To Catch an ID Thief - MSNBC/Dateline

[katwoman]

I don't know how I missed it but this originally aired back in March. Today it was being rerun on MSNBC (2 hour show). I couldn't watch the whole thing as I had an appointment but the parts I caught were fascinating!

If you all can please watch the video on the link or someone please post when the show airs again on TV. It shook me to the core so much so that all I keep thinking about is where I made my last purchases on the web, which credit cards I used, and that I should order my free credit reports to check for unusual activity.

Oh yeah, if you're on any dating websites you might also wanna check this out as well. There are many casualties of ID theft I never knew about.

Inside Dateline : To catch an ID thief

[ainmohd]

I guess it is safer to use debit cards since you won't lose much.

[sweeps]

I guess it is safer to use debit cards since you won't lose much.

Using a debit card is one of the worst things you can do. When an ID thief steals your debit card number they have open access to your entire checking account (and savings account if you have automatic overdraft). Before you figure out what happened, you may have to deal with bounced checks and not having available cash when you need it.

[Broken Arrow]

For what it's worth, I have a credit card with a small limit, and anything beyond that would get automatically declined. ID theft is serious.

I have a cousin who got gipped out of $4000 and caused a problem with his bill payments, especially the mortgage. And yeah, he uses his debit card for all of his purchases. Because of that, he had to jump through all these hoops because his bank didn't believe that he wasn't the one who bought all of these things.

Please don't ever use your debit card for anything except your own ATM or bank use.

[loanstar]

I guess it is safer to use debit cards since you won't lose much.

Not qeite, the thief just has to wait until your salaries come in.

[eisor]

An elderly friend of ours got her purse stolen. Within 5 minutes, her checking account was completely cleaned out.

It was a MAJOR hassle for her to get everything fixed.

At least with a credit card, it isn't your actual cash. And, once you file the claim, you aren't responsible to pay it.