Identity Theft

I debated whether this should go in Alerts or not, I'll put it here for now.

I was recently the victim of identity theft. I'm not going to go into a lot of details in this public forum, but the gist is that somebody had access to my wallet and everything in it.

Fortunately I'm not out any money (except some transaction fees that needed to be done without benefit of credit card).

Due to the nature of one of the cards that the thief made a copy of, I can be pretty sure that it was a provider I have seen in the last year. Nobody else would have had access. I've also been laying pretty low the past year, so I think I can pretty much narrow it down to 3 or 4 girls.

I'm not looking for payback, as I'm not the vindictive type. I would like to know who I shouldn't be sending any more business to.

If anybody else on this board is in a similar boat this holiday season, please PM me so we can exchange names

You sure your credit card/debit card # wasn't stolen by using it somewhere else? I saw a segment on the news last night that warned people not to swipe their debit/credit card, but hand it to the sales associate and have them swipe it through the actual register. They said it is harder to hack the main POS terminal, versus the CC reader thingy that you swipe when paying.

Just a thought, before we go on a witch hunt for thieving hookers.

FG This may not have been done by a provider at all and it is not rare for this to happen during the holidays. The day before thanksgiving my card was cloned. It was then attempted to be used in another state not even an hour later and the only place I used it was at the store.

I could sit here and type out every way for someone to get your number but that is simply too many. I am not wreckless with my card in any way. It stays where it is and goes right back after I use it, its not used for internet purchases either.

I wish you the best and hope you get it worked out.

No. There are reasons why I can be sure of how access was gained. Again, I'm not going to go into details, as the more details I give the more identifiable I become to those who may already know the details, and the less discretion I get on this 'Anonymous' board.

I'm really not trying to start a public lynching here, I'd like to keep it very quiet, but it's either this or personally blacklist quite a few providers, some of whom I had hopes of seeing again.

Carrying multiple cards is a bad idea.

TV news shows have indicated that many cards are being equipped with RFID info similar to the TollTag where all it takes is someone to pass a device near your wallet and they get everything from the card needed.

Taking photos of cards by a provider may be something that happened but here in Dallas I read where sometimes, bad guys have broken into homes and made a mess near the TV and stereo and computer just enough the homeowner thinks maybe the perp got scared and left before they could take anything when in fact they had plenty of time to scan/steal credit card data from bills left laying about near the desk.

MANY ways credit card data can be swiped.

TV news shows have indicated that many cards are being equipped with RFID info similar to the TollTag where all it takes is someone to pass a device near your wallet and they get everything from the card needed.

MANY ways credit card data can be swiped. Originally Posted by LazurusLong

RFID is exactly what they were talking about on the program I was watching. There are wallets that will block RFID transmissions, BTW:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/security/8cdd/?srp=12

so i would guess, if this actually happened, it was one person. but somehow you are willing to PM 3 or 4 names, none of which you are sure had anything to do with this, to anybody that asks?

A year or so ago there was a clerk that worked at a Panda Chinese restaurant in Bedford that was scanning customer credit cards with a hand scanner. He was caught and put in jail.

Please, nobody add any more replies to this thread. I was just looking to cross-reference to see if a name kept popping up. The more I think about it, though, it's mostly just going to open me up to retaliation if the culprit thinks I'm going to do more than I really intended.

I'm asking a mod if they can delete or at least close this thread.

Closed at OP request