Is someone stealing my sister's identity?
September 9, 2013 10:09 AM   Subscribe

My sister just got a phone call from someone claiming to be from a (seemingly real) real estate company in Colorado. (We are in New York.) The woman said she was calling to follow up on a home loan application, apparently filed with my sister's name, email, and phone number. But my sister has filed no such thing. Whaaaat is going on?

My sister said that she had not filed anything, and asked if she should report an attempted loan fraud. The caller replied that she'd put my sister on "her do-not-call list" and hung up. WTF?

So…what is going on? Is this some kind of known scam? Is someone trying to steal my sister's identity? Is there something in particular she should be doing to make that impossible, or at least much harder?

Part of what's so baffling is that whoever filled out the application (assuming there really is an application) *used my sister's number and e-mail address.* Wouldn't they know that she'd be contacted? Also the caller's use of the term "do-not-call list" seems like a weird reaction — it's not a matter of telemarketing, it's a matter of fraud. This all just feels so so fishy. Any ideas, MeFites?
posted by Charity Garfein to Law & Government (9 answers total)
 
Why is it baffling that someone would have your sister's email address and phone number? And if it is a scam artist, it's not like he or she has any compunction about the fact that the person he is trying to rip off would be alerted. He'd just move to the next target.

It's also possible that there is no identity theft here, and this company just cold calls people whose numbers it has scraped, trying to sell them on mortgages.

In any event, your sister should run a credit check, see if any unauthorized accounts have been opened, or charges against existing accounts incurred, etc.
posted by dfriedman at 10:13 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


Perhaps a fishing expedition--i.e., "Hey, we have your loan application" "LOl, no" "Are you Charity's sister at 123 Anywhere Avenue?" "Yes, but, but..." "Can you confirm your Social Security Number to see if it matches our records?"

And at that point, a sucker might say "Of course, 123-45-6789"--but perhaps your sister sounded too wary and did not seem like she'd share her SSN, so they hung up?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 10:13 AM on September 9, 2013 [10 favorites]


If I recall the Do Not Call registry has a few exceptions such as companies with which you already do business and ones that you have proactively contacted. This sounds like a bullshit made up reason to get around the DNC registry. "We have your application..." As soon as your sister called them on it, they went into the Do Not Call routine.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 10:20 AM on September 9, 2013 [7 favorites]


She is most likely being skip traced. Many tracing companies use a Colorado based company to mask their real phone number.

Sounds like she confirmed everything they needed, if that is indeed the case.
posted by wats at 10:27 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


The caller replied that she'd put my sister on "her do-not-call list" and hung up. WTF?

This is a pretty common tactic of scam companies which do not actually subscribe to the Do Not Call list or abide by the accompanying law. If you ever get through to a live person at one of those "cardholder services" scammers or similar they will often say something like the above, as if telling the customer that they maintain such a list makes their operation legal.

The caller was likely pushing a high-interest loan of some sort, having obtained your sister's contact information (and others') from somewhere, and calling to a different state in an attempt to hide from state consumer protection authorities and state usury laws.

It still pays for your sister to closely monitor her credit report through the appropriate free channels and to keep a careful eye on her bank accounts and mail, but I think it is unlikely that some third party has already obtained a mortgage in her name.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 10:42 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


I agree that it may have been a sleezy telemarketing attempt.

However, I'd call the three bureaus, have an alert placed on my credit report and obtain copies of said reports to insure that there was no funny business going on.

Anecdote. Two days after moving, we got a call on our new phone number from a skip tracer looking for someone I knew about 25 years ago. So....could very well be a skip tracer, doing what they do.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:50 AM on September 9, 2013


Put a fraud alert on file with the credit bureaus. This will prevent whoever it was from opening accounts in her name.
posted by zug at 11:11 AM on September 9, 2013


This is the kind of call I was getting before someone started using my stolen credit card number, and the same thing happened to a friend. We would get weird phone calls about something that included some information about us, either phone number or address, or something else. It turned out they got all of that info from a website order we had placed, and were probably confirming those details. Definitely check your credit card history with your bank and make sure there aren't any strange charges.
posted by markblasco at 11:20 AM on September 9, 2013 [1 favorite]


It's probably just a sales technique and nothing more.
posted by Dansaman at 12:35 PM on September 9, 2013


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