stolen social security number

Raven

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So I'm at the bank earlier, and the teller ask for my SSN, and I had a massive brain fart, and verbally gave them the number.

A split second later, I realized my mistake, and looked around.

Within hearing distance were two people that I highly suspect were illegal aliens.

Now I wonder what the odds are of them pinching my number.

I suppose they'd have to 1. be crooks, and 2. remember the number, so I'm probably safe, but it will eat at me anyway :D

What irritates me is that it's not the type of mistake that I normally make, but once is all it takes, I suppose.
 

Diesel_Bomber

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At least you didn't hand them any money. :whistle:


Not long ago I seriously pissed off a waitress at a local restaurant by refusing to give her my Visa card. I had no problem walking to the cash register so I could watch while she ran it through the credit outlet. Though I was very polite, she got very offended and didn't understand why I wouldn't let the card out of my sight. Interesting world we live in. :touche:


Cheers. :buddies:
 

Arkayne

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Raven said:
Within hearing distance were two people that I highly suspect were illegal aliens.

Awwe, don't you think it unfair to consider them 'illegal' based on the way they look?
 

ACMarina

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Maybe and maybe not, it would probably depend on where you are. In some places you can't tell, and in some you can virtually guarantee it..
 

Brighteyez

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Probably because people tend to get a bit carried away with that stuff and she may now consider you as some sort of paranoid oddball. Or at least someone that doesn't frequent restaurants very often, at least not with a credit card.

It's one of those oddities in behavior that raises eyebrows. There was a time when people would freely give their credit card to a restaurant server or to someone over the phone, but be deathly afraid of giving their credit card number over a secured web site for a purchase. Nowadays it is kind of the reverse, you might encounter someone (especially a young person) who might freely leave a credit card number with an online vendor or some tranaction service (e.g. PayPal), but be deathly afraid that anyone who handles their credit card manually in a face to face transaction at a retail establishment is going to steal their credit card number.

If it is of any consolation, I've been using credit cards in restaurants and hotels all over the world for almost 40 years and have never experienced an abuse as the result of it, and the card is usually out of my sight for at least a good portion of that period.


Diesel_Bomber said:
At least you didn't hand them any money. :whistle:


Not long ago I seriously pissed off a waitress at a local restaurant by refusing to give her my Visa card. I had no problem walking to the cash register so I could watch while she ran it through the credit outlet. Though I was very polite, she got very offended and didn't understand why I wouldn't let the card out of my sight. Interesting world we live in. :touche:


Cheers. :buddies:
 

Brighteyez

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Possibly, but it's pretty much well known that there is a sizeable population in our fair city who are indeed undocumented aliens and before someone jumps to some knee-jerk redneck ASSumption, they're not all Hispanic.

I'm pretty sure that you've got a pretty sizeable population in your area as well.

Arkayne said:
Awwe, don't you think it unfair to consider them 'illegal' based on the way they look?
 

ibcj

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"So I'm at the bank earlier, and the teller ask for my SSN, and I had a massive brain fart, and verbally gave them the number.

A split second later, I realized my mistake, and looked around.

Within hearing distance were two people that I highly suspect were illegal aliens.

Now I wonder what the odds are of them pinching my number.

I suppose they'd have to 1. be crooks, and 2. remember the number, so I'm probably safe, but it will eat at me anyway :D

What irritates me is that it's not the type of mistake that I normally make, but once is all it takes, I suppose."


If you are truly concerned, then I would recommend that you contact the credit reporting agencies and ask them to put a fraud alert on your personal information. This means that if anyone tries to use your personal information (ss#) to open an account, you will be notified. They must verify that it is actaully you opening the account.

Some illegals will just hijack a persons social security number. They have no idea who the number belongs to, but they get a fake SS card made up and begin using the number. The problem occurs when the names that they are using and accounts associated with it, are placed on the rightful owner's credit report.

Hijacking a SS# is most successful when the number belongs to a young person who has no credit history established. It can be very difficult to get things cleared up once this happens. Many times they aren't using the number to steal, they are simply using it to get an account and they will make payments on the accounts.

Contact the credit reporting agencies, get the fraud alert and you can sleep a little better knowing that you tried to prevent the worst from happening. Another thing that I would recommend is to take some written notes about today's events at the bank, including the date and time, teller you spoke with, description of the subjects who heard the information. In a few months check your credit history and see if anything unusual is going on. In the event that something has happened, at least you can report it to the police with some facts of when it may have been stolen. If it is recent enough, maybe they can look at bank video tape to try and identify the people. It will give the police something to work with, instead of the usual zero information that we get on these type of cases. Just things to think about.
 

Brighteyez

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It may come as a shock, but many people routinely give out their SSN to a bank teller within earshot of other people and think nothing of it. These days some people may get a bit oversensitized from watching too much TV, too much Internet, and not enough real-life. While it's important that you exercise reasonable care in protecting various identifications these days I wouldn't let it make you excessively protective.

"Two people that you suspect were illegal aliens" sounds it a bit bigoted, but disregarding that portion of it, if they were undocumented, they probably speak little to no English and you probably rattled off the number too fast for them to comprehend it. On the other hand if they were internet scam artists dressed to look like illegal aliens, then you're probably had :D

Raven said:
So I'm at the bank earlier, and the teller ask for my SSN, and I had a massive brain fart, and verbally gave them the number.

A split second later, I realized my mistake, and looked around.

Within hearing distance were two people that I highly suspect were illegal aliens.

Now I wonder what the odds are of them pinching my number.

I suppose they'd have to 1. be crooks, and 2. remember the number, so I'm probably safe, but it will eat at me anyway :D

What irritates me is that it's not the type of mistake that I normally make, but once is all it takes, I suppose.
 

Diesel_Bomber

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Brighteyez said:
Probably because people tend to get a bit carried away with that stuff and she may now consider you as some sort of paranoid oddball. Or at least someone that doesn't frequent restaurants very often, at least not with a credit card.

It's one of those oddities in behavior that raises eyebrows. There was a time when people would freely give their credit card to a restaurant server or to someone over the phone, but be deathly afraid of giving their credit card number over a secured web site for a purchase. Nowadays it is kind of the reverse, you might encounter someone (especially a young person) who might freely leave a credit card number with an online vendor or some tranaction service (e.g. PayPal), but be deathly afraid that anyone who handles their credit card manually in a face to face transaction at a retail establishment is :drool: going to steal their credit card number.

If it is of any consolation, I've been using credit cards in restaurants and hotels all over the world for almost 40 years and have never experienced an abuse as the result of it, and the card is usually out of my sight for at least a good portion of that period.

I'm glad that you've not had a problem. I've already had a waitress steal my debit card number. I was able to take steps to protect myself and didn't have any money stolen, but it was still a PITA. If trying to prevent that from happening again makes me a "paranoid oddball" then so be it.

Cheers.
 

Pellidon

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My bank usually asks for the last four digits after I give them my name. rather than the whole deal.

I got my company card lifted once at an eating establishment in my old college town. I was returning from a job in Chicago and stopped in to loiter around a bit. It was just before Thanksgiving that year and on the holiday my card was used twice. Once to check it out for a $20 transaction and the second to ship $600 in clothes to an address known by the banks as a drop for hinky card action. The astonishing thing was that the person using the card called the card company and added that bogus address to the shipping profile list.

I come into work Monday and the bank called us first thing to inform us they canceled the card and did not pass the $600 transaction because the address was known to be bad. Tuesday I had a new card. I got very lucky that time.
 

Brighteyez

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There's a couple of things you can do.
1. Use cash only at the restaurants that you frequent.
2. Frequent a better class of restuarant where you don't have to worry about the wait staff ripping you off.
3. Dismiss it as a fluke experience if that is what it was.
4. Only use restaurants that have POS terminals where you swipe your own card.

Generally, banks or credit card companies will see and stop any suspicious activity on accounts long before you're even aware that it is occurring. Your experience with your financial institutions might vary though.

EDIT I should add though that having already been the victim of such an act may indeed cause you to exercise greater if not obsessive caution that may lead to people viewing your behavior as abnormal. I once knew a guy that was burglarized twice in less than 6 months. The guy all but went underground getting a PO Box and never revealing his address. Other than the utility company there were very few people who knew of his actual address.

Diesel_Bomber said:
I'm glad that you've not had a problem. I've already had a waitress steal my debit card number. I was able to take steps to protect myself and didn't have any money stolen, but it was still a PITA. If trying to prevent that from happening again makes me a "paranoid oddball" then so be it.

Cheers.
 
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Brighteyez

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It's a common practice now to only ask for a partial SSN or ask some other question (like city of birth) rather than for a whole SSN.

Sounds that your card was lifted by a pro, or at least someone who frequents internet resources in using stolen credit cards. These days, the security departments at many banks or card companies have applications that scan your past usage history and flags activity that seens to be extraordinary or outside of your usage pattern (e.g. using a debit/ATM card as a Master Card or Visa when you've always used your PIN in the past for purchases with that card or perhaps the card of a single male suddenly appearing in use as a Victoria's Secret buying large amounts of goods.) In any case, they have often stopped/cancelled the card long before the owner even knows that the card is missing.

Pellidon said:
My bank usually asks for the last four digits after I give them my name. rather than the whole deal.

I got my company card lifted once at an eating establishment in my old college town. I was returning from a job in Chicago and stopped in to loiter around a bit. It was just before Thanksgiving that year and on the holiday my card was used twice. Once to check it out for a $20 transaction and the second to ship $600 in clothes to an address known by the banks as a drop for hinky card action. The astonishing thing was that the person using the card called the card company and added that bogus address to the shipping profile list.

I come into work Monday and the bank called us first thing to inform us they canceled the card and did not pass the $600 transaction because the address was known to be bad. Tuesday I had a new card. I got very lucky that time.
 

Diesel_Bomber

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Brighteyez said:
There's a couple of things you can do.
1. Use cash only at the restaurants that you frequent.
2. Frequent a better class of restuarant where you don't have to worry about the wait staff ripping you off.
3. Dismiss it as a fluke experience if that is what it was.
4. Only use restaurants that have POS terminals where you swipe your own card.

Generally, banks or credit card companies will see and stop any suspicious activity on accounts long before you're even aware that it is occurring. Your experience with your financial institutions might vary though.

I agree with all except #3, I don't think it was a fluke. I don't always have the option of picking where I'm going to eat, though I do my best to stay away from fast food(yuck). I've also changed my banking policies. The debit card I use for walking around spending is only a debit card and not credit as well. I don't keep enough money in the account to be any kind of problem should someone drain it.

Cheers. :buddies:

Edit to your edit: Paranoids are people, too. If everyone hated you, you'd be paranoid too. :) (TIC)
 
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Raven

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While there's a chance that they weren't illegal aliens, I'd bet money that they were.

I happen to live in a community, with a very high illegal alien population, and it becomes a habit to recognize them, if only because they are so much a part of my day to day routine, whether I like it or not.

I've given some thought to having my SSN flagged, but generally I try not to enter the depths of bureaucracy, if only because it's sadly possible to actually make a problem worse, by trying to fix it.

Such are the times we live in.
 
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