Avoiding scams, fraud, stolen identity, theft, etc.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I would recommend credit freezes especially since it is free. I used to pay $10 for each credit agency to freeze & unfreeze $60 total. Free is a no-brainer.

Lest you learn the hard like fishing dude.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Oh one other point!

I recommend everyone go to SSA.gov and set up an account with your name and social security number. At least that way you'll have it locked down so no one else makes an account in your name.

I like this advice and when I get home today will create it (if no one did it already in my name). Was going to wait until retirement but better to do it now like you recommended.

[james.hendrickson]

Guys - just wanted to pipe up with a similar story.

I checked my bank account statement over the weekend, and I saw about six charges from Amazon Prime on the account. Each one was $5.99.

Now, I don't have Amazon Prime and haven't used the debit card associated with the account for anything.

I suspect what happened was a hacker got ahold of the information used it to make some fraudulent charges.

So FishinDude77's situation is unfortunately not uncommon.

[myrdale]

Oh one other point!

I recommend everyone go to SSA.gov and set up an account with your name and social security number. At least that way you'll have it locked down so no one else makes an account in your name.

[myrdale]

Just got done dealing with some identity theft issues, it's pretty scary stuff.
We froze our credit, replaced all cards, put new passwords on everything, notified anyplace we had money, etc.

For me it was just a headache.

I'm sure I've posted elsewhere about it, but around 2011 I came home to visit my folks. My mother said I had a sack of letters on my bed. They were a mixture of credit application approvals and declines. I think 17 in all. Finger Hut, Sears, Toys R Us, JCPenny, among others.

I spent several hours on the phone with each of these companies shutting the cards down. All of their fraud departments were good at the time. I put a 7 year credit freeze on my accounts at the time, that was a pain having my gas turned on each year required me to fax my drivers license and social security card to the gas company. And also I filed two police reports, one there and one here.

In college I was a security guard at a nursing home around 2004. The corporate office was an old building in a bad part of Montgomery, AL. I watched them put my file with a copy of my drivers license in a file cabinet next to a window missing panes. I feel certain that was the source. Also the Toys R Us application was in store in Montgomery, not on line like the others.

When I field the police reports, the cops at both locations were far more worried that it was an expired drivers license that was used rather than my current license. *boggles*.

The other case was my debt card was spoofed.

Anyway it was a pain. Good luck.

[Fishindude77]

Just got done dealing with some identity theft issues, it's pretty scary stuff.
We froze our credit, replaced all cards, put new passwords on everything, notified anyplace we had money, etc.

[QuarterMillionMan]

In Mexico people are so afraid of the cartels but it's the police you should be afraid of. A marked police van once stopped me walking from the strip club to my hotel room 1 block away with lots of other pedestrians on the sidewalk. I thought mistaken identity so I figured after they were done they'd let me go. 2 uniformed male cops had me put my hands on the side of the van, 1 would frisk me while the other asked me where I came from, where I was going to, if I was drunk, or had drugs, etc. The guy who frisked me had taken out my cell phone in one pocket and my wallet in the other pocket. The encounter took only 1 minute. The guy returned my items and allowed me to go. In my hotel room as I'm watching TV trying to process what happened I figured to check my wallet. Prior to the encounter I had four $100 bills. After the encounter I had two $100 bills. They targeted me because I am an American. I no longer trust the cops in Mexico.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Next time I'll turn the tables and get cell number and tell them I need to go an ATM in order to get $100 and I'd meet them at the McDonald's in 1 hour and keep giving them the run around. A telemarketer scammer once called asking for my authenticator number for something. I kept giving him fake numbers until he got frustrated and hung up on me.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I typically locked my car when i got out to fill it. .

My advice to everyone here everytime you fill up gas is to lock your doors (I always lock my doors because of this). If you never lock your doors watch this video. You might not even know you've been robbed.

Crouching suspect steals woman's purse at gas pump - YouTube

[QuarterMillionMan]

You stopped and spoke to strangers in a car and took a piece of jewelry from them? Wow. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that car and certainly wouldn't have taken anything they tried to hand to me.

AJSimon hit the bulls-eye. whereby they got me stopping and answering their question about Sacramento and caught me off guard. Had they stopped and asked me if I wanted to buy an 18Kt gold ring I would have waived them off immediately. They are pros at what they do. Expert scammers. I need to learn to be more like myrdale and I should have told them to take a hike.

[AJSimon]

Honestly, to me the giveaway was the opening question - "How far is the drive to Sacramento?" You're well-dressed in a Mercedes SUV, which means you have the equivalent of a supercomputer on your dash and one in your pocket. And you think you need to ask a stranger that question?

It was all about selling the ring and finding a quick way to that conversation that didn't force them to make the offer in the first sentence,

[ua_guy]

There's a new breed of aggressive homeless people who don't take no or non-response for an answer. First time I encountered this was in San Francisco. You have to have a very thick skin and be very abrupt when they keep pushing and stay in your face.

The nearest gas station where I used to live a while ago was a truck stop before a major mountain pass. That place was always swarming with people asking for gas or cash, militant truckers, and people roaming the truck lot. I typically locked my car when i got out to fill it. It was the cheapest gas, way cheaper than in town so I'd typically fill up there. Daytime was actually worse than night.

[disneysteve]

My stance to panhandlers, beggers and scammers has shifted greatly over time. I get down right hostile to them now. Don't show an inch of compassion, they will take it as weakness.

You can say I'm jaded, but I don't trust anyone who approaches me at this point.

I absolutely don't trust anyone who approaches me, but I don't get hostile or engage with them. I just ignore them, don't make eye contact, and keep on walking. If I do speak, it's only to say No or Not interested as I move along.

[myrdale]

You stopped and spoke to strangers in a car and took a piece of jewelry from them? Wow. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that car and certainly wouldn't have taken anything they tried to hand to me.

My stance to panhandlers, beggers and scammers has shifted greatly over time. I get down right hostile to them now. Don't show an inch of compassion, they will take it as weakness.

The times listed below are approximates, but this is all the trouble I can recall having with panhandlers, beggers, thieves and scammers over the past two decades.

1999 while gathering carts from the parking lot, some guy ask for $1 to get a soda, stating he is starting there later this week and will pay me back. I pull out my wallet and show him I have nothing. I never see him again.

2005, a neighbor knocks on my door "I need some cash, you got any?" I reply "Umm no, let me know if you find someone handing out money"

2006 a kid knocks on my door asking for money to get his grandmother a soda. I tell him I don't have any change.

2008 while hanging out in a parking lot after dinner with friends, a woman pulls up and ask for $5 for gas. I give her $20 and my mailing address to send it back.... I never see my $20 again.

2009 My mother is visiting and a guy approaches us for money. She gives him $20. I advised against it, but she insist it is between him and Jesus where that $20 goes.

2010 a guy pulls up next to me at Lowes and offers to sell me a gold necklace. I tell him to get lost and he gets belligerent.

2012 a guy approaches me at Lowes, for other reasons for money. I suggest what I'm going to do with my new pickax to him.

2014 a woman, in a really nice BMW pulls up to me and ask for money for gas. I tell her to get lost.

2018 I drop my keys while getting into my car at the gas station. A guy comes running up to me asking for money, then sees I've got a pizza from Mello Mushroom and ask for a slice. I give him one and he runs off cussing at his friend.

2021 I catch a guy climbing the fence in my back yard with a back pack. I confront him and he insist he is looking for a dog. I run him off. Later i find him in my drive way again and threaten to get the cops involved.

2023 I am walking into Target and a guy comes up asking for money. He caught me on a bad day and I got down right nasty with him to the point I actually felt bad about it after the fact.

You can say I'm jaded, but I don't trust anyone who approaches me at this point.

[disneysteve]

On the subject of scams, I have a friend who I met and have known through an online video game. I've known this guy for going on 15 years now. He is a retired genetic scientist approaching 80 years old. He is in the process of being scammed out of his entire life savings.

He met a lady in her 30's with a kid who is looking for a partner. They talked. He sent money for airfare, but she couldn't make it. Then he sent money for rent, lawyer, food..... and he has paid out to the tune of $+100k over the past year to this woman he has never met!

When I go through his friends list on Facebook, of the 350 or so people he is friends with, the better part of half of them are young attractive women. And the strange thing about all of these women's profile's I've looked at is they are only friends with old men!

He is developing dementia, which has made it to the point he has sever difficulty playing the online game now. But even with that I can not believe a man as smart as he is / was could be so desperate he will throw everything he has at someone he has never met, while at the same time shutting his son out of his life.

It's really sad and disturbing how frequently the elderly are targeted by scammers. Due to a combination of being overly trusting in general and possessing impaired cognitive abilities, the elderly are the perfect target. We see it with my mom over and over and over and over again. Thankfully, she's only been truly scammed once that I can recall when she got a call from someone who claimed to be from Discover and she gave them her credit card info. Fortunately, she told us about it shortly after it happened and I was able to shut everything down, cancel the card, change all of her passwords, and prevent anything from happening.

We constantly tell her not to open emails, not to click on Facebook posts, not to answer her phone (let it go to the machine and only pick up if she knows the person), not to open and read her junk mail, not to pay attention to advertisements on TV or in the newpaper or magazines, etc. Still, not a week goes by that she doesn't ask us about something she saw "on the computer" or she shows me a ad she pulled out of the paper or magazine. She gets annoyed when I rip it up and throw it out but I just repeat that it's a scam and she needs to ignore advertisements. I don't go there every day but when I do, I always grab her mail if I can so that I can toss the junk mail before she sees it. Charity requests from every imaginable organization, most of which are crap. And all sorts of other promotional stuff for garbage.