Park Slope Credit Card/Bank Card Fraud!

jayce wrote: A better bet than a Fraud Alert, if you can swing it, is to put a full Credit Freeze on your account. It doesn't affect your credit score but will cause all other attempts at soliciting your credit at all to be rejected. So its a little more secure than just an alert which still allows your score to be sent to people, which may still allow an identity thief some time to open new accounts. Only you can lift the freeze too, so it doesn't expire. And it allows you to pull your own credit score, which is good. And it allows people you currently do business with to access it, but no one new. So now you have to worry only about things that don't require credit to open them. Like wireless accounts (some of the time). This is also an interesting point. A clear trend in true identity theft starts first with a wireless purchase-- usually purchasing phones but sometimes setting up a wireless account. It's a quick hit win that can churn fast results and it is not abnormal for one address to have many many accounts... think buying a phone for each of your family members. The Freeze would be better here than a Fraud Alert. But when you pull your account make sure you know the wireless accounts on it.

Second step is to pull that score. It will include on it all the addresses and phone numbers currently associated with your ID. Check that as well because that may include the address of the person (or more likely the proxy of the person) who has stolen your identity. Its a good lead and you will also want to make sure to have this information removed.

Third, make sure that the police department completes not just a police report, but what they call an Identity Theft Report. This is key because it contains more detail than a usual police report. The details incorporate the FTC's Identity Theft Complaint form, which is important when you have to give that report to the Credit Bureaus. They actually have the "right" to reject the complaint of identity theft for lack of sufficient detail and give you 2 weeks to get them the information in return. Better to do it right the first time. Best way to do this is to fill out, print and submit the form on the FTC's website (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/cmplanding.shtm) and then ask the police to incorporate this into their report, thereby making sure you have all the bases covered.

This may also be of help to you
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/idtheft/idt04.shtm

I am not sure if this will make you feel better or maybe make other people feel worse... but New York is the top state each year for identity theft. Break it down a little further to zip codes and the two places that emerge as leaders of the pack... zip codes beginning with 100__ followed by 112__. Bright side, about 85% of that is fabricated identities used for fraud (called synthetic identity theft). Only 15% is what we call "true identity theft."

I work the corporate side of data and identity theft, not the consumer, but if I can help, let me know. Good luck.

Innocent X wrote: I'd think it'd be pretty hard to pinpoint this sort of fraud. And naming businesses becomes hysteria and detrimental to those businesses who could be doing nothing wrong. Our numbers float around all over the place. In our mail and garbage, at tons of stores, online, all over the place. I don't understand why you can't say Stone Park has bad service online but I think spreading names of stores that *may* be at fault is a bit irresponsible.

RockerGirl77 wrote: [quote=Innocent X]You can request a join to PSP.

Gowanus Lounge wrote: UPDATE: Park Slope Parents says that it is rejecting posts that mention the names of merchants that have come up in common in emails. "As has been pointed out these thefts may or may not involve the merchants and we we feel it would be irresponsible for us to allow public speculation that might damage the reputations of perfectly innocent members of our community." They say they have been in touch with the 78th Precinct and will be meeting with an officer that handles credit card fraud complaints tomorrow. "In the meantime we will continue to reject posts that go into the specifics of local merchants," they say. There is certainly a possibility that the fraud is occurring at a store outside of Park Slope or within the credit card processing operations themselves.

Subject: We were hit too

LongTimeSloper wrote: Did you read my post? I provided some information there. And, no, they are not going to allow you to join the park Slope parents board if you are not a parent-so, applying to get in will not help.

RockerGirl77 wrote: [quote=LongTimeSloper]Did you read my post? I provided some information there. And, no, they are not going to allow you to join the park Slope parents board if you are not a parent-so, applying to get in will not help.