Victim of Identity theft.....

Made a check deposit at my bank recently and found out I had even less money than I already had   PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS!!!

....and just to add insult to injury, one of the few purchases made to my visa check card was a PLAYBOY mag. and some GNC muscle building formula   

This is the one time that I'm thankful that I don't make a sh*t load of money

Mooch,
That really sucks, hate when people can't do on their own and take others. Maybe they'll receive some of that bad juju their spreading.
Hope they don't get anymore.
Eric

Joel,

Are you sure you just didn't go on a Smirnoff Ice bender the other night and woke up without remembering any of it. I'd check around your place for an extra playboy mag and the bottle of GNC stuff.

Seriously though, that sucks.  Did you loose your card, or did someone figure out a way to get a copy?

Brian

Bummer man.  Can you get your bank to reverse the charges?

If it makes you feel any better, I got ID jacked while on summer vacation in Tahiti.  In September, Amex notified me that someone was using my card in Paris to purchase foie gras, Peugots, and other frog paraphernalia.  We suspect, but cannot prove, that a vendor whom we patronized in Tahiti had retained our Amex acct info and was using it back in the motherland. 

Sooo, youre never really safe from unscrupulous vendors who want to jack you over.  Good luck with the recovery effort.   

My wife has been through ID theft twice!!! It seems like no matter what you do, someone comes along and gets you. Hope you get things settled out. It took about a year to get the first one over and everything is still going on the second one. It has been about 6 months to get this one done. Good luck.

Mooch........you lost your phone recently.
Were you using the memory of your phone for storage of important numbers?
If so, you better act quick.

Judd

That sucks.

More care and share info: Someone stole my wallet from the locker at the gym 3 years ago.  Cut the lock right off with bolt cutters, then spent 800 bucks in less than an hour.  They made purchases for gas, tires, and at K-mart they bought stuff and then returned the items for CASH 20 minutes later!!  It took 4 months to fix everything and restore my account 

Make sure you keep track of everything...

Bryan

Mooch........you lost your phone recently.
Were you using the memory of your phone for storage of important numbers?
If so, you better act quick.

Judd

That's what I was thinking coz I can access my account by speed dialing my bank and then punching in my account number and then my pin number. But my bank said that it's more likely that someone went through my trash recycle bin at home and pieced together my bank statements. I need to get a shredder - it's obvious that tearing up my old statements is not enough to deter these crooks from getting into my account.

The good thing is that I have been with my bank for 15 years and they know me very well They took care of the situation right away and refunded me all the fraudulent charges THAT SAME DAY. VERY COOL!!!

I'm happy your bank is so great.  I just had my car stolen literally.
I came home at one a.m. minutes ago with a psychologist friend after towing his car from Los Angeles.  I was breaking in through the bedroom window talking all sorts of mad smack about my wife and why she's not home at one in the morning.  I guess I was dumping on him because of his profession and the fact that I just towed his car for free.  She thought it was a home invasion and nearly stabbed me to death.  Guess I'm really lucky to have been talking crap so loud as I was going through the window cause she literally thought she needed to stab me to defend herself and the kids.  Sucks to have your car stolen, and I was just emailing bsteves about some secret giant swimbait I made him, and the fact so many bad things have happened and why it's taken me awhile. 
I was going to this site cause I cant sleep and need some fish report comfort.  Andres

Mooch........a shredder is one answer, I suppose.....

Another, for equal money, would be to get yourself one of those "game-trail-cameras"......all ready-made with flash and motion-sensor.......place it in a position to photograph an access-point to your house.

This approach serves more than one function and leaves you with something useful to take to police..........All photos are stamped with date & time.

Some off-the-shelf trail cameras are equipped with high-pixel resolution...7-megs....this gives police (and you) an extremely non-fuzzy photographic result.

About 15 years ago I used my circuit-board-construction talents (well before trail cameras were on the market) to put together the equivalent.   There's a single walkway/stairs approach to my house.   I placed a standard off-the-shelf outdoor motion-detector/floodlight unit 12 feet from the street with the detection sensor focused down, so it would not pick up passing cars.    I unscrewed both "floodlight fixtures"......and in the chassis-holes that those floodlight fixtures left behind, I screwed in an off-the-shelf-available adaptor, and then inserted small 110-volt red "indicator" lights. (you can get them at any electric supply).  I sealed that joint against rain with plastic calking material.

I opened the sensor-chassis on the unit and painted "white out" on the circuit-board "Photo Cell".....which is provided on all off-the-shelf-floodlight-motion-detectors to render them inoperative in daylight.   Mine operates 24-hours.

So when the motion sensor "fires".....those two little (bright) red lights come on.....clearly visible to anyone approaching on the walk.    The point that cannot be missed by any genuine intruder is:   This house has a way-different security system.  Something he's never seen anywhere.    He's seen those little annunciator lights come on and the first thought in his mind is:  What alarms have already been sent out, to where, to whom, has a photo been taken.   And finally:  My god, this is a risky place to be.

Further up the walk is an identical unit.   (remember, these things cost $20 apiece)    On the second unit there are no floodlights and no annunciator......this one, when the motion detector fires......triggers a highly-placed strobe and a very-nearby-but-invisibly-placed high-resolution digital camera.   This camera automatically off-loads a copy of every image to my upstairs desk-computer.

The south side of my house faces an open field owned by the University of California.    Anyone rounding that corner of the house and attempting to proceed up the stairs to the back deck of the house, is close-up photographed with true portrait resolution.

Today, with off-the-shelf trail cameras, most of the UNIQUENESS of my setup has evaporated.   You can have good pictures of your visitors & intruders.   

Together with providing good security for an end-of-the-street home, I've provided a major recreation to my 6 a.m. newspaper delivery-guy.   

One morning when he threw the paper, the landing paper broke the field of my first motion-sensor and turned on the two little red annunciator lights.   Ever since he's "thrown for the lights".....gaging his throw-accuracy.

Judd

you'd think the'd go after someone with some Real_ca$h, but I guess picking scraps is eaisier......they'll get thiers, in due time.

me too!.....on a card I used once this year at a Vallejo Nissan dealer. I got a pnone call from BofA, informing me someone is trying to obtain/set-up a pin # and a cash advance of 400.oo, then did pay a AT&T phone bill with it.
I am going to call that dealership and inform them, that they have a polecat in the henhouse! 

I've been hit twice by having my mail stolen,  funny thing about that was I got one of the vendors to give me the address to where it was shipped,

Called the police and was given a rash-in of shit about getting this information...

 They never came out to take a report but did offer to arrest me if I acted on my information...

The jackass was eventually caught when he was pulled over with no less than 18 different credit cards on his front seat....

 3rd time... someone got SS#, with a wrong birthdate and wrong place of residence and bought 10k$$$

worth of computer equipment from Dell.....

 To Dell's credit...( Pun )  They cleared it off my record when I notified them....

 Looks like a easy crime to commit without much in reciprocity if your caught...

 Unbelievable,  But as the Hunter Say's,  " They'll get theirs.... "

Dang, that sucks, Mooch. 

Looks like the problem is rampant. A friend of mine just had $700 taken from his BofA check card through iTunes. BofA was fairly helpful but iTunes practically said he was SOL.

Hope you get your Playboy--I mean money--back!

 My "Never ending" credit card appplications get shredded, then the shreaded paper gets used for worm bedding!  Later, when the worms are done with it it's turned into compost!  Good luck to anyone trying to decipher worm crap!

Mooch,

That sucks!

I traveled a lot for my previous job and still do a little for this one I ahve now.  One thing Ihav enoticed and it would heed most of you is to look at your credit card reciept closely.  A lot of small companies have never upgraded their machines and still show your complete credit card # on them.  Some will keep your copy blank but their copy has it on it.  Keep the one with your number or scribble it out if you have to give them their copy.  Also never leave gas pump receipt lying around, get it everytime!  It is a sign of the times.