Calm Posted May 21, 2018 Posted May 21, 2018 Our tax accountant was hacked and we have just found out that someone used our Social Security numbers, etc. to file false tax returns. Makes me think they can do the same for credit cards, etc. We want to sign up with one of the companies that flags any activity under our names. Does anyone have experience with such companies, both good and bad?
bluebell Posted May 21, 2018 Posted May 21, 2018 Credit karma does that for free. I’m not sure how comprehensive they are though. I just get the general monthly emails when everything is good. 1
Stargazer Posted May 21, 2018 Posted May 21, 2018 1 hour ago, Calm said: Our tax accountant was hacked and we have just found out that someone used our Social Security numbers, etc. to file false tax returns. Makes me think they can do the same for credit cards, etc. We want to sign up with one of the companies that flags any activity under our names. Does anyone have experience with such companies, both good and bad? I've been using LifeLock for years and they seem to be effective. Not free, of course. Here's a link to a review of the top ten such companies: http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/protection/best-identity-theft-protection-services/ 2
readstoomuch Posted May 26, 2018 Posted May 26, 2018 I have used IdentityGuard. Had pretty good luck. First thing is to get a credit report and go through it line by line. You probably know that. I think all the services protect you going forward. Fixing the past is a bunch of work and letters. I think you have to report it to your local police. They help you and you need a case number to help get some of these accounts off of your SSN. 2
Calm Posted May 26, 2018 Author Posted May 26, 2018 (edited) Our bank offers lifelock at a discount, so we are going to go with that. Going in to put a code word on the account, they know not to accept SS numbers or birth dates for verification. Soundslike fun, readstoomuch. Sigh. Edited May 26, 2018 by Calm
Tacenda Posted May 26, 2018 Posted May 26, 2018 I'm sorry this happened Calm, I hope nothing gets stolen and glad you caught it! I worry I am pretty lax in securing my accounts as well.
Jeanne Posted May 26, 2018 Posted May 26, 2018 This is just plain scary. I hope you can find one of those companies that just watch everything. I had someone take about %900 out of my account using paypal..I have nothing to do with paypal..ended up changing everything in my life. Sorry about this.
Calm Posted May 26, 2018 Author Posted May 26, 2018 Nothing has happened so far that we can tell except for the tax return. I suspect the Socials will get sold so likely we will hear of stuff in the future. Part of life these days.
Calm Posted June 4, 2018 Author Posted June 4, 2018 (edited) Apparently my personal email is out on the dark net (or so lifelock tells me) so I changed my password for that. We were told by our bank after they put an alert on our account (which means no accepting of Social or birthdate as verification) to go to our branch (together since we had a joint account) and give them a code word for accessing it. Then we signed up through them for lifelock for just the lowest membership which insures us against fraud. The manager who helped us said he had a problem with one of the recent hacks and got no alert from lifelock for it, so thinks the rests of the services aren't worth it. He was iffy about signing up at all because we can get one free credit report per year from each of the three credit bureaus ourselves, but we decided at least for a year we would feel better. After that we were sent home with instructions to contact each of the three credit bureaus and freeze our accounts. This is the part that caused me an anxiety attack, so sharing info how to best do it here for anyone who might be interested. Costs depends on your state and possibly age. Utah is no fee, so free for us. Equifax is easy, just do it online. Very straightforward to find on their site. Transunion is better calling than online, as far as I can tell online you have to set up an account with another company to get the free freeze. Call them at 1-888-909-8872, then iirc it is the second item on the menu...credit report help, might be first...sorry, should have written that down. Then it takes you to another menu, choose the freeze option...think it is 3. At that point, you get an automatic service, you give them zip code, your social, birthdate, numeric part of your street address, and full name (I think, that might be Experian for the name). You then input a 6 digit PIN number of your choice. That's it. They will send a confirmation notice. Experian is the same information including pin of 4-10 digits, but unless you want to sign up for an account or mail them tons of information including driver's license (which is the only safe info I still have so no way) you need to call the 'wrong' number to get a live person, even if only a call center flunky. What we did was called 1-888-243-6951 (my husband just went through all the numbers on the site until he got alive one) and insisted we had to talk to a live person who could help us with the freeze. First time he just shifted me back to the useless auto process, which eventually hung up on me. Second time, my husband tried as I was doing Transunion. He was put on hold again, but eventually with a real person this time. Once we got a real person who knew what she was doing, it went very fast. Connection was much better, so she was likely in the states while the first person (who was just doing his job to try and get us to sign up, so I am only mildly annoyed he did not connect me with a real person the first time) was overseas. BTW, it might help to have a man insist on speaking to an actual rep...that may have been the difference as I talked to him the first time for me, while both times my husband talked to the call center guy (for himself and for me...if more than one in the house is doing it, do it at the same time!!), he was connected with a living rep. Had to wait a bit with poor music reception, took about one and a half songs to go through...might be longer or shorter depending on how busy she is (husband says it sounded like same person both days). I have no idea on the problems created by credit freezing. I assume as long as we aren't taking out loans in the next year, I will not hate myself for doing it. Now I just have to do it for my mom and maybe daughter (she has no credit history, so thinking we don't, but her social was in our tax records so will see if needed). Edited June 4, 2018 by Calm
poptart Posted June 5, 2018 Posted June 5, 2018 Lifelock. Also, id keep tabs of your bank info for a bit, had my info hacked last year. Good times... 1
mnn727 Posted June 6, 2018 Posted June 6, 2018 On 6/4/2018 at 5:21 PM, Calm said: He was iffy about signing up at all because we can get one free credit report per year from each of the three credit bureaus ourselves, Getting a credit report and fixing a credit report are two very different things.
Calm Posted June 6, 2018 Author Posted June 6, 2018 (edited) Yep. Thankfully nothing has happened to our credit. Edited June 6, 2018 by Calm
Stargazer Posted June 7, 2018 Posted June 7, 2018 (edited) I do the more expensive Lifelock, and I do get Darkweb warnings. One thing you need to be aware of, and that is that nobody does it all flawlessly. There are so many aspects to this whole thing. As an information technology professional, I am well aware that there are a large number of possible attack avenues out there. Just by the by, you should check out the YouTube channel Music is a Rainbow. This feisty lady takes on scam callers and posts her interactions with them on her YouTube channel. Here's one of them, which is her working with a fake IRS caller. I don't know how she manages to get all these calls, but maybe she's just lucky: Edited June 7, 2018 by Stargazer
Gray Posted June 8, 2018 Posted June 8, 2018 (edited) On 5/21/2018 at 5:02 PM, Calm said: Our tax accountant was hacked and we have just found out that someone used our Social Security numbers, etc. to file false tax returns. Makes me think they can do the same for credit cards, etc. We want to sign up with one of the companies that flags any activity under our names. Does anyone have experience with such companies, both good and bad? You can also put a credit freeze on yourself and your spouse so no one can open up a new line of credit for anything under your name. We did that. If we need to unfreeze it for something (like buying a car) you can do that, as long as you hang on to your verbal passwords and all that Edited June 8, 2018 by Gray
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