Stolen Identity?

Small Time Crooked

Recently my girlfriend and I have been discussing moving out of our parents house and starting life anew on our own. This lead me to look into car insurance quotes as neither one of us wishes to continue milking our parents policies when we get our own place.

Now onto what scares me: Every insurance provider that I've gotten a quote with has listed three vehicles under my identity. Two of these vehicles I recognize right off the bat, since one was mine and the other currently is mine. The third vehicle listed is an '03 BMW which I certainly don't own nor have I ever been in the position to purchase one, either from a dealership or a third party seller.

Is this me discovering that my identity has been stolen the hard way? What can I do about it? Is this going to mess with me in the future? This whole thing has been bugging me since I found out yesterday. Help me, PA H/A. You're my only hope.

XX55XX

You have no idea how easily stolen identities are bought and sold on the Internet's underworld. Corrupt government employees or bad IT policies/weak security are usually the culprit. Plus, SSNs, addresses, DOBs, names, are pretty cheap to get.

If they have your SSN, for example, they can open a bank account, launder funds in your name, open up credit cards, etc. And it all comes down to you, and it takes a lot of money and time to fix.

Personally, I would start by following these steps outlined by the FTC:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html

Small Time Crooked

Well, that's great. I really had no idea how simple identity theft could be, it's terrifying. I'm going to look more into this. Thanks man.

Siska

If you don't have a good paper shredder. I suggest start doing it the poor mans way. Cut or rip off all identifying numbers (Social security, credit card numbers...) from papers, before throwing them in the trash. Flush the paper strips containing personal info in the toilet, they will be small enough to not cause clogging. Then throw what remains in the trash. This wont help your current situation, but can reduce the risk of having your identity stolen again.

XX55XX

Siska wrote:

If you don't have a good paper shredder. I suggest start doing it the poor mans way. Cut or rip off all identifying numbers (Social security, credit card numbers...) from papers, before throwing them in the trash. Flush the paper strips containing personal info in the toilet, they will be small enough to not cause clogging. Then throw what remains in the trash. This wont help your current situation, but can reduce the risk of having your identity stolen again.

Problem is that identity theft often happens even when you take these precautions. Lots of people handle data that get into the wrong hands.

OP, you better start getting to the bottom of this before some script kiddie opens a bank account and tries laundering money in your name. Money laundering is a felony, and even if you don't get indicted, it's not worth the shattered nerves to go through the process.

Usagi

You should start with by checking your credit history to see if there is indeed that car on your record

Small Time Crooked

Yeah, I'm sending out a request for my annual credit report to Equifax tomorrow some time. I'm gonna try to follow the guidelines set out by the FTC to the letter in order to figure this out. If someone is truly mooching off my identity I would very much like to headbutt them. Just to make me feel a little better. :c

Kipling

Did you use up the ones that you can obtain on the internet for free? You can get them every year.

Not the sketchy ones with subscriptions. The government mandated free ones.

MichaelLC

Kipling wrote:

Did you use up the ones that you can obtain on the internet for free? You can get them every year.

Not the sketchy ones with subscriptions. The government mandated free ones.

http://www.annualcreditreport.com

bowen

Small Time Crooked wrote:

Well, that's great. I really had no idea how simple identity theft could be, it's terrifying. I'm going to look more into this. Thanks man.

Eh that's overstating it. It's really not that easy. You have a better chance of getting hit by a car.

Sticks

More accurately, it's easy enough to do (kinda like hitting someone with a car), but the odds of it happening to you specifically are small. I see enough personal info come across my desk that I could theoretically steal someone's identity, and I am hardly alone in being in that sort of position. Hell, the waitress who takes your credit card could memorize the #s if she is quick.

That sort of identity theft is technically easy, but small in scale for a number of reasons (most people have scruples, it's risky, not much to gain, etc), and the thief is only getting away with one or two pieces of information. For most, the risk of this happening is so small that it's just not worth worrying about. You just take sensible precautions like shredding personal info, checking your credit report regularly, and monitoring charges to your credit card, and then get on with life.

The big threat is from large breaches where hackers get thousands (or millions) of records in one go. That is the part that is hard, and getting harder as companies button up security holes.

As for Small Time Crooked, sorry this happened to you. I hope you get it sorted out without too much trouble.

bowen

Yeah largest thing you'll probably have to deal with in your daily life that has a high chance of happening is an ATM skimmer of sorts.