A Victim of Identity Theft
By melcene 22 Comments
With all the hubbub about the PSN hack, people aren't sure whether to be concerned or not. I don't know either. But what I do know is what it's like to be a victim different forms of identity theft, and how it can affect your life.
By the way, if you're a minor... this still applies, trust me.
Personal Information (Not Financial)
The day after high school graduation, I moved out of my family's house. I had only just turned 17. Legally, I couldn't really have bills in my name. So imagine my surprise a month or two later when I got a late/collection notice from the local cable tv company. Family of mine was using my info to garner services from the local cable tv company, along with some other stuff that I found out about later. Here I was, not even 18, and I already had outstanding debt. My credit score was fucked before I even turned 18. And all it took was a name. No social security number needed. No driver's license number needed. Obviously date of birth wouldn't have even been helpful. Just a name and address.
If you're younger, you may not understand how important your credit is. It affects SO many things, from whether you can get a Best Buy card or not, to whether you can finance a new vehicle. In most places in the US it even affects things like the price of your car insurance.
Fast forward about a dozen years. The financial system has changed a bit because of the ease of identity theft. Plastic has become the main form of currency. And yet identity theft still happens...
Your Financial Info
In January of 2010, my bank (a local credit union) sent out a notice to many of its members. Apparently some merchants had been hacked, and they were afraid that members' info might be at risk. So they were just going to automatically replace everyone's cards. A few months after we had gotten the new cards, we noticed some very odd charges on our bank account. After a discussion with the bank, it turns out that the charges were made to online businesses with my husband's debit/credit card info. We're pretty sure that a restaurant that we had visited somewhat recently was to blame. We shut down my husband's card immediately, and none of the charges went through (they were still on hold for approval).
Now yes, we have fraud protection. Yes, that means we can get our money back easily enough if someone does use our info to make purchases. It means filing a police report, filling out paperwork, and of course, cancelling your card ASAP and waiting to get a new one in the mail. Have you thought about what life is like to go 2 weeks without your debit card? Try it. Don't take out cash first. Just take your card right now and put it somewhere for two weeks. See how that works out.
Before people blow off a security breach of ANY major corporation that has their information, they should really take into consideration what is at risk.