Why would an identity thief want credit cards mailed to my house?
December 6, 2024 3:14 PM Subscribe
Why would an identity thief use your own home address to sign up for credit cards? How do they benefit?
So my social security number and other personal info have gotten loose on the "dark web". A few months ago I caught some Hard Inquries on my credit reports from someone trying to apply for stuff. I squashed that as quickly as I could, froze all my credit, took necessary steps, yada yada. I'm still fighting the good fight and that's outside the scope of my question.
But since then, I am constantly getting letters in the mail from credit card companies in the vein of "your application has been declined because your credit is frozen". But the thing is, the letters are coming to my home address, which means the thieves must be using my home address in their fake applications.
But what's the deal here? Even if they did succeed in signing up for a credit card, the card would arrive at my house and they'd never see it or the number. How does that help in anything other than driving down my credit score and forcing me to do more work in getting accounts canceled?
One would think that if they wanted to apply for a credit card in my name for nefarious purposes, they would get the physical card mailed to another address, a PO Box or something.
Ruling out the possibility of the thieves living in my neighborhood and hoping to poach envelopes from my mailbox or trash, is there something else I am missing?
So my social security number and other personal info have gotten loose on the "dark web". A few months ago I caught some Hard Inquries on my credit reports from someone trying to apply for stuff. I squashed that as quickly as I could, froze all my credit, took necessary steps, yada yada. I'm still fighting the good fight and that's outside the scope of my question.
But since then, I am constantly getting letters in the mail from credit card companies in the vein of "your application has been declined because your credit is frozen". But the thing is, the letters are coming to my home address, which means the thieves must be using my home address in their fake applications.
But what's the deal here? Even if they did succeed in signing up for a credit card, the card would arrive at my house and they'd never see it or the number. How does that help in anything other than driving down my credit score and forcing me to do more work in getting accounts canceled?
One would think that if they wanted to apply for a credit card in my name for nefarious purposes, they would get the physical card mailed to another address, a PO Box or something.
Ruling out the possibility of the thieves living in my neighborhood and hoping to poach envelopes from my mailbox or trash, is there something else I am missing?
These days you don't need the physical card. There's all kinds of digital wallets, so if the application did go through there's a chance they would have access somehow without the card.
Moreover, step 2 could be to apply, then change address, get new card, etc. There's a million ways to make it work.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:36 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
Moreover, step 2 could be to apply, then change address, get new card, etc. There's a million ways to make it work.
posted by Rhomboid at 3:36 PM on December 6 [1 favorite]
Ruling out the possibility of the thieves living in my neighborhood...
There are cases involving interception of mail before it reaches you.
posted by Lanark at 1:16 AM on December 7 [1 favorite]
There are cases involving interception of mail before it reaches you.
posted by Lanark at 1:16 AM on December 7 [1 favorite]
It occurs to me that one possible reaction from any given person receiving a "your request was declined because your credit is frozen" notice could be to unfreeze their credit. What if they've forgotten why they ever froze it in the first place, and don't recognize the letter as indicating a fraud attempt? Or what if someone else helped them do the freeze years ago, and they never really understood why? What if they assume they must have initiated the recent request, and feel bad about it having been blocked even though they're not sure why they wanted it? What if this reminds them that they do actually want to get another card, or look into a mortgage? What if they think this might be hurting their chances of getting hired, or approved to rent? There could even be a phone scam component, where someone does followup calls encouraging exactly that kind of reactionary thinking and then, whee, a known good SSN and a victim who thinks they're being helped by the now-friendly person on the phone.
posted by teremala at 6:13 AM on December 7
posted by teremala at 6:13 AM on December 7
cowbell is correct about why the CRAs are doing it, and everybody else is correct about ways the fraudster could work it even if they used your real home address, which some of them may be anyway.
posted by praemunire at 7:42 AM on December 7
posted by praemunire at 7:42 AM on December 7
Mod note: From the OP:
To cowbell's point: Some of these letters are using weird variations of my address. Such as using "Avenue" instead of "Street", or using the wrong city name but the right zip code, or entire misspellings that still manage to find their way to my house. That's why I know it has to (at least in some cases) be based on what the user entered. If they are also placing applications using one of my old addresses or completely different ones, I may never know, but it's still the same credit bureaus that will be sending back letters about being frozen.posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 12:30 PM on December 7
If someone was intending to intercept the mail then they haven't been doing a good job of that either. I have gotten a few debit cards in the mail that were created by the thieves (because debit cards don't require credit checks) and I was able to immediately get those canceled. We also are signed up for Informed Delivery so we get photographs of our mail before it gets to the house, so we at least know what to expect from the point it gets to the post office.
In any case this is currently an annoyance more than anything else to me, because as long as I don't see evidence of anything actually being stolen, I'm still getting these letters almost daily even after locking all the doors I can think of months ago. When the day comes that I actually have to temporarily unfreeze to apply for something legitimate (i.e. a car loan), I hope that this has died down so they don't sneak in there with something fraudulent during that short window.
I also hope it goes away on its own so I don't have to take drastic measures like changing my SSN.
I haven't created a throwaway email and don't plan on making any more comments, but I'll continue to keep an eye on the thread to see people's thoughts.
Cards applied for in store can be used immediately upon approval, without needing a physical card.
So, not only are you annoyed when stores badger you about opening a card when just trying to buy something, and the cashier is annoyed because they get fired if they don't badger you about opening a card, it also makes it easy for identity theft because they don't need to wait for a physical card in the mail.
When my identity was stolen a while ago, they blitzed malls to open multiple store cards in one day.
posted by TheAdamist at 2:44 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
So, not only are you annoyed when stores badger you about opening a card when just trying to buy something, and the cashier is annoyed because they get fired if they don't badger you about opening a card, it also makes it easy for identity theft because they don't need to wait for a physical card in the mail.
When my identity was stolen a while ago, they blitzed malls to open multiple store cards in one day.
posted by TheAdamist at 2:44 AM on December 8 [1 favorite]
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This might not be the case, the company's policy in this situation (application for a card in the name of someone whose credit is frozen) might be to send information to the address that person has on file with with the credit bureaus rather than what was entered in the application.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:34 PM on December 6 [3 favorites]