Wife's ID and CCs stolen
- Thread starter Mr. Leary
- Start date
offero
Adventurist
I'm sorry to hear that. Keep an eye on your accounts, especially the ones that are cumbersome to cancel, like checking, savings, investment, etc. If it were me, I would also check her credit reports in the next 90 days to ensure the dirtbag, err, uh, I mean, alleged thief, hasn't opened any accounts in your wife's name.
Were you out and about? Was this a pickpocket type of crime? Mrs. Offero leaves her purse by the front door constantly when shuffling kids and stuff from the car and I've been trying to drive the concept of situational awareness and reducing risk. I'd be curious to know the circumstances, if you're willing to share, so I might use as an example.
Were you out and about? Was this a pickpocket type of crime? Mrs. Offero leaves her purse by the front door constantly when shuffling kids and stuff from the car and I've been trying to drive the concept of situational awareness and reducing risk. I'd be curious to know the circumstances, if you're willing to share, so I might use as an example.
brentbba
Adventurist
Credit Bureau's - don't forget all three of them. Experian, Trans Union and Equifax. Can't imagine the hassle. It's a PITA when one credit card is compromised, much less all you may carry and id's. Best of luck. I work for one of the three bureaus listed. While I could get one of the credit products offered that included access to my report, score and monitoring, I only subscribe to monitoring. You get an email alert any time something changes on your credit report. If you know you've done something, like apply for a loan, etc. then no worries, but if you've done nothing recently, it's a great red flag to action.
Again, best of luck!!
make a police report, it will go a long way in helping reverse any fraud that may occur
She went out to eat, and also left her car unlocked with her purse in the front seat while dropping kiddo off at daycare. She also leaves her purse unattended at her desk at work regularly, so we really don't have a clear picture of where her stuff was stolen... she just noticed when she tried to pay for something and they were missing from her wallet.
Situational awareness is a sore topic in our household, and I did talk to her about her general lack of it and the correlation between lack of situational awareness and bad things like this happening. She wasn't too happy with me for calling her out, but I'm hoping that finally I'm starting to get the point across.
An update:
The thief tried to use several of the cards at various places last night and today. Luckily for us, our bank accounts are set up so that the bulk of our money cannot be accessed via debit cards, so some of the charges bounced due to lack of available funds, so we might only be out a couple hundred bucks. The credit cards, not so lucky, but we did get the cards cancelled and notify the companies of theft, so hopefully we will not be on the hook for thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges. Wife left work early and is heading in to file police report.
I hope the thief really needed the money for their family or something, because this is looking like it's going to be a headache for us.
The thief tried to use several of the cards at various places last night and today. Luckily for us, our bank accounts are set up so that the bulk of our money cannot be accessed via debit cards, so some of the charges bounced due to lack of available funds, so we might only be out a couple hundred bucks. The credit cards, not so lucky, but we did get the cards cancelled and notify the companies of theft, so hopefully we will not be on the hook for thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges. Wife left work early and is heading in to file police report.
I hope the thief really needed the money for their family or something, because this is looking like it's going to be a headache for us.
Back in 07 I had my ID stolen... I was in Iraq and called home, my wife says "where are you?" I say "Anbar Province... why?" she says "because someone has racked up almost 10k in your name this weekend in Phoenix, AZ at Best Buy and Macys... on HD TV's and purses and laptops and shoes... you have another family you're supporting there or something? Obviously, I did not and my credit cards were not working with zero connectivity in Iraq so I dodged that bullet 
I was pretty stressed but had her call it in, the Sheriff's Dept later caught the "lady" that was masquerading as me and all parties dropped all charges on us - credit report was unaffected and all is well today. She had my SSN and was opening accounts all over town in addition to just running up my existing CC.
Good advice so far in this thread just stay the course Mike, it will work out.
I was pretty stressed but had her call it in, the Sheriff's Dept later caught the "lady" that was masquerading as me and all parties dropped all charges on us - credit report was unaffected and all is well today. She had my SSN and was opening accounts all over town in addition to just running up my existing CC.
Good advice so far in this thread just stay the course Mike, it will work out.
Back years ago around Christmas chase calls and asks if I'm in la buying a watch and I wasn't they said there was tons of recent activity on my card which I had in my person. Turns out my number had been compromised and they used it only around Los Angeles just buying gas once or twice a month then 3-4 and up and up. I was on online statements and never looked very close at the bills as to where the gas stations were but chase went back a year and credited us thousands of dollars we had paid. Now I get actual paper statements and look them over 100% I also now fill up to even dollars so I can see if fuel pump charges are where it all started
Chase is the WORST with allowing these things to go unchecked for so long. Chase let me know 6 MONTHS after someone hijacked my card, even so much as to change my address to somewhere in New York months before Chase finally called me.
Mike, LifeLock, for both of you. It's not cheap, but man is it worth it. Unfortunately the banks make this so easy for identity thieves, and then make us PAY to prevent it.
Mike, LifeLock, for both of you. It's not cheap, but man is it worth it. Unfortunately the banks make this so easy for identity thieves, and then make us PAY to prevent it.
offero
Adventurist
What a bad time of year to have this happen. I hope you guys get this straightened out quickly. It would be especially nice if they could catch the thief trying to use one of the cards, but I doubt local police will bother unless tens of thousands of dollars were being racked up on fraudulent purchases.