, the perp somehow got my card's expiration date wrong on both the charges they made today. On top of that, I never had a card with an expiration date that was given... so that should eliminate any old card that I may have had getting picked up. Lastly, the person had my name, the phone number registered with this particular credit card, and my address to go along with my credit card number. I am recounting all my steps recently trying to identify all the times in which someone could get access to all those pieces of information. My primary hope at this point is that yahoo has some type of IP access data logging for that email account... which was most likely created in the recent past. I would love to catch this guy/girl!
I will add updates if anything interesting happens with this.
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Really is important to check your statements carefuly.The thieves are smart enough to not charge outrageous amounts.
