I too received the letter and had to have a new credit card number issued as they recommended. Not to be an alarmist, but be aware your information can still be used to open new accounts in your name.

I'm not going to stop shopping on the internet, but I do like to err on the side of caution so I went one step further and thought I'd share one more thing you can do to protect yourself from identity theft.

This advice came to me from Ameritrade when my information was on one of four backup data tapes that turned up missing during shipping for offsite storage. I was reminded of it when I received a credit card application by mail today to my address with someone else's name on it.

Contact one of the three credit reporting agencies (below) and turn on what is called an Initial Fraud Alert. This will prevent anyone from opening a line of credit in your name without the lender having to first confirm personal information with you by phone.

Points of interest:

NOTE: This will delay the processing of any loans your apply for during this period.

I chose Experian and went with the online link listed below and was immediately shown my credit report. Took less than 5 minutes.

Credit reporting agencies:
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285, www.equifax.com
Experian: 1-888-397-3742, www.experian.com/fraud
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289, www.transunion.com

Other threads:
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....ighlight=fraud
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....ighlight=fraud

 

ZenophileFTW!!!

 

Man....so much trouble. I hope Performance Nissan will come up with a more secured website......

 

They say no for the initial fraud alert, but it is generally recommended to check your credit reports with all three agencies yearly. I do know they all routinely work together to share and cross check the information they have on you, but the point is to nip any unlawful behavior in the bud.

Edit: This is also a good way to check on of your credit reports for free!

 

I'm old...I'm assuming FTW means For The Win?

 

YUO DA WINNA!!!

I have to agree I am going to think twice about buying anything on the net anytime soon...

Funny how the first time I made my purchase through Performance Nissan they TOLD me to order it from the site....ggggrrrr!!

 

how can you set up accounts without SSN's?...i canceled my card today but im not sure they can do much more with your address..besides...people have names and addresses in the white pages

 

Dunno, forged documents? I'm not an expert, this is just an added security measure when you know your personal information is in the hands of identity theives/hackers.

I'd also change your u/n and p/w of any online accounts that might share the same ones you used on that site. Sometimes people are lazy and use the same ones over and over to help them remember.

 

Double post.

 

Yes, this is an excellent idea. I actually mailed out letters to all three creditors today. Gonna go to the DMV tomorrow as well to report that I'm a victim of identity theft, for a whole different situation that occurred at about the same time this one came up.

 

Yes I posted a link to this in OT. I thought that's where it belonged originally, but most of the other posts regarding were in this forum.


What does the DMV do? I recall an email going around a year or two ago with a link allowing you to keep your license info private...

 

Dealing with credit agency is never fun.

I was receiving credit card acceptance form from a random credit card company for months. The name on the pre-approved application was very odd. The first name was listed as a female name, but it had my last name. No, it’s not a generic last name.

I made several calls to the credit card company requesting that all or any application submitted by the approved authorization number or by the name be cancelled or denied due to possible fraudulent activity.

Well, long story short….I ran a credit report and surely enough, that credit card was listed.

Based on the investigation, it had a 15K credit limit and it exceeded the limit and the account was 150 days past due.

My credit was **** hole and I didn’t even know until I ran the credit report.

Now days…your credit score is your life. Take the time to cancel the credit cards, report any suspicious activity to the credit agencies. This will save you the long term headache.

 

^Scary.

You got things sorted out in the end I take it?

 

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp


Free credit report from each credit bureau, you can get one per year from each. I space mine out to every 4 months, so i have year around monitoring.

 

Good find! Bookmarking that one...

 

Thanks for the info. I just did this...

 

Every 4 months, what a great idea! And thanks to the original poster for starting all of this. It's something I remember reading about but never did until now.

 

Not quite

It isn't meant to follow the 12/3 calculation, u know. You can only do it once a year and must do all three one after another in the same session. I did this a few months ago myself. The site opens the three bureaus' sites one by one within itself, i.e. you never leave the mama site during the process. Once you're done, you can't come back for a year.

I liked it a lot. Nothing beats free. So they don't show us the credit score...big deal. But it is a very relieving thing to try. I highly recommend it.

 

Good post, something everyone should know.