Security warning! (Re: your id and credit)

[Mike Simanyi]

Ladies and Gents,

I know this is off topic but I want to ensure it's seen by as many of our members as possible. Two days ago Yahoo seemed to be experiencing some difficulty with their e-mail. I don't have an active account there but one of my brothers uses them.

Early yesterday evening I was talking to him, explaining e-mail had bounced back the day before. He tried logging in and couldn't. He reset his password and logged in, noticing some unusual activity.

He tried his gmail account - same problem. One of the accounts had a message about updates on his credit card with Wamu, so he called.

They explained the card was shut down due to other fraudulent activity on another credit card that had just been reported. Apparently while he was on the phone with Wamu, the thief was on the phone with the other card company trying to change his address and info and have emergency cash sent to him in Yuba city.

Somehow the guy had my brother's Social Security Number but fortunately didn't have the other security info needed, so red flags started going off.

This is just a reminder. Be careful with your online banking. Do not use wireless connections for anything that should be secure, and use a password scheme that gives you unique passwords for every system you have to access. It's not difficult to create a scheme that ensures all kinds of variation yet is easy for *you* to remember.

I deal with sub-prime credit all day long. 5 years ago, a considerable amount of that was due to identity theft. For the past few years that's been relatively rare, but with the economy where it is I expect it to pick up as people become more desperate and creative.

Mike

PS You're entitled to a free credit report from each of the big three bureaus every 12 months. You *don't* have to do all three at once. I suggest doing one every three months on the same rotation so you can see your status every quarter and ensure everything is legit.

[KJ Christopher]

AAA has a free credit checking/monitoring service for members. I discovered it when renewing recently.

[Stephen Yeoh]

Amex called me yesterday with a fraud enquiry. My card is now canceled and a replacement card on its way. Kudos to Amex for catching it the same day.

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

Damn.......on Thursday my Wells Fargo Platinum Visa was put on hold because they thought there was potential fraudulent activity on it. Turns out it was my trying to get gas at the pump and when it got rejected the first time, I tried a few more times and that set off alarms.

[John Coffey]

I received a couple Yahoo, Google, and PayPal spoofs last week. None of those firm (or any other that I klow of) send out e-mails asking you to click a link and log into their web sites.

[Mike Simanyi]

My brother is extremely well versed when it comes to security matters on PCs. He has become the "go to guy" for many of his friends who have computers compromised by viruses and spyware.

Spoofing is one thing; this is a whole different matter altogether. For the record, one of his credit card companies forwarded $500 emergency cash to the thiefs despite my brother's direct instructions the prior day against forwarding money without multiple security checks. Since he was talking to someone in India, he thinks the system update may have been delayed.

Mike

[Craig Naylor]

I'm surprised it has never hit the news (or at least not that I have seen) but a VERY large processing company call Heartland, which process for many large retailers inc. Best buy, had a security breach on 2/21/09.

My business card with Wells Fargo was effected (as per the fraud dept) along with 10's of thousands of other WFB customers who all had a charge appear from the same location in Long Island NY within minutes of each other. They shut every one of the cards down. While I appreciate the immediate shut down, to stop additional fraudulent transactions, I've been having issues one after another with their handling of it, starting with an auto re issuance of a new card the same day that took a week to arrive (with a business trip in the meantime that I had to use a personal card for), and that it happened while transactions were pending that got canceled, and the aftermath of that... plus I can't get online access till my wife and I BOTH show up IN PERSON at a branch to fix our "profiles" (what ever that means) that got screwed up during the transfer.

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

plus I can't get online access till my wife and I BOTH show up IN PERSON at a branch to fix our "profiles" (what ever that means) that got
screwed up during the transfer.

I went through the SAME crap with them last week and refused to go to a branch until they relented and realized that yeah it was ME the owner of the cards on the phone with them.

[Craig Naylor]

plus I can't get online access till my wife and I BOTH show up IN PERSON at a branch to fix our "profiles" (what ever that means) that got
screwed up during the transfer.

I went through the SAME crap with them last week and refused to go to a branch until the relented and realized that yeah it was ME the owner of the cards on the phone with them.

Somehow they inverted our SSN#s. They can look at all of our other accounts, see their correct. Look at the old CC, see it matches the our other accounts, but the new CC # has the socials backwards. What difference does our appearing in person make? it's not like our numbers are imprinted on our head!

Same STUPID telephone support people I had to deal with when I worked for them, sending people to branches, that we had no need seeing in person to correct issues. But now had the pleasure of a pissed of person in front of us.

[Bob Beamesderfer]

I'm surprised it has never hit the news (or at least not that I have seen) but a VERY large processing company call Heartland, which process for many large retailers inc. Best buy, had a security breach on 2/21/09.

Found links to Wash. Post and USA Today stories. Local TV might have missed it. Heartland is being sued by banks and credit unions over the breach.

We've had debit cards from our local bank replaced recently because Visa said their might be an issue. Now my wife's E*Trade checking acct. debit card is being replaced.