Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with identitytheft

Health Net data theft: what do I need to worry about?

min — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:28:06 -0800

I just got a letter from Health Net saying there was a security breach for my personal information. What do I need to worry about, especially given this is a health insurance company? Should I sign up for their free identity protection, or do that on my own? The letter says my data "may be at risk" but does not specify what data was stolen. According to this article, the data stolen included my name, address, ssn, and medical records. Do I need to worry more, given that this is health insurance, than I would if it was a credit card or bank information stolen? Am I safer, relatively, since 1.5 million records were stolen, or does that not matter? Fwiw, I have not had Health Net insurance in awhile--I can't remember when it was, but it was at least a year and half ago, and maybe more like three years ago, but I'm not sure if that matters. (Oddly, I've moved at least twice but they still managed to get the letter to my current address.)

They are offering two years of free id protection through Debix. Should I take that or just use the annual free credit reports? I searched the archives and found this question, which indicates I shouldn't go through Debix, but it seems like less data was stolen in that case.

Nothing of value was taken.... or was it?

twiggy — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:23:41 -0800

Why would someone break into a bunch of cars but ignore valuables only to rifle through paperwork? Last weekend, my car was broken into (well, it's possible I may have left it unlocked, though that's a very RARE thing for me). No windows were broken, though, so I either left it unlocked, or they used a slim jim.

A few interesting things:

1) I park in a gated lot behind my building, so someone had to hop the fence to get in.
2) Nothing of value was really present in my car, but not even what few things of value I did have were taken (a few CDs, a phone charger, etc)...
3) Whoever it was rifled through my glove box, my console and took out my (unused) ash tray, and left all of them open. My car is pretty messy, so they could've easily made it look like they were never there with about 10 seconds effort.

I thought nothing of this at first. I figured they didnt' find anything of sufficient value and moved on, and while it bothered me that my stuff was rifled through, I figured there was no sense worrying about it.

However, I'm on an email list for my local neighborhood, and just got an email noting that this same thing has happened to several other cars in the past week in their area - just a few blocks from where I'm at.

So - why would someone do this? My first thought was ID theft, but I don't think getting my auto insurance card is going to do you a whole lot of good. My social security number shouldn't be on there. It's also not on my license, but I keep my license with me at all times anyway, it wouldn't be in my car.

Has this happened to anyone else? Have you ever figured out what it was the thieves were after?

Someone stole my credit card, should I be worried about anything else?

AlisonM — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:45:51 -0800

Someone stole my credit card. The fraudulent charges have been taken care of, but is there anything else I should be worried about? My credit card (that I charge a whopping $9 a month on for Netflix) is expiring next month. Chase sent me a new card on Sep 4th, I never received it. Today, someone charged a whole bunch of money at a whole bunch of stores to my account. They're in Florida, I haven't been to Florida in years (I'm in NYC). The fraud department at caught it, I verified it wasn't me. Obviously somewhere between Chase sending me my new card and me getting my new card, things went wonky and some jerk got their hands on the envelope. My account is temporarily closed/denied/whatever until I get my new card (with a new account number) and activate it, and I'm not liable for any of the charges.

Awesome!

Except, now these people have my name, address, and a credit card (even if it's useless) with my name on it. Is there anything that I should be concerned about or do to try to ensure that they don't use my identity to do anything else? I've certainly used a credit card as an ID before, and after talking to my roommate just this week about these things (he has no state issued ID or passport and needed to get on a plane), a credit card plus any piece of paper with your name on it is considered enough ID to do whatever you want at a lot of places. Even though I'm in debt (thanks, school) and am sort of underemployed, I have pretty decent credit. I'd REALLY like to keep it that way.

So, is there anything I should do? I don't intend on taking out any loans or opening any new credit accounts in the immediate future, but I may consolidate my several private school loans at some point in the next year or so. (I would get advice from a financial planner, but see the underemployed bit? I can't afford it.)

Reporting lost/stolen birth certificates of minors.

magnoliasouth — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:45:17 -0800

What should I do to report a lost or stolen birth certificate of a minor? Here's what happened:

I've had some health issues of late and was scheduled for a MRI followed immediately by a doctor's appointment on the day my son was to be registered for school. I asked my nineteen-year-old daughter to take my son and do the registration for me. I gave her a manila folder with my son's certified birth certificate, a utility bill in my boyfriend's name, a notarized letter from my boyfriend which says that we live with him and a letter explaining my present medical condition and why I was requesting them to allow my daughter to do this.

All went well at school, but when my daughter got home, the folder was gone. It never made it back inside the house. This means she lost it before she made it out of the parking lot at the school, since the windows were rolled up.

I tried calling the school, but they have not found it or rather, no one has turned it in. My daughter spent all afternoon searching the school grounds, plus the cafeteria where the registration took place.

My son is fairly certain that the folder was in her hand as she left the cafeteria. Our best guess is she set it on the roof while unlocking the car and drove off. However, within 15 minutes she was back looking for it only to find that her space had already been taken and no papers were anywhere to be found.

So... all of that is to say, what should I do? Besides the obvious on ordering a new one, what other steps should I take? He doesn't have a driver's license nor a checking/credit account.

Why did T-Mobile try to charge me $6000?

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 20:36:44 -0800

T-Mobile just tried to charge my checking account almost $6000 despite the fact I don't have an account with T-Mobile. WTF? So I logged into my checking account the other day and found that that there were two charges that shouldn't be on there, both for $30. The description in it said they were from t-mobile.com and the two $30s were a "fee" because there were insufficient funds in my account to pay for two charges, one for about $4000 and the other for about $1800.

I do not have an account with T-Mobile, nor have I ever signed up for service with them. I called them and they told me that no one has opened an account under my name or SSN.

I also called my credit union. They refunded the $60 and blocked all further transactions to t-mobile.com.

Am I a victim of identity theft? I don't see how it could have happened. I have not lost my checkbook, my wallet or anything in it. I'm careful with my stuff. Also, I have less than $100 in my checking account right now (I'm a college student who basically lives paycheck to paycheck). Why would someone try to take out $6000 (and in two separate transactions)?

None of my other financial accounts seem to have been compromised. Nothing else is out of place.

I've changed all my passwords/log in info for all my accounts online. I'm running a virus scan. I looked up my credit report online and everything looks legit.

So why did T-Mobile try to take $6000 from me?

What should I do if I suspect someone has gotten my personal identity details?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:50:45 -0800

What should I do if someone has pulled some real identity theft type stuff on me? I'm watching bank accounts, changing passwords, checking for viruses/keyloggers, but what else can I do? The other day I noticed some odd charges on one of my credit cards (at an online merchant I've never heard of) and immediately called the issuing company and had them cancel the card as stolen.

I figured someone just happened to embed my numbers into their dummy card (it happened to me about ten years ago) until the merchant gave me a call from the buyer's info. I don't think the merchant got the phone number from the CC company, and I've gotten a few weird calls on the phone since then as well.

I'm thinking someone must have breached some sort of personal info to get my private cell number (not known to more than 30 people) and one of my credit cards.

I haven't seen any other weird charges on my accounts, but is there some sort of nuclear option I can invoke with credit agencies to block someone trying to open new credit accounts or doing anything weird with my info?

Are there other steps I should be taking beyond getting a new card and changing passwords everywhere?

Does this seem scammy to you?

dejah420 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:36:24 -0800

Recently, I've had recruiters asking for SS#s to submit my resume for positions. My husband has had the same thing happen, as have some friends. Is this the newest scam on the block? (as always...more inside) Recently, both my husband and I have gotten phone calls from recruiters who speak heavily accented English that have jobs which sound tailored to our public resumes. The recruiter has then asked for data which I consider ridiculous to give out, including birth date, social security numbers, place of birth, etc. This sounds like identity theft scamming to me.

The company that most recently asked for my SS# was itlogix.com, which has no contact information on their website, and the site is riddled with grammatical and spelling errors.

I think this is a scam being attempted on folks who have publicly posted their resumes on job search boards, as I've heard about it happening to a lot of people with Monster profiles.

Does this sound like a scam to y'all? If so, to which government agency should this activity be reported?

Mom was robbed. Now what?

cuddles.mcsnuggy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:31:02 -0800

My mother's car was robbed yesterday in Savannah, GA. Thieves made off with the originals of her Social Security card, the Social Security card of my recently deceased father, her bank debit/ATM card, her original driver's license, credit cards, documents with her address on it, business cards, and a lot of cash. She had the police involved & a report has been filed. She has canceled the credit cards and will be talking to her bank. Thankfully her checkbook wasn't taken. What else can she do, or can I help with, to prevent identity theft now that criminals have her SSN, my dad's SSN, and her drivers license and address? I'm worried sick for my poor mom. Not only did her husband/my dad pass away ten days ago, but now she's been hit with the blow of this robbery. In addition to all of the vital documents above, she lost $2,000 cash. Everything was in a small purse she had "hidden" in the car when she was doing some shopping. Thieves watched her get out of the car and waited till she walked away then broke the window.

She has started the ball rolling to get her affairs back in order; she called her credit card companies already (she had several cards but she's pretty sure she got them all) and the police faxed some kind of report to her bank. She'll be going to the bank first thing in the morning and the DMV for a new license tomorrow. The police also did a forensics sweep over her car for fingerprints and "evidence" but we're not expecting that to go anywhere. My biggest concern is -- how can she keep her (and my dead dad's) Social Security number, ID, and address from being used to open unauthorized loans, accounts, or credit cards? What's to prevent someone from using her data to run up gargantuan debts in her (or Dad's) name?

I have read through previous AskMeFi threads and I have seen these sites:
What to do when your purse is stolen
The FTC's site on ID theft
US Dept. of Justice

- Are there additional things she must do besides the tips in the above links? Better easy-to-understand sites to refer her to? She is NOT at all tech-savvy.
- None of these sites seem to specifically address Social Security card and driver's license theft: What specifically will she need to do about those? Does she need to talk to the Social Security office? What would they do to help prevent fraud?
- Have any of you gone through this and have personal suggestions?
- Is there any way at all she can recover some or all of the cash (ie: will car insurance cover anything like that)?
- She is a resident of South Carolina and the theft happened in Georgia. What additional things will she need to do, or be aware of, because of the two states involved?
- Are ID protection services like LifeLock or TrustedID worth it; or would doing that now be like shutting the barn door after the horse ran off?

Many thanks.

How safe is P2P?

The Ardship of Cambry — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:04:28 -0800

How worried should I be about the recent rash of stories in the mainstream media about P2P software being used to commit identity theft? For instance, this article about medical data being found on P2P clients like Gnutella. Or this one about a family's financial data making its way onto LimeWire.
I have no experience with these particular clients, but I have used Grokster and Morpheus back in the day. Is it really possible for someone else to download your files if you haven't taken a positive action to indicate that you want to make specific files available? Is this just a case of people who are even less l33t than yours truly not understanding how P2P software works and/or having lousy security on their computers? Or is this just another case of the MSM trying to mess with my head?

Should I be concerned about ID theft with 1099 sent to wrong address?

conigs — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:54:59 -0800

A contract employer sent my 1099-MISC to my old address at which I haven't resided since Jan. 2007. Should I be concerned about possible identity theft/fraud? I already had a fraudulent charge to one of my credit cards shortly after my mail stopped forwarding. Also, are there any repercussions I can/should take against the employer (large state university)?

If I WERE a complete idiot, I MAY have done THIS....

Spyder's Game — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:02:06 -0800

Sensitive information left out on a desk...uh, hypothetically. Assume for a second that I'm a complete idiot. Imagine that I, hypothetically, left out some paperwork on my work desk overnight. This is a light traffic area, and unlikely to be seen or noticed by many. Paperwork was upside down. Unfortunately, this hypothetical paperwork contained a voided check with my bank, routing number, account number, my name and my (hypothetical) wife's, and our address.

What kind of damage could someone do with information like that?

How would they do it? Would they need to make up a fake driver's license with my name and their picture on it?

What should I be vigilant about looking at to avoid losing any money for my hypothetical boneheadedness? Bank statements? Should I think about putting a freeze on my account?

Anything else I should do, or be aware of?

Legit landlord or identity thief?

Asymptote — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:33:11 -0800

What personal info does my future landlord need from me to make sure I'm legit? How do I make sure he's legit? This is my first time renting an apartment. Before I sign the lease, the landlord wants (among other info) my social security number and a copy of my driver's license. He says he wants these to run my credit history and do a background check on me. Because my parents will be cosigners on the lease, he wants the same information from them.

Is this reasonable? Or am I just setting myself up for identity theft?

Furthermore, how should I go about checking him out? Is getting his background check and credit history a good idea?

Background:
The landlord lives in NY and the apartment is in CT. I have not yet met him in person, but we've talked over the phone. I've seen the apartment and met with the current residents, who say the landlord is great. I've done some preliminary web searches to check up on him, and he's almost certainly who he says he is.

Credit card number stolen! How do I protect others?

attercoppe — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:33:47 -0800

My credit card number was stolen! How do I determine the most likely culprit (or at least how they did it) and try to ensure it doesn't happen again either to me or to someone else? I have a relatively new credit card. It lives in my pocket, I have never handed it to anyone else or given out the number except as described below. I've used it twice at the grocery store, swiped it myself. On 10 January I placed an order through a website, on 12 January they ran my card, and early this morning (14 January) I got a call from the fraud department of my credit card company. Someone had made three small (>$10) purchases with my card. The purchases were dated today, 14 January. (Capital One was right on top of it!) Classic fraud flag, the thief checking the card works with small purchases before using it for something big. I confirmed I did not make those purchases, I won't be liable, that number is cancelled and they're sending a new card. No problem there. The question is, how did someone get my card number? The only answers that make sense to me are (in order of likelihood):

1) The website I ordered through has been hacked;
2) Someone at the company I ordered from stole it;
3) Someone in my building, no more than two apartments away, has been sniffing my as-yet-unsecured wireless router (dumb, I know) and got it.

I rate #3 as pretty unlikely given my neighbors. I'm on the third floor, far from the street and parking lot, and it's cold here - a random wardriver/walker is even more unlikely.

I let the company I ordered from know about this. Of course I was speaking to a lowest-level CS rep, and she seemed pretty sure that couldn't ever happen - "We've never had a problem with that before." Then again, she seemed to think I was implying a #2 scenario, that an employee there was responsible.

Am I reasonable in thinking this was a failure of security either with the company website, or within the company? Should I call back and ask to speak to someone as high up as I can get? How likely is it that their website is compromised, and that they don't know, or haven't told the majority of their employees?

Canadian Identity theft laws?

furiousxgeorge — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:47:16 -0800

In Canada (Quebec), what laws exist against identity theft? More specifically, against identity theft for the purpose of defrauding third parties using the stolen identity. There are laws against fraud, of course, but are there any laws specific to the identity theft in such a situation?

I've never been to Texas, but my credit card number has.

4ster — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:51:25 -0800

So the bank calls and asks me last night about suspicious charges to my Visa card. Apparently someone tried to charge over $7,500 in a mall in Houston. The thing is, I haven't lost my card and I've never been to Texas, or even close to it. The bank says I'm not liable for the charges, and the card number is canceled, but I feel like I should be doing more. I read a Consumer Reports article that claims that credit monitoring services are kind of weak. So what now, Mefites?

How do I dispute my credit report from overseas via online?

chrisinseoul — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:58:32 -0800

URGENT: How do I dispute my credit report? Difficulty: no (current) American address or phone number, and not currently in the USA. Background: Twentysomething English teacher in Seoul, South Korea. American citizen, but I've been in South Korea for 8 1/2 months.

Earlier today I decided to check out my credit report from annualcreditreport.com on a whim. I noticed SEVERAL credit lines I couldn't possibly have opened, what with being in South Korea and all. These have apparently progressed to the point where they are being 90 days past due or charged-off. I did not open these accounts, to say the least, and am certain I'll be looked at rather skeptically by some. I'm in South Korea, though - 7,000 miles away.

I should note that I experienced some fraudulent activity with my bank's debit card back in April and May. Through a lot of work with the bank (and more than a few expensive phone calls), we were able to cancel the old card, reverse the charges, and get a new debit card (where it's sat unused in a file cabinet for the last several months). I assumed that was the end of it... until now.. Through the credit report I have the names, addresses, and some phone numbers who I supposedly have accounts with. I have account numbers of accounts I don't have.

Is there a website where one can dispute AND MONITOR PROGRESS issues on their credit report online? So far I've researched csccredit.com (affiliated with equifax), but they can only send a report via mail to an American address. I *highly prefer* online (if worst comes to worst I'll have the report sent to my parents - a slow and highly inefficient process, at best).

I return to the states in about 3 1/2 months - and from the horror stories I've heard online, it may take every day of that to get back to good. Help, please.

Because stealing the car might not be enough...

corey flood — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:09:53 -0800

In a moment of astounding stupidity, I left a piece of paperwork in my car that has my driver's license number and SSN on it. I went out this morning to find that the car had been stolen. What do I do now to (potentially) protect myself against identity theft? So someone stole my 12-year-old Honda last night. The police and insurance company have been notified, but after tearing the house apart, I've come to the conclusion that I left some critical paperwork in the car. It's buried in a folder of other stuff, so I suppose that there could be a chance that the jerks who stole the car might not see it, but really, I'm not counting on that.

My driver's license number and SSN are now in the hands of unscrupulous strangers. Is there anything I can do to make sure that no one steals my identity?

What paranoid steps do you take to secure your stuff?

Bunglegirl — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:04:39 -0800

How do I secure my electronics from theft? Although I've thought about the possibility of my computer and external hard drives being stolen from my apartment I haven't done anything about it. Yesterday my friend's place was broken into and her laptop, hard drives, cameras, ipod and husband's underwear (!) were stolen during the middle of the day. I don't see how I could secure my expensive cameras, but it's a wake up call that I need to be more vigilant about backing up my files and possibly take more steps to secure my data. I'm home a lot, live on the third floor and have bars on the windows that back up to the back porch so I've felt a little safer than if I was on the bottom floor.

I work from home and have all of my client files (graphic design jobs) backed up to an external hard drive. These files are incredibly important and many of them I need to reference or re-use. In an ideal world a thief would be decent and just steal the computer, not the backup, but my friend losing all of her project files, vacation photos etc. proves that they will take everything. She was almost finished with a job that wasn't backed up on CD and now she's going to have to start it from scratch. I have renter's insurance, but what can I do to secure my computer or hard drives? I'm Mac-only.

As a bonus, what do you do to secure you personal information (bank statements, medical files, checkbooks and other papers) that could be used for identity theft? I am not interested in going completely paperless.

1. Is adding a login when the computer starts up enough to stop them getting my data?

2. How do I stop them from getting data off my hard drives? I saw this post and wonder if I should do the spare image thing or use TrueCrypt.

3. Is there any deterrent that I can implement to stop them from taking either my hard drive or computer? Can I securely tie them to the leg of my desk with a cable? My old computer is a G4 with the handles but how do I secure a laptop or a hard drive? My desk has A-frame legs that something could be looped around. I realize that cords could be cut or wooden legs broken but it would be some kind of deterrent.

4. What backup steps should I be taking? I'm horrible about backing up projects until I'm done. I have been waiting to implement time machine until I get a new computer and third hard drive. Even if I do backup projects to my hard drive it could be stolen. Keeping a hard drive off site seems silly and I would probably never use it. It's possible I could keep files on my web server as a backup, is there any good way to do that and how secure is it? I suppose I could put a password on that directory.

Will a credit freeze mess up our lives?

clarkstonian — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:27:42 -0800

Should we put a freeze on our credit? We got a letter from a bank which said they'd inadvertently compromised our identity by "misplacing" a disk containing all of our personal information. They are not certain it was stolen. They just can't find it. They have said they will pay for a credit freeze with all 3 major companies. Well and good. We put the freeze on one.

When we tried to put a freeze on Experian, their web site has many, many cautions. If you put a freeze on your credit, you may be unable to make internet purchases. You may be unable to purchase things with a credit card at point of sale. Blah blah blah.

We travel. We buy things on the internet. It would be disastrous not to be able to access our credit.

Will a credit freeze mess up our lives? Are these warnings more for their benefit than ours. Have any of you gone through this? Any info would be appreciated.

Identity Theft 101

chez shoes — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:28:27 -0800

Identity Theft filter: long story short, my email, debit card #, first and last name, and home address were used fraudulently to open an account with ccbill.com. How does this happen? No, I don't play Texas Hold'em, but apparently somebody who does managed to get my info and use it to buy chips for a gambling site. In doing so, they cleaned out my bank account down to the last dollar.

The only parties besides myself who would have access to the four pieces of information used to open the ccbill.com account would be online retailers of a reputable nature.

I'm just trying to understand how something like this happens, because it really feels like a violation and I'd like to protect myself in the future.

Not at this address?

taubman — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:47:31 -0800

Over the last couple of weeks, I have started to receive mail (US, snail) addressed to people who do not live at my address. We are the third owners of our house, and the names appearing on the envelopes are not previous residents. The names are not local neighbors either. I have not yet received a duplicate name. I suppose this could be some odd coincidence, but in the entire time we've lived here, apart from the odd mail to previous residents, I haven't had mail like this. The stuff I'm getting ranges from marketing junk to forms that someone must have requested from the IRS. Its not a flood of mail- I've seen three pieces in the last two weeks, but the IRS piece has me a little spooked, and has set off alarm bells. This smells a bit like someone laying the groundwork for ID theft- either mine, or someone elses. Should I be concerned?

How do I pretend I was never here?

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 08:48:31 -0800

Today is my last day at my current job. How do I explain this to my office computer? I am leaving my current employ (and print journalism, w00t) for a new job, and today is my last day.

Over the years I've been here, I got to the point where my work computer is like my home computer, in that gmail, my bank account, ebay, amazon, various blogs and lots of other web sites automatically load up with my username. Or Firefox automatically fills in login info, etc.

Is there some simple way I can make this computer forget I was ever here?

It is unlikely that our dim-witted IT department will clean it off before the next employee plants his ass here, and I'd rather he not start posing as me on Metafilter, purchasing jesus cheetos on eBay or otherwise make use of my online identity.

My work computer runs on XP, if it matters, and only uses Firefox for browsing.

Why bother trying to sign electronic signature pads?

J-Garr — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 11:10:16 -0800

Electronic signature capture devices are not designed to allow someone to accurately sign them. So why not switch from using my signature to an easy to draw secret symbol? Many stores now have electronic signature capture devices on their Point of Sale devices. I find it silly to try and use my actual signature on these devices because normally they're at a funny angle, there is no where to rest your hand, the stylus pen does not accurately track, etc. Over the last few years as I see more and more of these my signature has transformed from something slightly resembling my actual chicken-scratch of a signature to some random squiggly lines.

In the spirit of the ZUG credit card prank, why shouldn't I start drawing a little symbol instead of signing my name? I'd always draw the same thing. It'd be something I could accurately and easily replicate on the silly little pads. If someone actually did steal my credit/debit card and tried to forge my signature it'd be easy to show that I always draw a hash mark with a circle around it (or whatever) while the thief actually tried to sign my name.

To do such a thing would I need file a copy of "my official 'signature'" with my bank? This is all in theory of course. Though what possible issues might arise from using my squiggly line signature on electronic pads instead of making an attempt to actually sign my name as it looks (or at least at one time looked) on my card. Not that anyone could tell because the sig on my card is smeared and unreadable.

How stupid would it be to trash the old financial stuff?

paultopia — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:39:49 -0800

How dangerous is throwing out old financial records, really? Don't want to pay to shred, and lots of peoples' trash is mixed with mine... I'm a student at a major university with many, many people's trash mixed together into large dumpsters. I'm trying to get rid of several years of old financial records, just full of things like SSNs, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, etc.

Does anyone have a sense as to how dangerous it really is to just toss it all into one of the big bins? Do people really go rooting through them? Is it more or less dangerous to throw it into the paper recycling one?

Alternatively, does anyone have any quick and easy destruction method for about 50 pounds of paper that doesn't require the ability to burn or shred and can happen without paying some professional?

Reporting debt-based harassment to attorney general

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:54:41 -0800

What's the best way to go about reporting a case of harassment from creditors for debts I don't owe? I'm in Pennsylvania, USA. For the past two years, I have been threatened and harassed by various creditors for debts (at least three or four different ones) that aren't mine. They are in the name of a person who happens to have the same name (except middle initial) as me, but these companies have a different SSN and birthdate associated with the person and their debts. The person has mailing addresses (P.O. boxes) in my state, but I have never lived anywhere near the city those P.O.B.s are in. I have checked my credit report, and, so far, these threats have not affected my credit.

After two years, the phone calls and letters haven't stopped coming. I write disputes citing the FDCPA, and, for a while, things are quiet. Then, after a few months, I am contacted about a new debt. When I talk to someone on the phone, I do explain the full situation and tell them not to call me again, and they say that they'll remove my phone number from their database. I hadn't gotten a call since January, but I got a new one yesterday.

Here's my question: I've been told that I should report this entire issue to my state attorney general. Once I realized what was happening, I kept records of calls, and I have all my paperwork (letters received and sent) pertaining to this case. I was looking at the PA attorney general's website, and I don't really know how to go about reporting this. There is a consumer complaint form, but it doesn't seem to really apply to my situation. I've been procrastinating this step for a while, but I do want this taken care of. Or, at the very least, I want a paper trail started indicating that I have contacted some sort of governmental body disputing this entire situation. How would you handle this? Would you fill out the form (linked above), or would you write a separate letter? Or.. is it not worth it (Please don't tell me this.. This is affecting my physical and mental health; I need it to end already!)? I'm sorry if this is a really obvious or dumb question.. I'm clueless about how to deal with this whole situation, and I don't have anyone who can advise me.

[Also, I have asked questions relating to this issue in the past, and the information, help, and support I have received have been invaluable. I followed a lot of the advice given, and I'd be in a far worse place if I hadn't asked. So, even if no one has anything to say on this particular topic, I am so appreciative of everyone who has answered my questions in the past.]