Post by dbsteff on Apr 16, 2009 14:12:32 GMT -5
John Quincy suggested I share the following info with all of you. It is info I shared with John in an e-mail, thinking he might issue a new "E-mails we've received" but he asked me to share the info directly...so here goes...it's about identity theft, and the month long nightmare I've gone through:
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Hello John;
Just wanted to let you know of my month long battle with an identity thief.
He apparently stole three payment envelops from my residential mailbox. These envelops gave him my checks, samples of how I sign my name and my account numbers at my mortgage company, etc.
He then transported my routing and account number to some bogus checks he had produced, and took me for over $1,300.00.
(Turns out you can buy check making software at any Office Depot or similar store!)
When I received my bank statement, later in the month, I nearly fell off my chair.
I had to close my existing bank account, open new ones, file a police report, and wait nearly a month for the bank to replace the money defrauded from me.
It has been a complete NIGHTMARE!
The police informed me that mail theft is rampant and that one should NEVER place one’s outgoing mail in his residential mailbox. They tell me it’s a daily occurrence for theft of mail to take place and the resulting identity theft to follow.
In fact, they told me that, since my neighborhood was, obviously, being targeted, that I should open a P.O. Box and file the necessary "change-of-address" notices, such that neither incoming nor outgoing mail would appear in my residential mailbox. I have done so.
In any case, I never dreamed my neighborhood, an upper middle class suburban neighborhood, would be the target of mail theft, but I just got a painful education to the contrary.
When I filed a mail theft report with the Postmaster General, I learned that this is a problem all over the country and their investigation unit is completely overwhelmed.
So…I thought you and our LKY readers might like to know about the cautions Learned from the police, and the Postmaster General.
I still have to file identity theft reports with the credit bureaus….I don’t know, yet, what other “fun” this thief has planned for me.
Regards to you and to all our LKY members.
Dan
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Hello John;
Just wanted to let you know of my month long battle with an identity thief.
He apparently stole three payment envelops from my residential mailbox. These envelops gave him my checks, samples of how I sign my name and my account numbers at my mortgage company, etc.
He then transported my routing and account number to some bogus checks he had produced, and took me for over $1,300.00.
(Turns out you can buy check making software at any Office Depot or similar store!)
When I received my bank statement, later in the month, I nearly fell off my chair.
I had to close my existing bank account, open new ones, file a police report, and wait nearly a month for the bank to replace the money defrauded from me.
It has been a complete NIGHTMARE!
The police informed me that mail theft is rampant and that one should NEVER place one’s outgoing mail in his residential mailbox. They tell me it’s a daily occurrence for theft of mail to take place and the resulting identity theft to follow.
In fact, they told me that, since my neighborhood was, obviously, being targeted, that I should open a P.O. Box and file the necessary "change-of-address" notices, such that neither incoming nor outgoing mail would appear in my residential mailbox. I have done so.
In any case, I never dreamed my neighborhood, an upper middle class suburban neighborhood, would be the target of mail theft, but I just got a painful education to the contrary.
When I filed a mail theft report with the Postmaster General, I learned that this is a problem all over the country and their investigation unit is completely overwhelmed.
So…I thought you and our LKY readers might like to know about the cautions Learned from the police, and the Postmaster General.
I still have to file identity theft reports with the credit bureaus….I don’t know, yet, what other “fun” this thief has planned for me.
Regards to you and to all our LKY members.
Dan