Identity Theft? I think so....

[Mark42]

Wife got a call this evening from a company claiming I bought $1200.00 worth of merchandise from them and wants me to pay up. Turns out the merchandise was bought on ebay by a guy that has my name and address (not street address, but state and town), but was not using my ebay ID. The caller did not ask for account info, and I didn't want to give any info incase he was fishing for info himself. Ya just never know anymore.

I am not sure how someone ended up using my name and address, but apparently was not able to use my account ID or credit card, etc.

Just to be safe I called my credit card company and gave them a "heads up" that my account may be being targeted and to keep a tight reign on the purchases. I also emailed Ebay and told them the same. But ebay just returned the standard "thanks for writing, someone will be in touch in 2 or 3 days" form letter.

I suspect that my name and address may have been lifted from iboats or some other boating website that I participate in.

If its not one thing, its another....

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Sounds like an attempted theft!

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Could be anyone. Can pick a phone book up and find names to pick from.
If you name is in a local phone book, town and state is not a far fetch either.

 

[mscher]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Wife got a call this evening from a company claiming I bought $1200.00 worth of merchandise from them and wants me to pay up. Turns out the merchandise was bought on ebay by a guy that has my name and address (not street address, but state and town), but was not using my ebay ID. The caller did not ask for account info, and I didn't want to give any info incase he was fishing for info himself. Ya just never know anymore.

I am not sure how someone ended up using my name and address, but apparently was not able to use my account ID or credit card, etc.

Just to be safe I called my credit card company and gave them a "heads up" that my account may be being targeted and to keep a tight reign on the purchases. I also emailed Ebay and told them the same. But ebay just returned the standard "thanks for writing, someone will be in touch in 2 or 3 days" form letter.

I suspect that my name and address may have been lifted from iboats or some other boating website that I participate in.

If its not one thing, its another....

To be fair to iboats, the are probably thousands of places someone could get your name/address, on or off the Internet.

Sounds fishy to me.

Most ebay users will start working fraud problems through eBay first. Did they give you any information on what the auction actually was? Was the item shipped? Did they leave you their contact name and number?

A really huge scam that has been around for a very long time, is to simply inform someone that they owe you money. Bogus companies used to send out fake invoices for printer toner, that was never ordered or delivered. Busy offices may throw the invocies into the trash, or into the "payables" bin, where it is paid. Fake collection companies, will send out invoices, call and harass people, who do not owe any money. Old people are big victims here, since they have spent their lives not being deadbeats.


I had my account hijacked on Ebay, but fortunately eBay caughts it in time and shut the auctions down. I was some of my own fault, using too common of email names and shared passwords. Redone everything with separate cryptic email names and unique password.

Security breaches are part of the internet that really stink.

Good luck.

 

[JB]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Personal info is not available on iboats. It is not allowed to post it, either.

Whoever it was got the info somewhere else.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Personal info is not available on iboats. It is not allowed to post it, either.

Whoever it was got the info somewhere else.

I do not mean to imply that iboats is the cause of anything. I think that I have had my address (city, state) posted before, like in the post header. The theif did not have my street address.

I don't know where they got my name.

Who needs this kind of unnecessary aggravation? Not me!

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Tell the person that contacted you that you will have to meet in person with them to talk about this further,,,,,,,,,,,haha or when you dont know if its legit or not just say "Mail me the information and details for my reveiw" If they cant afford a stamp theres your answer,

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Tell the person that contacted you that you will have to meet in person with them to talk about this further,,,,,,,,,,,haha or when you don't know if its legit or not just say "Mail me the information and details for my review" If they cant afford a stamp theres your answer,

Actually this is better advice than you knew I think.....if they mail you an phony invoice it escalates to mail fraud....

 

[SgtMaj]

Removed

Removed

Removed

 

[thefairlaneman]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

Did you know that you can search the web and find the date of birth,death. parents names and SS numbers for people that have been dead for years. Very easy to steal an identity.I discovered this by accident while looking for an auto accident report that a relative was killed in many years ago.Never found the report though.

 

[joed]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

I never use my real name on the internet. I use the same name all over the place but it's not my real name.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Identity Theft? I think so....

unless you posted something in a thread, all that can be gotten here is Mark 42 for your name, and New Jersey - The part with cows and horses for an address. the mods do not have access to anymore, other than your email, in emergency.

this is why we have the guidelines we do. to protect you.

 

[SgtMaj]

Removed

Removed

Removed

 

[kellystams]

Contact one of the national credit reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report if you believe you've been a victim of fraud or paci civil id renewal identity theft.

 

[bruceb58]

Wow...14 year old thread resurrection...may be a record!