Identity Theft Stuff

[Demenic]

We learned this weekend that my wife's SSN was compromised and was being used in Syracuse, NY to provide Time Warner Cable and potentially electricity. We live near Kansas City, MO...so obviously not us and we've never had to deal with this before. We found out by having a bill collector mail a notice to her parent's house under her maiden name for the TWC dues owed. Apparently they were using her name and SSN for billing, while having the service in their location. We then called the bill collector and TWC and started the process of notifying them of the fraud. We also ran a free credit report through Experian and found a potential electricity bill but we haven't received a notice for that yet. Filed a police report yesterday as well for identity theft, however we lost access to the free credit report as we forgot to save it and ran out of viewing attempts (my wife and I didn't know about the 3 viewing attempts and thought we'd have access to it for a while, stupid us). The other two credit reporting agencies are not even showing the collections yet. She's calling Experian today to hopefully mark anything within Syracuse, NY as identity theft since they don't let you do that online.

So I come to you all for suggestions/tips on how to handle all this, other than what we're doing already. We're constantly in touch with the police for their report with anything we find out, trying to mark anything in Syracuse, NY as fraud, and are in touch with TWC and the bill collector about the fraud. We will hopefully contact the electric company that also is on her report as soon as we get more info about it. Any other suggestions? Any thoughts or suggestions on the best identity protection services?

TLDR: Wife's identity has been stolen. Looking for tips on how to proceed and suggestions on the best identity protection services for the future.

[Azull]

Have the Equifax, Transunion, and Experian each lock your credit files. If you apply for anything just unlock them temporarily then.

(Everyone) Get your free yearly copy of all 3 each and every year. The quicker you find out about this stuff the easier it is to deal with. If you want your credit score you may have to pay a few bucks but they will otherwise be free.

Oh yah. if you haven't already dispute the item with Experian and, if it appears on the TU or EQ reports dispute it there to.

[Senji]

I believe Niagara Mohawk would be their utilities provider. Call them up, get all the info on the address, request them to disconnect/pull the meter and lock it out.

Stealing identity info to pay your utilities isn't the brightest. Should be far simpler to get everything reversed than someone who racked up gas/got cards/random purchases.

[Demenic]

I believe Niagara Mohawk would be their utilities provider. Call them up, get all the info on the address, request them to disconnect/pull the meter and lock it out.

Stealing identity info to pay your utilities isn't the brightest. Should be far simpler to get everything reversed than someone who racked up gas/got cards/random purchases.

Yeah it's National Grid, who bought Niagara Mohawk apparently. It just doesn't give an account number so she'll call later and see what all they can do. If anything the police will get involved soon once the report is finished in 7-10 days and get the info that way. They're already having to do that with TWC as they wouldn't give us the service address, phone, or email on the account.

She's calling Experian now to mark the items as fraud. Then going to ask about locking her credit or at least a fraud alert. Then call the National Grid place. And she's going to call the police again to tell them what we've found out. Then I think we're going to sign up for Lifelock and monitor that to make sure nothing else pops up.

It seems we're catching these things pretty early so this may be a long process of getting things cleared up, depending on what else has been opened.


Edit: Seems National Grid won't do anything to the account without a police report...so we have to wait on that. She did have Experian mark everything involving Syracuse, NY as fraud, but they need the police report to finish it. Seems we just need to wait on the police report to get the ball rolling.

[Melena]

Make sure you also call (you may have to go in person though since they are a pain in the ass to reach by phone, at least out here) your local social security office. Your wife will need to let them know her SSN has been compromised, there is a police report pending, and they will begin the process of getting you a new one. I have no clue how long it will take, so sooner the better on that.

[FNH]

Place a fraud alert on, so that any new credit will have to call a phone of your choosing for 90 days. I recommend doing it again after that, until whoever sold your SSN tosses it out.

I had a class in college that covered a section on this and my professor had written a book on it and said that a large percentage of cases are from people that have legitimate access to your information. In my case almost a decade ago, someone went through payroll information at an old job and sold a group of employees information. The bank they tried to open an account using my information listed that old job for current employer. If you can call the TWC and electric companies' fraud departments you may be able to locate the source if they listed an old employer.

[Anoat]

Lifelock and other services like it are a scam, don't be drawn in to it based on this bad experience. Best defense is to check bank statements regularly and your credit reports on a semi-regular basis. Sorry this happened to your wife. Shit sucks.

[Icari]

if you register on creditkarma.com you can get a copy of your transunion and equifax credit reports. it is not exactly the same as what you get from their websites but better then nothing.