Never Say Never - It could happen to YOU! A must read.

In 1789, Benjamin Franklin said, “Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

Ben would be amazed with all the other things that can be added to his list of certainly. Things like heavy traffic, pollution, stupid drivers, and ridiculous gas prices...

I can personally add one. How about Identity Theft?

Wednesday, May 21^st, was the last day of school for my 14 year old son. I did my shift at work, and headed over to the school to pay some fees. My son saw me in the office, and popped in to say hi. It was 20 minutes before school was out for the summer, and the kids were cleaning out their lockers. Since I was already at the school, my son asked the principal if he could leave with me. She said yes. We got out to the car, and I informed him that I needed to go to the grocery store. My husband carries the debit card for our joint account since he travels a lot, so I just carry the checkbook. My son asked if we could stop and get something to drink. I said sure. So we stopped at a local convenience store. I don't carry cash much anymore, so I dug in my wallet for the debit card for my personal account. It wasn't there. I remembered using it on Monday, so I thought that perhaps I'd left it in my back pocket. So, I dug some change out of the bottom of my purse, paid for our drinks, and headed home.

Once home, I checked my pockets. Hmmm... not there. After cleaning out my purse and wallet, twice, I came to the conclusion that I'd better check my bank account.

Upon checking my account, there were two charges against my account, that I knew I hadn't made. I picked up my phone and called the bank. After explaining the situation to customer service, I was told that the two charges were one dollar each. I came to the conclusion that whoever had my card was testing it, to see if it would work. I again checked my account Wednesday evening, and no additional charges were posted to my account. Thursday morning was a different story. Two more charges had incurred, and at the same two gas stations as Wednesday. One of the charges was in a different town, and happened while my son and I were at the grocery store.

I, of course, canceled the card over the phone, and Thursday morning, I headed to both convenience stores, looking for receipts with signatures, times of transactions... as documentation. I didn't know my card number, but I told the manager that I would recognize the last 4 digits. She opened each debit/credit card transaction made that day, one by one. We actually found the transaction. I recognized the last 4 digits, plus it had my name on is as cardholder. I made the trip to my bank. The young woman who assisted me was very sympathetic, answered all my questions and pointed me in the direction I needed to go to build a case. This is what I learned...

Stolen credit/debit cards are 9 times out of 10 used at a gas station. At the pump. Why? Because at the pump, no PIN number is required, and no cashier asking to see ones ID – and BTW, my card did have my picture on it). Like ATM's, many gas stations use cameras at the pumps, to protect consumers against ID Theft. However, that technology is very expensive, so smaller businesses are not able to purchase them. (and neither station that my card was used at have cameras) As I had suspected, the two, $1 charges were a test, to see if it would work. Customer service confirmed that suspicion. Once the thief knew the card would work, they went back, paid at the pump (with my money) and off they went. I do have the times and dates of both charges.

Whomever issues the debit card (ie Visa, Mastercard) is who decides whether your stolen money is returned to you. I have to write a statement, as detailed as possible to help my case in getting my money back. I have to make a police report and get the case number. Basically, I've got to gather every piece of the puzzle that I can to make my case.

So, I've done a little bit of research and found some staggering facts about Identity Theft.

1. Even the founder of the LifeLock company has had his identity stolen (after he created the company). I'm sure you've seen the commercials; the founders' social security number is all over billboards and on the trucks, buses, etc. Seems the perpetrator took out a $500 loan at a Fort Worth, Texas, check cashing center, in the founders name. They also had his wifes cell phone number and name. LifeLock's founder didn't even know about the fraud until his wife started receiving calls on her cell about the unpaid loan.

2. The FTC annually publishes a list of top consumer complaints. In 2006, Identity Theft led that list with over 246,000 ID theft complaints. These complaints made up a whopping 36% of all the complaints made in '07.

3. In 2005, 8.5 million people discovered they were victims of ID theft.

4. The top 11 states for ID Theft are:

    1. Arizona

   2. Nevada

   3. California

   4. Texas

   5. Florida

   6. Colorado

   7. Georgia

   8. New York

   9. Washington

   10. New Mexico

   11. Maryland

5. Most thieves still obtain personal information through traditional rather then electronic channels.

   In cases where the method was known, 68.2% of information was obtained off-line versus only

   11.6% obtained on-line. Conventional methods such as lost/stolen wallets, misappropriation by

   family/friends and theft of paper mail are the most common ways thieves gain access to information.

To protect yourself and your family:

Cancel paper bills and statements whenever possible and check your statements and pay bills on-line. Monitor

your account balances religiously on a weekly basis (or more often).

If you have no access to on-line accounts, review hard copy bank/credit card statement religiously.

Many financial institutions now offer account “alerts” so account holders can be notified of transfers,

payments, low balances, even withdrawals.

Also take advantage of the annual credit report. Its free. You can request it from all three of the major

credit reporting agencies. See https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ for more information.

The emotional impact of ID fraud victims parallel victims of violent crimes. (I feel very violated, hurt,

angry all at the same time. Hopefully that will pass in time, but not enough for me to lose that edge. If

I had not been religious about checking our account, who knows how long my “free” money would

have gone on.)

I consider myself one of the lucky ones. The amounts stolen were small. I caught the charges on my account that I knew were not mine. But I know lots of people that have not been so lucky.

My apologies for this being so long. I just thought I would share, and maybe I might help someone else in my current situation.

Hope everyone in the US has a fun and safe Memorial Weekend.

Lisa :)