Protecting My Identity After CC Was Fraudulently Used

[JimInOK]

My wife received a call this morning from her cc company regarding a possible fraudulent charge. It was a $9 charge at a grocery store in the UK (we live in Oklahoma) and they wanted to know if it was valid. It most definitely was not. They reversed the charge and canceled the card (issuing a new one to us). The acct will be locked for a couple of days, then she will be able to go online and see if there has been any more suspicious activity. Looks like this was nipped in the bud.

My question, do I need to do anything further? I check our bank account and the activity on my cc daily (we use separate cards), and I know nothing has hit them. All the identity theft stuff worries me though. Do these situations typically only affect the single acct or are there other things besides those listed that I should be checking right now?

Thanks!

[AmbitiousSaver]

You could contact the credit reporting agencies and put a fraud alert on your account.

[sounderella]

So sorry that happend but thank goodness it was only $9!! From my experience that's all I needed to do....but I am always watching my credit report too. From what the bank told me....there's really nothing you can do until something shows up. Just watch your online purchases...they told me that's where someone may have found out mine.

[JimInOK]

Originally Posted by sounderella

So sorry that happend but thank goodness it was only $9!! From my experience that's all I needed to do....but I am always watching my credit report too. From what the bank told me....there's really nothing you can do until something shows up. Just watch your online purchases...they told me that's where someone may have found out mine.

Yes I agree. But from what I've read the small initial charge is typical. If it goes through, then they start with the bigger ones.

Looking into placing a fraud alert on my credit bureau accounts now. Any opinions on services like Lifelock?

[AmbitiousSaver]

We used Lifelock, it was great but a lot of what they offer you can do for free yourself. But it also cut down on junk mail too.

[Caoineag]

It's been about 6 months since one of my credit card numbers got stolen. We suspect a local restaurant was the culprit since we had used the card only 3 weeks earlier there and before that we hadn't used the card for nearly a year.

We have had no other problems show up since then and I do check everything frequently. I pull one credit report every couple of months for free and the recent pull had nothing out of place.

[SnoopyCool]

The only thing I know of LifeLock is that Clark Howard doesn't like them at all. I believe everything they do you can do for free.

I've also heard of freezing your credit. I don't know how this works either, but I'm sure a Google search would turn up the info.

Wow, am I helpful, or what?

[gackle]

Originally Posted by JimInOK

Any opinions on services like Lifelock?

SnoopyCool was right about LifeLock.

[sounderella]

Yeah it was on CNN today too
Fraud-prevention pitchman becomes ID theft victim - CNN.com

[SnoopyCool]

I wonder if Rush and Hannity will pull their ads for LifeLock now.

[rennigade]

Ive had my cc $ stolen 2 different times. I don't really care considering I don't have to pay a dime. The biggest hastle was filling out 1 sheet of paperwork from the cc company.

[noppenbd]

Originally Posted by SnoopyCool

I've also heard of freezing your credit. I don't know how this works either, but I'm sure a Google search would turn up the info.

Freezing your credit prevents new accounts from being added to your credit report. So someone with your personal info could try to open a new CC in your name but have it sent to their address, but a freeze would prevent this. I believe this is one of the more common forms of ID theft.

If you lose your card or someone steals your wallet, a thief could still use it to ring up phony purchases, even if your credit is frozen. In addition credit freezes do not protect against check fraud (someone ordering and using checks from your account).

Credit freezes cost anywhere from $5-15 per bureau, per person to initiate, and a similar amount to temporarily thaw. A temporary thaw can last for any length of time to allow you to apply for new credit. The thaw is usually instantaneous and is done by giving the bureau your PIN number, which they will send you when you initiate the freeze.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that a credit freeze does not affect your credit score in any way.