Cybercrime Visits Me

[Ihatetochangeoil]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
How effective are services like lifelock?


After having been a victim of identity theft 4 times, I have life lock. I don't mind the monthly subscription fee of $14.99 because I get text and email messages when there is a credit card transaction over $XXX. When you set up your Lifelock account, you can determine XXX amount you want to be notified. Lifelock is the only credit fraud protection I know of that takes a PROactive approach to protecting your credit.

I can write a full page (maybe two) of what I've been thru, starting with $17,000 of fraud shortly after 9/11/01. It is not on my normal list of things to do at 5 am on Monday morning to call 911, ask for the FBI, and say that I would like to report possible terrorist international travel using MY credit card.

I really like Lifelock. I'm not going to post too many details on a public forum; if you want specifics of my story or why I like and appreciate Lifelock, pm me.

I have a business credit card and 11 active credit card accounts.

 

[stockrex]

Originally Posted By: xfactor9
A few weeks ago my friend was a victim of identity theft. Someone opened a couple of accounts in his name, and by the time he noticed, they became delinquent and were sent to a debt collector. He contacted the 3 credit bureaus to sort out the problem and put a freeze on his credit reports. I don't know if the issues have been resolved. He also had 20 'hard' credit inquiries. His fico dropped by 150 points.

It's made me contemplate pre-emptively putting a freeze on mine. Has anyone here done that?



I do it all the time, every year around December and once in summer, free credit freeze,
Instant credit is denied and they have to sent you a letter to open an account.

Best thing ever and it is FREE

 

[stockrex]

You don't really need to pay for lifelick,

Credit cards have good security detection, you can put limit on charges,
I bank with Amex and now Citi cuz of Costco and my local credit union.

It does not matter how many credit cards you have, you are not responsible for those charges. Just keep a close eye on your bank a/c and don't list your debit on any auto pay etc.

Put credit freeze i.e. possible victim of fraud and then they won't be able to get any credit.

 

[CKN]

Some states have a charge for either freezing or unfreezing your credit. It's usually pretty minimal.

 

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: xfactor9
A few weeks ago my friend was a victim of identity theft. Someone opened a couple of accounts in his name, and by the time he noticed, they became delinquent and were sent to a debt collector. He contacted the 3 credit bureaus to sort out the problem and put a freeze on his credit reports. I don't know if the issues have been resolved. He also had 20 'hard' credit inquiries. His fico dropped by 150 points.

It's made me contemplate pre-emptively putting a freeze on mine. Has anyone here done that?



Yup. I put a freeze on years ago. It's kind of a PITA if you use credit, but it certainly stops a lot of ID theft dead in it's tracks.

 

[Revving2Redline]

I got something like that from OPM when govt employees info was maybe compromised. I try to buy as little as possible on card. I remember them taking your pastic and running a carbon copy back in the day. Those were the days,I miss those days...Everyday.

 

[Schmoe]

Lifelock just does the freeze for you, and charge you monthly for it. I've froze mine and the wife's credit a long time ago. The only thing about freezing your credit is that you'd better have a safe and remembered place where you put the PIN. It's LONG. It will cost you anywhere between 10 to 20 dollars to unlock it, but well worth it. I challenged it once by applying for Honda credit when buying one of our Honda's, sure enough, sales guy came back and said they couldn't see my credit report....SCORE. One other thing I did was sign up with Bank of America credit monitoring. They watch everything besides just credit stuff....inquiries, bank accounts, different accounts you may have....and send you an alert if something has been looked at or tampered with....12.99 a month.