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

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

About an hour ago, I received a phone call from one detective Laurel and learned that 4 credit cards had been applied for in my name in the last 24 hours, somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas, TX.

I live in Colorado and have no connection to Dallas.

Whoever applied for the credit cards reported that my workplace was at a K-Mart, which I haven't had any affiliation with since I was 14 years old.

I'm not here to point the finger at Sony, as it may or may not be due to their recent security disaster. I do know, however, that the scenario is highly likely. Also, it is partially my fault for not taking the proper precautions against this sort of thing after hearing the news of Sony's mishap. I had kept an eye on my finances, but that was about it.

If this degenerates into a "Hurrrrrr, dat's y i haz an xboX," or "itz ur own falt 4 putting ur info on the PSNewb netwerK," sort of thread, I will kindly ask one of the moderators to lock it.

This thread was created with the sole purpose of making people aware of my situation, and to perhaps inform people to take the proper precautions with their personal information at this juncture. Just because PSN is well on it's way to being back up does not mean that PSN users have seen the full repercussions of the information leak.

If you have any similar story to relay, please share it.

EDIT: Also, the cards were applied for online, so no signature was required.

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TL/DR: Anecdote, scare tactics, go protect your personal information

not trying to scare you, but i work in the fraud department and this kind of stuff happens daily by the truckloads, as long as you pay attention to your statements and as long as your bank stays semi-aware, which they do, then you'll be fine, if anything you file a fraud dispute over such and such charges and identity theft's, they find all the routing numbers to the places where it happened, search the videos, find the person, and tada, you have your new stuff from the bank with no debt, and that person gets manhandled.


the happening with sony = daily shit that happens anyways through other sources everywhere.

 

[Snake Plissken]

snip

Oh, I totally understand that. I'm not pointing the finger at Sony or the hackers or anything; I'm just not ruling it out. People make the sort of information to get a credit card available all of the time, especially if you apply for one online.

In a previous comment (not the original post), I stated that I questioned the detective as to whether or not they were dealing with more fraud and identity theft cases than usual. She said that they are currently dealing with more than they ever have before, and more than they usually do over the holidays. The exact word she used was "unprecedented". I understand that there could be any number of other ways my identity got stolen, but I figured I'd still share with everyone else IN CASE it actually was due to the PSN leak.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

snip

Oh, I totally understand that. I'm not pointing the finger at Sony or the hackers or anything; I'm just not ruling it out. People make the sort of information to get a credit card available all of the time, especially if you apply for one online.

In a previous comment (not the original post), I stated that I questioned the detective as to whether or not they were dealing with more fraud and identity theft cases than usual. She said that they are currently dealing with more than they ever have before, and more than they usually do over the holidays. The exact word she used was "unprecedented". I understand that there could be any number of other ways my identity got stolen, but I figured I'd still share with everyone else IN CASE it actually was due to the PSN leak.

oh no i understand, you are actually very cool and level headed compared to some of the people finger pointing at sony like their the bad bully on the block

just was adding my 2 cents out there for the uneducated folk


Off topic: your stuff is already out there, always, so don't shit out a diamond based on the fact this actually happened.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

I shredded my debit card and asked for a new one as soon as I heard our personal info was in danger. I'm in the clear.

 

[kellith1stnonly]

And on a side note, you're in Colorado?

Yep. Live in Windsor, right between Ft. Collins, Greeley, and Loveland. You?

Holy crap you're close. I'm hailing from Longmont.

I'm from Colorado, too-- used to make the commute from Denver to Greeley all the time. I hope the identity theft cases won't be focused in Colorado!....heheh. -_-

But seriously, thank you for sharing your story with us. Identity/credit card theft is a pain in the ass, and I'm just sitting here hoping it won't happen to me again. I had to cancel my credit card once before, and the waiting for a new one really sucked.

 

[ShockAndDismay]

A guy once stole my debit card info and paid his home bills with it. He was pretty easy to find and arrest.

 

[Ranorak]

About an hour ago, I received a phone call from one detective Laurel and learned that 4 credit cards had been applied for in my name in the last 24 hours, somewhere in the vicinity of Dallas, TX.

I live in Colorado and have no connection to Dallas.

Whoever applied for the credit cards reported that my workplace was at a K-Mart, which I haven't had any affiliation with since I was 14 years old.

I'm not here to point the finger at Sony, as it may or may not be due to their recent security disaster. I do know, however, that the scenario is highly likely. Also, it is partially my fault for not taking the proper precautions against this sort of thing after hearing the news of Sony's mishap. I had kept an eye on my finances, but that was about it.

If this degenerates into a "Hurrrrrr, dat's y i haz an xboX," or "itz ur own falt 4 putting ur info on the PSNewb netwerK," sort of thread, I will kindly ask one of the moderators to lock it.

This thread was created with the sole purpose of making people aware of my situation, and to perhaps inform people to take the proper precautions with their personal information at this juncture. Just because PSN is well on it's way to being back up does not mean that PSN users have seen the full repercussions of the information leak.

If you have any similar story to relay, please share it.

EDIT: Also, the cards were applied for online, so no signature was required.

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TL/DR: Anecdote, scare tactics, go protect your personal information

After their contact with you, did the police help you with securing your identity, or did you have to do that yourself?

Just curious.

 

[Snake Plissken]

After their contact with you, did the police help you with securing your identity, or did you have to do that yourself?

Just curious.

They made sure to destroy the credit card applications so nobody would be able to get those specific credit cards being applied for (which they wouldn't have gotten anyways...my credit is shit), but you have to do everything else on your own. It's not difficult.

www.ftc.gov has a wealth of information on doing it, and there are plenty of identity protection agencies available to work with. I've also heard that Sony will provide free identity protection to all of their consumers once everything is ironed out.