Identity Theft Sucks!
I am dedicating this post to Amazon. A few days ago I got an e-mail from Amazon, notifying me that some fraudulent activity had taken place in my account with them.
Some creep had hacked into my account, changed the account's password, and also changed the account's email address to bujdtmzg@trashmail.net. Trashmail.net seems to provide services that are perfect for this sort of unscrupulous behavior.
The thief then tried to make a large purchase of electronics, charging it to my credit card which was on file from previous purchases I had made. Amazon recognized this as suspicious activity and did not process the purchase. Then Amazon also completely shut down the account and notified me by e-mail of the attempted fraud.
Unsure how the criminal accessed my Amazon account, or what other private info they might have on me, I spent several hours closing credit cards and bank accounts, and also changing many passwords to my various online accounts. It was a pain in the butt, but all the while I was aware that the situation could have been far worse. I am very grateful to Amazon for looking after the security of their customers' information.
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personal
6 comments:
lucky!....Identity theft seems to be an inevitable horror especially if you use the internet a lot.
That dirty rotten scoundrel! Thank goodness it was found before it got too far. I guess the lesson is to never trust anyone with an email address @trashmail!
you may want to consider a service like Debix offers -- http://www.debix.com/prevent_identity_theft.php
they place an alert at the credit agencies requiring them to contact you when anyone tries to open an account in your name.
not sure that you've been exposed in any other fashion, but better safe than sorry.
It was bad enough as it was, and it could have been so much worse. It's in Amazon's interest to watch out for stuff like that, because the one-click buying convenience they offer (and instant-gratitude incentive) is dependent on people trusting them with their credit card number.
Jaya this is no good, but you were lucky. I had the same issue with the master card for a while, MC kept giving us new cards every few months, but the scary part is that they kept old ones attached to the new number, so anyone could use those old numbers, I think kind of stupid. I guess the none fradulant purchase would go through, and we used to get these wierd purchases months later. Oh well, it is over now. So looks like Amazon did great job recognizing it. Tell you a little secert what I do with my payments on line. After I make a purchase, I wait few days or until the bill comes in, go back to the account and remove the credit card number or overwrite with something else. Just have to remember that everytime I pay, I have to update the credit card info. Well, thanks for telling us, sometimes we forget that this stuff still is going on. Thanks again, Anna :)
Lifelock also provides you with the walletlock service, which is awesome if you lose your purse or wallet. Just call up Lifelock and they'll contact your credit card companies and so on to put a hold on all your accounts and issue you new cards. You don't have to do a thing.
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