Help with Identity Theft
January 9, 2017 5:51 PM Subscribe
Hey All Brilliant Folks,
My hard drive was stolen with all of my personal information on it. I have changed my passwords but I need some advice on what else I can do to stave off identity theft. I know that someone is trying to use my information because they signed into a dropbox account that I hadn't changed the password for.
Any advice is very welcome, THANK YOU!
Best answer: Security freezes are a must. Though mine has been lifted by the thieves who stole my ID two years ago. I would file a police report for sure. When deal with the credit agencies, paper trails are king. Police report is a must.
posted by silsurf at 6:56 PM on January 9, 2017
posted by silsurf at 6:56 PM on January 9, 2017
Best answer: Lock down your credit reports with the major credit agencies. This will make it much harder to apply for credit accounts in your name.
Set a reminder to check your credit report in a month or two to make sure nothing new has been added.
Change passwords on accounts. Also, many sites (particularly email services and other sensitive systems) will give you an option to log out all logged in accounts. This will make sure no one can log in using saved credentials.
posted by nalyd at 7:30 PM on January 9, 2017
Set a reminder to check your credit report in a month or two to make sure nothing new has been added.
Change passwords on accounts. Also, many sites (particularly email services and other sensitive systems) will give you an option to log out all logged in accounts. This will make sure no one can log in using saved credentials.
posted by nalyd at 7:30 PM on January 9, 2017
Response by poster: They changed the dropbox password so I'm not able to log in is there another way to find out the IP address? Thanks so much
posted by sunnyblues48 at 7:40 PM on January 9, 2017
posted by sunnyblues48 at 7:40 PM on January 9, 2017
In addition to credit freezes, put your banks on alert that you have been the victim of identity theft. FDIC does not insure against theft and some banks can be really difficult about fraudulent wiithdrawals or transfers out of your accounts, so if there are additional barriers you can put between your money and someone using your identity against you, you want that.
In addition to the local police report, file with the FTC.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:01 PM on January 9, 2017
In addition to the local police report, file with the FTC.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:01 PM on January 9, 2017
If they haven't yet changed the email address on the Dropbox account, you can try to change the password again. If you can't, contact them ASAP.
And then set up 2-step verification on all your accounts that have it (Dropbox, PayPal, Gmail, Twitter, probably your bank, etc.)
posted by radioamy at 8:03 PM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
And then set up 2-step verification on all your accounts that have it (Dropbox, PayPal, Gmail, Twitter, probably your bank, etc.)
posted by radioamy at 8:03 PM on January 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is one of those situations where the Reddit FAQ is surprisingly good.
posted by caek at 6:07 AM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by caek at 6:07 AM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]
You did right. And all these comments are helpful.
But REACH OUT TO DROPBOX NOW.
posted by LonnieK at 5:49 PM on January 13, 2017
But REACH OUT TO DROPBOX NOW.
posted by LonnieK at 5:49 PM on January 13, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also look into the dropbox account - under Settings > Security it should have an IP address of the last computer that signed into your account. This maybe helpful for you.
posted by Karaage at 6:22 PM on January 9, 2017