Unfortunately, when my wife's wallet got ripped off out of a car in 1997 in hawaii and we got hte first round of ID theft, we did exactly that. Put the notice on all 3 credit agencies and spent about $2000 getting the credit back to normal and the accounts taken away. About 3 months ago we started getting calls again from collection agencies and we went through and checked and found they had come back. It appears that it is the same person. Seems the thieves went to places which give instant credit and do not check the credit agency. the thief then goes thru the store buying as much as they can cash and carry and they rack up as many cards as they can get in a very short time, like 2-3 weeks. In our case, 5 credit cards at $1500 to $2500 per card, which were issued the night of purchase and then maxed way beyond the limits. Target was a $200 limit wiht $1500 on it.
the issue is, it doesn't do much good if the store does not verify the credit being issued or use the credit agency. major things like cellphones, home loans, car purchases, and car insurance will be stopped. Don't laugh, each of these were attempted on teh account at that same time period, as we found out by tracing the inquiries and calling each of them to see if accounts were going to crop up later.. We filed a police report for Fraud, but am considering filing damages against the stores which took out the fraudlent credit, even after the note was there. Even after places like Target and Banana Republic admitted the account was fraudulent and dropped it, they STILL sent us back to a collection agency. We are also in teh process of filing defamation suits against the stores for our credit worthiness, which would not have been harmed if they had followed the policies they say they have.
If your credit card is ripped off, you can cancel it, and get a new number. If your social security number is ripped off, you just have to live with it and the thieves can come back anytime they want to keep on using it or even post it to the web for anyone to rip off. When I complained to the FTC, they sent me a bunch of crap on how to write the notes in my files and telling me how to use credit responsibly, but took no ownership of the problem, which is that we DO NOT NEED OUR SS# INCLUDED IN ANY CREDIT TRANSACTION. It is purely for IRS tracking and social security account number information. It is used WAY too much by too many people.
And don't think that you need a theft to get it started. One retail store in LA used to ask for your social security number to identify your account when you came in. While giving that info, the theives would just listen in, take down the numbers, address, and name, and bingo they had all they needed to proceed.
Most people do not know just how often this crime happens. While talking to the Police, we found out that it is the highest rate of crime in the entire country, but the most unreported. |
