Identity Theft

[coopns]

Picking up the mail and saw a letter addressed to me (in MA) but from Ohio, looked somewhat legit but often are junk mail. Decided to open it.
Had my name/address with an official letter from State Of Ohio regarding Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Benefits which states..."According to our records, you applied for and received Pandemic Assistance..."

So I get on it and call Ohio and explain my situation and they had flagged my account as suspicious....not me...them. So I spent half a day contacting the bank, some gov. and credit agencies to confirm nothing else was compromised. All was ok and I did pay Equifax $5 a month to monitor my a/c and I can cancel at anytime but I figure do it for 5/6 months just to be safe.

I guess, thinking about all the transactions on the web and all the data breaches.

 

[LazyDog]

I close or lock up my credit w/ all 3 agencies many years ago!

 

[JohnnyG]

I have a friend with a very common last name. He has recieved no less than 5 letters like that!
Free money and nobody minding the store!

 

[PimTac]

I thought the law was that government and businesses had to provide credit watch services like Equifax for a period of time at no cost to you?

 

[Donald]

Credit Karma will watch Equifax and TransUnion for you for free, Experian will watch Experian for free. And other will also. No need to pay,

I am glad my last name is not very common.

 

[wag123]

I got two of them during the pandemic.
Freeze your credit accounts at all 3 of the credit bureaus (free). Contact your homeowner's/renter's insurance agent and ask if they have an identity theft insurance rider that they can add to your insurance policy. State Farm does and it is incredibly cheap. I only pay $18/year for coverage on myself and my wife (actually everyone in my household).

 

[spackard]

I've had three letters so far that someone used my address to get subsidized telephone service. Maybe three letters. I bounced one "addressee unknown". The next one that came I opened, figured out the scam, tried to get the responsible party to investigate, they returned it without action. I wrote my local political representative, they wrote back about using some online tool to make a proper complaint.