Identity Theft and Phishing Scams

Have you ever been the victim of identity theft or a phishing scam?

  • Yes

    Votes: 2 50.0%
  • No

    Votes: 2 50.0%
  • I don't know

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    4

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Hello,

Have you ever been a victim of identity theft?

I'm generally good about immediately any phishing attempts that make it into my inbox.

I have never had a problem with giving away my information over email, but I have had a couple problems with the servers of companies that I have done business with being compromised. None of them resulted in any damage that I am aware of. Scottrade.com was using a 3rd party online check service that was compromised. I have also received the occasional automated phone call stating that a company I have done business with had their servers compromised, but it does not state which company and ends the call.

I had a problem this past month that was directly my own fault. I clicked an ad on facebook and signed up for a service. After giving them my credit card information and making the initial purchase they started making additional charges to my card that I had no ability to stop. I had to call my credit card company, cancel the card, dispute the charges, and have a new card with a new number sent to me. This was a small headache since I have several of my bills auto pay by charging my credit card.

What measures do you take to protect yourself?

Do you have a story to share? Please share it with us!

-Raymond
 

yukon

Valued Member
no, I haven't but my wife *almost* was a couple of weeks ago. She had a suspicious email from one of our banks, and asked me to take a look. It was a typical password scam, but very well worded and they used a bank that we do have accounts at (Bank of America). I dug into the source of the email and did some DNS digging before letting her click on anything. Luckily I had bothered to check first (I almost hadn't). It turned out to be going somewhere offshore, emails were deleted, no harm done.
 

Big Dan

EQ Forum Moderator
Never for me. Although I should never say never it might not be me that gets hacked could be my bank, paypal, or some store's credit card processor. :( There's been a good number of security breaches lately, not good for business. All the security experts will tell you the consumer is the weakest link in the personal information security chain yet banks and payment processors continue to have 'leaks'.

For me I use my debit card for everything it's so much easier than worrying about cash IMHO. If I loose my wallet, I just call and cancel my debit card. With cash you're SOL. The recent data leaks have had me second guessing my debit card usage.

As for online..Just go direct to the site never click links from emails. Make sure you're at the correct URL before entering any information. Problem solved. :)
 

THERESA

Customer Service
I once noticed that my credit card was being charged more than one month in a row $39.95, it was a joint account so the first charge looked harmless. When I noticed it again, I called and asked about it. They said it was a charge for internet porn. Looking back on it, it may not have been as fraudulent as I first suspected. But it wasn't my charge. :mad:
 
Top