Heart Attack

[jethrien]

I got a call from a creditor last night wanting to talk to me about my JC Penney card. I've never had a JC Penney card. But she had my name, down to the middle initial. And the last four SS# digits she read off were mine, with one alteration. And the number that was different was one that's close enough in shape to my actual number that bad handwriting could make it look like it was my number.

After convincing her it wasn't me, I made a frantic run to the computer to pull up my credit report. Thank God, there's nothing there. I'm not sure what happened here, but the national credit agencies are firmly convinced I've never had any cards other than the ones that I myself opened, all of which have been paid in full and promptly every month since I got them.

But I thought I was going to have a heart attack. And my stomach was upset for the rest of the night. Identity theft is really, really scary.

Comments

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

Um. Not to be a paranoid worry-causer, but ... how much personal information did you give to this woman?

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Oh, good point.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Last four digits of my social security number, of which she already had three.

I'm not sure whether to be worried or not.

[cubby-t-bear.livejournal.com]

Assuming you're not planning on applying for credit anytime soon, you might want to put a fraud alert on your credit report (link). I mean, if the number was only off by one digit, it might have been an identity theft attempt that didn't quite carry out ...