Dear Friends and Associates,
Over the course of the past two weeks, I have been the victim of identity theft. I would like to share my experience and offer some preventive suggestions as well as how to react quickly if you are victimized. While to date I have lost only time and not money, the experience was an unpleasant one, which I hope this letter will help you avoid.
Thursday, January 14th. It is late afternoon and my cell rings. It is Jackie from Bank A in the western suburbs of the city I live in. She tells me that the VISA cards I ordered are in. I am confused because my cards don’t expire for another year. She informs me they were issued upon my request. My puzzled response alerts her and we agree to speak in the morning after I check whether my wife or assistant had ordered any cards.
Friday, January 15th. I call Jackie and confirm that we had not ordered new cards. We call Bank A VISA fraud department and find that my profile has been tampered with. Personal information, such as my contact phone number and my mother’s maiden name, has been changed. Since I will be out of town next week, we cancel the cards and put a watch on all my accounts with Bank A.
Wednesday, January 20th. I am in Nashville and my assistant connects me with a representative from Bank A. He asks me if I had created a new account with Bank A and moved $8,000 from one of my accounts to the newly created one. I inform him that I had not and that the transaction was fraudulent. As the money was still in Bank A’s system, he was able to return the funds to my account. He suggested that we freeze all my accounts, including brokerage accounts, until my return. At that point, I would visit my home branch with Bank A and refresh all account numbers and passwords as well as apply stringent instructions against internet transactions.
Tuesday, January 26th. I spend several hours at the home branch of Bank A and change all my accounts. I order new Bank A VISA cards. For my convenience, they suggest that I pick up the new cards the next day at another branch near my office.
Wednesday, January 27th. I begin to understand the sophistication of the perpetrators. I pick up the new Bank A VISA cards at noon from the local branch with the intent to activate them from home as instructed on the card.
In the late afternoon I get a call from Bank B asking me if I had opened another account with them. I told them no and that I was a victim of identity theft. Over the next hour I received a series of frantic calls from a branch of Bank B in the eastern end of the city. They are very unhappy to learn that I am the true Louis Newman and do not resemble either the person that was in their branch that morning or for that matter the profile they had of me on record. It seems that an individual went to several branches of Bank B until one accepted the two pieces of identification he had in my name and with his picture. They opened an account in my name and allowed him to deposit $6,500 into the account. The funds came from a convenience check written on my Bank B VISA account. He then asked for the $6,500 in cash and left.
Even though Bank B was returning the money to me I filed a police report so that the identity theft was on record. When I returned home, the investigative unit of Bank B called and we went through what had transpired. The perpetrator showed two pieces of forged identification and they had him on tape. The bank representative told me that since I had not lost my wallet or anything of that nature it was likely that someone had accessed my records (perhaps in my office) and sold my identity to a group that understands bank procedures, internet transfers, and how to create identification, and then sends runners to get the money.
After my call with Bank B, I remembered the VISA cards from Bank A. I called the number to activate them and was told that they had already been activated! That didn’t seem possible. They were in my possession from the moment I had picked them up at the branch until I called the activation line. I called Bank A to inform them of the continuing fraud and requested that they they cancel the cards completely. Ironically, they would not listen to me because of my prior instructions on the accounts.
Thursday, January 27th. I made a list of all my accounts and credit bureaus and spent the day calling them. Bank A informed me that the new accounts were used the day before to buy gas successfully and then to get large cash advances unsuccessfully. I also learned from one credit bureau that on January 20th an application had been made in my name with a department store.
I informed the banks and credit bureaus of the situation and changed all of my accounts to new secure ones.
Precautionary steps and how to react in the event of identity theft
This list is by no means a comprehensive one, but is valuable information I have garnered from my experience.
1. Always
a. Safeguard your personal information. Do not assume that your home or offices are safe from prying eyes.
b. Do not throw out sensitive information. Shred it first.
c. Do not use simple passwords or allow information to be in obvious places.
2. After the first inkling of possible identity theft
a. Speak to the financial institutions and credit card companies to inform them that you suspect you are the victim of identity theft
b. Verify your profile information
c. Change account numbers and passwords
d. If it is clear that your identity has been stolen, disable internet transactions and provide a contact number that must be called prior to allowing transactions.
e. File a police report
f. Inform the credit bureaus that you are a victim of identity theft since they are called for all applications made in your name. Make sure to insist that they use the contact number to verify any application prior to approving.
g. Check with the Post Office that no one has changed your address.
h. Do the same with the tax departments if you are expecting any tax refunds
i. Inform Phone Busters. This is a police organization that is dedicated to mitigating identity crimes.
I have decided to share the above with the widest possible audience in the hope that I can help people avoid identity theft or at least prevent/reduce financial loss if they are victimized.
Yours truly,
Louis Newman
CEO
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