My brother and his wife just became victims of ID theft.

Somehow, the got my sister-in-law's SS#, and perhaps birthdate.

Then, they took over control of their home phone number.

Then one of their investment accounts had a large outgoing transfer made.

Concurrently, my brother's yahoo email account, which is used on several of his investment accounts, starting getting massive amounts of spam in the 3,000 plus range.

So, these people kind of took over control of their communication methods, and thus might have been able to receive verifications by phone for account activities. The phone company couldn't even authorize my SIL for access to their own account/ph. # for her to investigate how they lost control of her number.

So, if you're home phone number goes wacko and/or you start getting crazy amounts of spam, you might want to check your accounts.

I don't have all the details yet, but these scumbags seemed pretty sophisticated.

On a side note, my bro and his wife had just made a good sized CC purchase, at a major appliance store chain, and staff from that store had just made a home delivery to their house. The lead delivery guy had a laptop with all of their account information.

Lifelock (or another service) would have probably prevented this or would have at least gone after the perps and done the recovery work. I have witnessed them in action and in those two cases the clients life returned to normal quickly. Also, the perps were prosecuted by the appropriate authorities. The perps went to prison and could well be setting up shop there. They are hard to stop for good as they only need a Internet connected PC or other device to do their dirty work.

What a bummer Sunil! I hope they can get it fixed without too much grief!

I had a close call once with my business line of credit. Fortunately, my accounts were set up that verification had to be confirmed for any purchase over 1K. My bank was really good at this and I got busted (denied) for trying to buy a 2600.00 laptop from HP direct after hours.

The close call was that someone tried to make a LARGE purchase from the CC number associated with my BLC from a state that I recently passed through. All ended well with only a minor setback. New numbers/cards were issued, dont know what happened to whoever it was.

Ever get a bogus check from an ebay sale??? I did! Sold my Cat Diesel Forklift. Got a check about three weeks later -via- Fedex, and it came with instructions... The color printer and paper they used were quite inferior, plus, the Classic Car Auction House on the check in CA said this has been going on for several years and WF Bank said they have not had an account for a number of years.

Kinda of a hoot, really! The check came out of KC, MO. And the person who tried to nail my BLC was from WVA!

You know, I'm not pointing any fingers, but they say those who work inside the beltway just cannot be trusted, even if they do go home and spend a few nights a week at their cozy log home in the mountains with their pond and various fish and plant growing related projects!

That really really sucks. The feeling of absolute violation has to be just awful. Hopefully they are able to get proper justice.

Guess I'd better look into Lifelock. I'm still depending on a shotgun and nasty disposition to protect myself.

One other thing I learned as I was out of town last week.

During the time when my bro was getting all that email spam, something weird was happening with our phones at work. We were getting repeated calls where there would be nobody on the line when you answered the call. Our work number was most likely listed as a daytime phone number on my bro's accounts.

Just one more way that these scumbags were jamming communications.

I'm calling lifelock today.

This has really started to get to me lately. All the nonsense and expense we go to for a very small part of the population. Alarms, locks, theft insurance, burglar bars, firearms (okay, I like that), mace, guard dogs, Lifelock, concealed carry permits, fences, anti-virus software, etc. It's enough to make your head blow off.

Sorry to hear that Sunil. I've had two clients have similar things happen.

Just a "heads up" before you jump into LifeLock do some research. Remember the TV commercials for Lifelock in which the CEO Todd Davis publicly posted his social security number on bill boards? Well he was the victim of identity theft 13 times during 2007 and 2008. In 2009 Lifelock was was found guilty of defrauding customers and in 2010 Lifelock was fined $12 million dollars by the Federal Trade Commission to settle charges that the company used false claims to promote their identity theft protection services.

Thanks. I have not called yet.

Does anyone know if those type of services are worth anything?

From my experience Lifelock's troubles have been remedied, though the black marks in their past continue to haunt them (as well they should). Here is a site that compares the main players in the market: Identity Theft Labs

One has to personally decide if they want to continue to "wing it" or get some help. I prefer to have all the help I can get resisting these criminals.

My home insurance company has a free service for identity theft victims (customers). You may want to check and see who offers these type services as an amenity.

Good point Sniper. My bank always watched out for my butt, because they had a stake in it also, but figured out too many way's to grab a piece here or there. It all adds up.

But Now, I have some extra work into fluffing up the mattress at night. Pretty much CASH ONLY at this point. Taking three years off did wonders! Eliminating accounts is hard work, but well worth it!

NO Target on my back! And the Leech scars have faded!

You are only going to have X amount of income to work with your entire existence. No more, or No less!

Good topic!

Our insurance carrier has some of those provisions, but it's after the fact help.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure applies to ID theft protection, too.

A cliche a day keeps the.......

Its ashame what this world is coming too. If more people were like our pond boss community we would all be able to leave our doors unlocked at night. Too bad those days are over. I have 3 daughters and im scared to death what will be going on when they get older.

I heard that!

In South Dakota, they do leave their doors unlocked. Or at least the custom harvesters I know.

A couple of years ago we had a $400 charge on our Master Card on an item we didn't buy. We were issued new card numbers and our bank (Chase) offered their protection service at a small yearly charge. No problems since so I assume the service is working.