Identity theft and its family is a ####
oof. Sorry dude. How did it happen?
apartment building we lived in during our time in
Seattle was burglarized in late January. Crooks forced entry in the middle of the night and stole 3 flat screen tvs from the common area and fitness area, along with some other stuff. Worst part is they smashed open a locked file cabinet and stole the file that had all of our information in it.
I put a fraud alert on my SS# through the credit agencies as soon as I heard but things were quiet for awhile and I hoped nothing would come of it. Then last week I started getting calls from places to verify my identity saying that someone had been using my info to try and open up lines of credit.
I requested copies of my credit report and saw tons of activity. Started following up with each company one by one today. Most were unsuccessful applications for credit, but I guess they got a card open through Best Buy and rang up a $6000 charge. Supposedly, I won't be liable for that and they are opening an investigation. Of more concern is that one of the items was for the Boeing Credit Union and they wouldn't tell me anything without me submitting a notarized 6-page affidavit and police report since I can't show up in person to WA state to verify my identify. The woman seemed pretty concerned over the phone but couldn't give me any details on what actually happened. She said it wasn't a line of credit, so I can only assume they got some type of loan or something?
Anyway, during my investigation, I also found out that the bad guys had signed up for one of those credit monitoring services using my information and some random credit card to pay for it. So, they had access to my full credit report online I think and I'm pretty sure they used that information to verify my identity with Best Buy and the Credit Union to get those through.
Not really sure what else they may have done or have access to . My wife also got a call but there haven't been nearly as many signs of activity with her information as there have been with mine.
Really sucks.