If someone attempted to open a credit card using your social security number (SSN) on June 30, 2017, please reach out to me. You can comment below or call or email me. I will be happy to keep your information confidential. You have likely been a victim of the same identity theft ring as myself, and I would like to compare notes. The fraudsters are very stupid and have left a significant trail behind. Of course, authorities are not going to investigate this.

I don’t have anywhere else to put this

I am curious to know if anyone else out there is searching for answers.

This blog is normally about Internet marketing but on occasion I talk about business. As a business owner, over the last 20yrs I’ve had my credit cards stolen, my eBay store duplicated, a store broken into, bad checks, frivolous lawsuits, you name it. While I do not have to deal with much of this anymore as an Internet marketer who works from home, I knew that one day my Identity would be stolen. My information is sitting on servers at all kinds of places which have had data breaches or low wage workers or both. North Carolina Department of Revenue, IRS, a slew of healthcare providers, various medical offices, CPI Security, just to name a few. I am a network engineer and a ‘good’ hacker of sorts from the early 1990’s so I know full well that data is very easily compromised. Heck, for all I know Suntrust Mortgage has a breach and doesn’t even know about it yet. There are so much government spying software in the hands of hackers these days almost nothing is secure unless it is unplugged, powered off and buried.

Credit Inquiries June 30, 2017

On July 13, 2017 I finally played my voicemail. American Express had been calling me about a credit card that I had “applied for”. They said they suspected fraud. It was indeed a fraud attempt at obtaining a credit card. I ran my credit report and the fraudsters have been abusing my SSN for a while now. The first card they opened was March 1, 2017, then it was mostly quiet until June 2017 when they really began applying for credit.

Overall my experience wasn’t that bad. They made off with $0 and only tried to open cards at 7 banks (that I know of, so far). As of July 14, I can see 7 banks where the credit inquiries came in to Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.

These banks include:

  • US Bank (aka US Bancorp)
  • Wells Fargo Credit Card
  • Bancorpsouth Tulepo
  • Barclay’s Bank Deleware
  • First Premier Bank
  • Indiana University CR UN (credit union)

If I get a few bites here I will look into this

I honestly do not care who did this. But if a few people are interested in more answers, I will absolutely look into this further.

A quick blurb about me: I’ve personally solved criminal acts for police departments on multiple occasions and have spent several years working with data recovery, discovery, network security and various forms of digital forensics.

That doesn’t mean I’ll find anything but if we’re both victims of the same “ring” and I dedicate some time to this I’m pretty sure something will arise.

I say “ring” as my information was very obviously shared. I’m assuming this as my credit inquires popped up in Texas and Arizona and North Carolina all in the same day. At least, that is where the thieves wanted the physical cards shipped. These are likely known vacant apartments or somewhere where the thief can easily access the mail such as a neighbor’s house or a girlfriend’s home.

Has your Identity been stolen?

If you’ve been the victim of identity theft please share what you can with the world below or privately with me in email or on the phone. I will be writing a separate article on the steps to take after an ID theft so please do not post that information here.

Len
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On July 14, 2017   /   Business   /   1 Comment
1 Comment
  1. Len
    12:30 am on September 19, 2017

    Today today I found out that the Equifax breach initially occurred in April 2017. Is that how my identity was stolen?

    Reply

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