You may remember a few months ago when I posted about the massive gift card scam that's been sweeping the nation deeper and wider than a Taylor Swift album.
And I'm sure everyone hears or reads news pretty much daily about data breaches, often involving you and your info. At this point, it's safe to assume pretty much everyone in the country has been hacked. How do I know? I got a letter in the mail from AT&T telling me my personal information had been compromised in a data breach and offering the usual free credit monitoring as a shitty consolation prize for their sloppiness. But, plot twist, I have never, ever had any type of AT&T account in my life. I had to call a couple of times to get someone who could understand that I wasn't calling because I was mad about the data breach, I simply wanted to know where ATT had gotten my personal information in order to allow it to be leaked since I have never been their customer. Finally, a supervisor I talked to had the answer. "We sent those letters to pretty much everyone in the country," she said. "Everyone?" I said incredulously? "Yes. It was easier to just send to everyone in case they were part of the breach since it affects so many people."
The letter had come to me but the city on the address was wrong, which was what led me down the rabbit hole of checking my credit stuff out with the 3 bureaus, something I do a couple of times a year just to keep tabs. They are the ones who had my city listed wrong so I updated that.
A few weeks ago, my partner got a credit card in the mail saying he had been approved and whatever his whopping big limit was. He did not apply for a credit card. This is also not unique - there are people all over the internet who have had this happen to them. It's all part of the massive, daily internet fraud going on by people who are in the business of using other people's info, credit, and money for fraudulent purchases. Why have the card sent to the home address? 1. To see if the person notices or just throws it away. 2. It probably has to be opened in the address that matches the person's info - you don't need the card to use it online if you have all the data off of it. 3. You can always call after it's been issued and ask for a change of address and voila, you're good.
Many of the peoples' stories online also include high balances of fraudulent purchases that are difficult to dispute and the card can be impossible to close because they open it with a piece of wrong/bad info that doesn't match yours (for example, the wrong birth date) and since your actual info doesn't match who opened the card you can't close it, which is why they did it that way. You can and should dispute it with the credit union but the horse is gone from the barn and you are forever chasing and trying to undo harm that these thieves have done, which is also what happened my partner. Today we discovered that someone somehow used his personal information to run up a bill (likely for hundreds of cell phones) with Verizon and then never paid the bill, which was turned over to collections and now there is a black mark on his credit history worth nearly $7,000 that he has to try to dispute and undo. This involves getting a police report, filing a lot of forms for the dispute with Verizon, filing more stuff with the credit bureaus, etc. It's a big fucking pain in the ass especially if you don't have the type of job where you can sit at a desk and make calls during the day like I do. He is out in the field, on the road and in warehouses and office buildings and storefronts, up on ladders and in attics and basements and between walls and framing in new construction. So this is going to take a while.
I will be contacting all the credit bureaus tomorrow to freeze my credit, and I strongly suggest you do the same. This is the only way to proactively at least attempt to stop the thieves before they can get their claws in you. They can't open credit cards and use your personal information this way if you have a freeze on your credit. You can unfreeze it at any time - such as right before applying for a loan or whatever where you know they will be checking your credit, and can re-freeze it when that inquiry is complete.
I think every single American should freeze their credit, effective immediately. I'm sure the scammers will eventually figure a way around that as well, but for now, this is the best proactive defense, like locking your doors when you leave the house or get out of the car. You shouldn't have to do it but most of us do because we value the thing itself and its contents and don't want a thief in there trashing it up and taking stuff that belongs to us.
Do it soon.
xo,
Nina