It's official: I've been a target of identity theft in the wake of the PSN fiasco.

[Nicholas Woodruff]

I, fortunately, have never been a target of a major scam like that, but I do have to say that something like this is unsurprising.
I'm not going to say as you stated:

"Hurrrrrr, dat's y i haz an xboX," or "itz ur own falt 4 putting ur info on the PSNewb netwerK,"

But slightly off topic, the fact that they got all that information so easily is incredibly scary, and I do hope everyone at risk is keeping as close of an eye on their finances as I am.
Back On Topic, that is interesting to say the least, and I sincerely hope that there has been no one here severely affected by something like that.

 

[JET1971]

I went shopping at a Best Buy one time and not four hours later, someone tried to use my card somewhere in Louisiana. I've never even been to Louisiana. It makes me wonder if places that allow you to use cards can't have th signals hacked while they're trying to approve the purchase. I think that's what happened in my case.

I hope you reported that to best buy and the local police. thats usualy the employee ringing up the purchase who gets the CC info then turns around and sells it. its an old scam operation thats been going on prior to the internet, and actualy successfull since you may not know when or where the CC info was stolen.

take restraunts for example, reciept in dish on the table, you put tip amount down and sign it. waiter or waitress picks it up to run the bill. 3 seconds to run a card reader/skimmer on it between table and register and done CC stolen. or they could just be flat out generic and write the number, name, code, and expiration date down... and they have plenty of time to do it.

 

[EHKOS]

You know what's funny? Something is happening to my credit card and I don't use PSN.

 

[mjc0961]

Yep. Any time Sony wants to get us those e-mails about how we can sign up for the identity theft protection would be great. Sooner rather than later would be better though. I'm talking, forget about getting PSN back up and focus all attention on getting us this infinitely more important service first. Not having our identities stolen is way more important than being able to play online again.

 

[Free Thinker]

WoW account was hacked, then e-mail, then information was stolen, then a virus. Luckily, I was going to quit WoW so I contacted Blizzard, got my account deleted, cleared my computer, deleted accounts, changed passwords multiple times. I ensured it won't happen again.

 

[Gralian]

Huh. Well, as far as passwords go i use several - my hotmail password is totally unique, for example, and isn't shared with any other login. It's also nonsensical (IE: 3dh184av0), changed every year or so and the card i had attached to my PSN was actually a debit card, not a credit card. So i wonder if that means i'm somewhat more secure than users who added a credit card. I'm also outside the US, if that makes any difference.

As i'm fairly (but not totally) sure my card details were actually expired at the time of the hack (ironically i was about to renew them so i could purchase FFIX from the PSN store lol) i think i'm relatively safe, and so won't be panicking about getting a new card and calling my bank and what have you, though i will still be keeping a beady eye on my bank statements.

The reason i mention my email is when this whole debacle was on the news, the reporters were saying it's not the credit card information being stolen that's the problem, it's the passwords as many people use the same password for a lot of things, such as your email and a person's email is like a "master key" to their life. Once someone has access to it, they can do a lot of damage extremely fast, which is why i'm very cautious about protecting my email account.

 

[Sonicron]

This makes me wonder...
I didn't provide any CC info to Sony, but my personal info got swiped just like everyone else's; does this mean someone can just take my personal info and start applying for credit cards in my name, rack up debt on those and then I'm the one saddled with the mess? Is that how it works? :\

 

[Nieroshai]

You're sure for a fact it wasn't stolen by other means? Say, a bit of spyware your software wasn't up to date enough to block? My identity was stolen, and I found out who did it too. Let's just say Turbine doesn't do as well as Sony with security.

 

[Nieroshai]

This makes me wonder...
I didn't provide any CC info to Sony, but my personal info got swiped just like everyone else's; does this mean someone can just take my personal info and start applying for credit cards in my name, rack up debt on those and then I'm the one saddled with the mess? Is that how it works? :\

Have you used your credit card anywhere else on the internet? Because there's no way if you never used your CC on PSN that it was the PSN hack that resulted in your data stolen. Sony doesn't just take your email and piggyback trojans onto their newsletter. Also, people seem to think that if their identity was stolen, it somehow had to do with this, all evidence to the contrary like in your case. Identities get stolen every second by myriad means, many of which are completely undetectable.

 

[JET1971]

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derp

I hope that derp wasnt meant for me! considering I just pointed out a common oldschool CC card scam thats even easier to do now with the internet.

OT to everyone:

I do highly suggest you never use actual personal info online unless its required such as your bank, utilities, or your government. anything else such as PSN dont use your name spelled exactly correct such as if your last name is Taylor drop the A and use Tylor, same thing with first name. do not give out social security number or ID/DL number unless its bank or government. companies and services like PSN do not need such info and if they require it to register... dont register. as for CC info online, get a prepaid/reloadable card. add cash to it when you want to make a purchase and if it gets stolen from a dataloss incident then you have nothing to fear.

 

[Sonicron]

This makes me wonder...
I didn't provide any CC info to Sony, but my personal info got swiped just like everyone else's; does this mean someone can just take my personal info and start applying for credit cards in my name, rack up debt on those and then I'm the one saddled with the mess? Is that how it works? :\

Have you used your credit card anywhere else on the internet? Because there's no way if you never used your CC on PSN that it was the PSN hack that resulted in your data stolen. Sony doesn't just take your email and piggyback trojans onto their newsletter. Also, people seem to think that if their identity was stolen, it somehow had to do with this, all evidence to the contrary like in your case. Identities get stolen every second by myriad means, many of which are completely undetectable.

Oh, you misunderstand, I'm not a victim of identity theft - it was a hypothetical. I just wanted to know if that method of racking up debt in my name was at all possible.
Yes, I have used my CC elsewhere on the web, though I don't think the places I used it are likely targets for large-scale information theft.
Guess I just have to hope that my identity is too boring or useless to steal.

 

[New Troll]

When I was sixteen I tried to get credit for a new computer, but was denied. Shortly there-after I was contacted by a collection agency about my outstanding credit card. Was something over $8,000. Seems when I was about 4 I had applied for a credit card and recieved one with a $5,000 limit. Then supposedly I had been paying a bare minimum to keep the card active for all those years, making other purchases as I went along. I asked the agency what all I supposedly bought, but they would never tell me. They just asked me if they had my permission to investigate into the credit card further. Of course I agreed and a couple months later I had the credit to buy that computer I was wanting. Have never heard from them again so have no idea if they ever caught the card holder.

On a side note, funny how I could get a $5,000 credit line at age 4 but now thirty years later with holding down a steady job for over a dozen years and paying off two vehicles my credit line is less than half that. Yup, funny indeed.

 

[JET1971]

snip

Actualy you are doing things perfect for online security. your password example was good but i would like to add more to that. add special characters! " (IE: 3dh184av0), " to "IE: 3_dh.184&av0 " That is even harder to crack. easy way to keep track of them is notepad and a thumb drive, nd if you dont have one of those then a random readme.txt file hidden inside a subfolder inside a subfolder. helps to keep asshole family members from gaining access and messing you up too!

As for credit or debit it doesnt matter anymore these days because they all use the same network and function like a credit card. if its a system like PSN or Newegg I suggest not using your bank issued card but use a prepaid card.

 

[JET1971]

Guess I just have to hope that my identity is too boring or useless to steal.

No such thing! infact the most preferd identities for thieves is those that are boring and especialy non tech savy.

 

[Nieroshai]

This makes me wonder...
I didn't provide any CC info to Sony, but my personal info got swiped just like everyone else's; does this mean someone can just take my personal info and start applying for credit cards in my name, rack up debt on those and then I'm the one saddled with the mess? Is that how it works? :\

Have you used your credit card anywhere else on the internet? Because there's no way if you never used your CC on PSN that it was the PSN hack that resulted in your data stolen. Sony doesn't just take your email and piggyback trojans onto their newsletter. Also, people seem to think that if their identity was stolen, it somehow had to do with this, all evidence to the contrary like in your case. Identities get stolen every second by myriad means, many of which are completely undetectable.

Oh, you misunderstand, I'm not a victim of identity theft - it was a hypothetical. I just wanted to know if that method of racking up debt in my name was at all possible.
Yes, I have used my CC elsewhere on the web, though I don't think the places I used it are likely targets for large-scale information theft.
Guess I just have to hope that my identity is too boring or useless to steal.

/looks again
I goofed, thought you were the OP since you were saying the same thing. LOL
Identity theft is just up because it's become a lucrative new black market, not because all recent victims were sony customers.

 

[Sonicron]

Guess I just have to hope that my identity is too boring or useless to steal.

No such thing! infact the most preferd identities for thieves is those that are boring and especialy non tech savy.

Makes sense, I suppose.
Oh well, if anything of the sort ever does happen, I'll have it investigated. No way I'd be paying off debt I didn't rack up myself, anyway.

 

[Gralian]

snip

Actualy you are doing things perfect for online security. your password example was good but i would like to add more to that. add special characters! " (IE: 3dh184av0), " to "IE: 3_dh.184&av0 " That is even harder to crack. easy way to keep track of them is notepad and a thumb drive, nd if you dont have one of those then a random readme.txt file hidden inside a subfolder inside a subfolder. helps to keep asshole family members from gaining access and messing you up too!

As for credit or debit it doesnt matter anymore these days because they all use the same network and function like a credit card. if its a system like PSN or Newegg I suggest not using your bank issued card but use a prepaid card.

That's good to know, at least! Makes me feel a tad better, having been one of the many PSN users who had their info swiped and all.

I honestly didn't know you could use special characters for passwords. Does it work for hotmail? I'll have to bare that in mind next time i change the password. Also, i memorise my passwords and never have them written down or saved on a word document. I'm able to memorise the aforementioned nonsensical passwords because i have an uncanny knack with 'chunking' memory. (Don't know what it is? Go look it up and learn something new. Learning is fun!) though if i really do need it written down for the first couple of weeks or so i have it written down physically and not saved on my machine. For example, i've known people who saved their passwords in a text file, had the computer break down, and have to send it in to be repaired. Doesn't matter how many subfolders it was hidden behind - i'd be freaking out about someone being able to get full security access if they knew where to look and had total access to my computer, repairman or not!

 

[JET1971]

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I should think Hotmail allows for special characters in passwords, if not trying to include them isnt a bad thing! as for the saving passwords on your rig, have you ever done a system search for readme.txt? probably the most common file in a windows system as well as the most ignored by techs. pick a common program you wont ever update, go to its directory and find its readme then add usernames and passwords into it. but the thumb drive is the best choice since not all of us can memorize 10-20 random character passowrds and its more convienant to use!

 

[zeldagirl]

For those of you who have been victims of this, I'm so sorry! That really sucks, and I hope that everything is worked out for you immediately without any terrible long-term ramifications.