Identity Theft question

[sixtyandaquarter]

Okay basically my family fell under identity theft. Someone snagged my mother's information and signed up for an online bank account, deposited a scarce amount of change (21 cents) and then withdrew $90.

A letter was sent to her, too late mind you, saying they were trying to get in contact with her. I thought it looked like a scam, it was the wrong e-mail completely, and having not seen the letter I thought it was a disposable e-mail address. I also thought that any url's typed out would also lead to, like the paypal scams so popular, a site set up to look official that would just collect all your information. I said call the bank.

She got her statement just a day later showing the withdraw/deposit etc. I saw the letter and it's an aol address - which can still be just as disposable, I know. But, maybe the guy's a complete moron about his own safety and just good at getting ours (doubt it though). I ran a few scans on her comp and found an LPinch Trojan (remote access), but I don't think it's related, but who knows.

The bank froze the accounts, moved everything to a new one, etc. We'll get our money back, but was just curious if there was anything else we could do? The e-mail address is in front of me, not even sure if it's worth reporting to aol, specially since I think you can get an @aol.com without having aol now(?).

Any hints? I'm not the most knowledgeable on this sort of deal.

Thanks from,
Your friendly neighborhood sixtyman

 

[Untra]

Did your mom purchase any items online recently? And if so, from where? That, and specifically, what types of information were stolen? (eg. Social Security Number, Bank Number, etc.)

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

She was unable to get that information, which is messed cause the bank told her "We don't have that information readily available" ... hm... sounds like someones too lazy to press a few additional keystrokes to me, but she bought it. I'd imagine since this is the only thing touched, name and bank only information such as basic account information(?). No one knows what happened, all we know is a new account opened, money was taken out, and because insufficient funds met, it was taken from the normal account.

No clue what anyone would have at this time -_-.

Only shopping I know about was over last Christmas season. And something from a few gardening supply stores (seeds and the like) from a few online sites come to think of it.

 

[badmonur]

if they got the info it was probaly taken from an employee at a store. Usually they have a device that takes the info when they swipe the card, so look to see if they swipe twice in two different locations. Or it was scammed off of a website where your mom or someone who has access to her account bought something. Best advice i can give, cancel the card and get a new one.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I just talked to my mother, the account that was siphoned (where the difference came from) was not used on the internet, though I thought it had... apparently the only thing I can do is report the e-mail address vainly. Who would be stupid to use their real e-mail that could be traced with real information anyway?

Thanks for the information and help, I hadn't thought of the double swipe.

 

[Mega Flare]

random info! the internet is one of the safest places to use a credit card

 

[Venetia]

It's retardedly easy to get your identity stolen. My best friend lost hers to someone when she mailed out a hospital bill (I don't recall how she traced it to that, though). Some hospitals will name your account by your social security number. That's something to request them *not* to do when/if you ever get checked in for something. It had her debit card number on there too, because she was paying the bill with it.

Anyway, he took everything. She had $3000 in the bank and he overdrew it $200. He did it nearly overnight, and he was very clever about it, because she never was able to trace it to him. He also started up several lines of credit in her name and charged some things to them. That she didn't know about until she got a full credit report, and apparently Visa and Mastercard said she hadn't paid her bills in three months.

This was before her bank started the Identity Theft Protection thing, so the bank didn't refund her squat, they just made it so she didn't have to pay the overdraft fee. She's still trying to sort it out with the bank and she's still trying to get her credit score back to the way it was. All because she wanted to pay a bill and a particularly intelligent thief was skulking around her mailbox. Edit: I didn't mention: it happened almost 3 years ago, and she's STILL trying to get these companies to help her.

Lately, more and more banks have been doing more for folks dealing with identity theft. It's a plague. Many of the people who suffer it are retards for being "phished" so easily, but some of them are just hapless and couldn't stop it if they wanted.

Unless the identity thief stole more than $5000 (which I believe is the limit for theft to become Grand Theft in most states), there isn't much you can do because it's not really a "priority".

If you have the guy's email address, I'd recommend filing a complaint with AOL or whomever it is who provided that email address. They might be able to trace his personal information and give it to authorities.

Here's somewhere your mother can go to learn more, and to report it:
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html


Also tell her to check her full credit report as quick as she can. Sometimes people can open credit cards in your name and route the bills to a different address so you'd never know (such as what happened with by friend).

 

[Evilupstart]

well first off I'd start shredding any/all bills that you dispose of in your garbage. anything with any kind of personal info on it. its the most common way of gaining any info like that. some people don't realise how much stuff they throw out that could be used against them like this.
secondly, a bank deposit has to come from somewhere. another bank account (online or not) or at an actual bank. banks keep records, i'm pretty sure they have to keep records of every transaction by law or else the bank itself could be committing fraud. try and chase up where the .21c deposit came from. if it was from another online account, contact THAT bank and ask about it.

failing all that. google the email address. see if anyone else has made complaints about it. see if its a local (to you) thing or not. if its local, it may even be someone you know/invited into your home.

 

[Ellie]

You'd be surprised how many ways there are to do it. I typed in my bank's url wrong before, took me to the same website but surely enough as soon as I did it, Norton pricked up and said "we've stopped the download of such_and_such_trojan".

My Dad set something up with his bank, where if he withdraws more than ?200 then the bank calls him to confirm it. I dunno if you can do that with all banks, but that's one way of at least keeping everything over ?200... unless they just withdraw ?199 a day for however many days.