Need some advice - Identity Theft

[red95gts]

Over the last month, a bunch of strange things have been happening involving my wife's online identity. Has anyone been through an identity theft? Any advice on what to do next?

- Thanksgiving week: We receive several phone calls about "the auto insurance quote you asked for online" and a letter from Allstate that basically says, if we accept the quote they will run our credit. After talking with Allstate, someone asked for a quote online using my wife's info to insure a 40 y/o man on a 2010 Mercedes. Supposedly, all they needed was my wife's name, address, and phone number to request this quote. No SSN or other qualifying info is required to request a quote.

- 2 weeks later: We receive another call regarding an insurance quote, same scenario as above.

- This week: I look at our monthly phone bill and notice it has gone up by $21.20. It's a third-party payment for a "Pro Credit Track" service at $19.99/mo plus tax. After speaking with several people at this company, it appears someone signed up for a credit monitoring program using my wife's info. I've requested a copy of the Letter of Authorization, which will give me all the info they used to sign up for this account, to include IP Address. Supposedly, you do not need to provide a SSN to sign up for this service (which I think is bullshit) - just name, address, phone, and e-mail. The e-mail address was a phony @yahoo.com address, BTW

Questions:

1. Should we be concerned by this? I'm thinking yes....

2. Assuming we get an IP Address, is there anyone here that would be willing to whois this and resolve it to a physical address?

3. What would be the recommended next steps?

Thanks DFWS!

[red95gts]

Forgot to mention - All online activity that we know of at this point has occurred on 26-27 Nov. It just took an entire billing cycle for it to show up on the phone bill. So far, nothing peculiar has happened online since that date.

[garycrist]

And you have not contacted fraud watch at any of the reporting agencies yet?

[03mustangdude]

run malware spyware see if it finds anything seems like its just a referral based service so said person got a credit for referring your wife to allstate / credit monitoring ip is useless since only company that has a standard one is comcast and everyone and their momma knows how to use a proxy.

[red95gts]

No, haven't contacted Fraud Watch - didn't know that was even available. I'll definitely look into that tonight.

I'll run the malware scan and see, although she has a new laptop sitting under the Christmas tree so that may resolve itself.

Thanks!

[LS1Goat]

Yep, happened to me before as well.

Contact all three major Credit Bureaus. Have them put a Fraud Alert in your credit file. I've had something similar happen to me and that's what I did. What will happen is whenever anyone tries to open up/modify/change any kind of an account using your SS#/DOB, you will get a phone call (from the number that you provide) from the lender to approve/disapprove the transaction. And you should also file a complaint with the FTC http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/

Change all your passwords on any of the sites you conduct your online transactions. Make them completely random and alphanumeric. Do a spyware/malware scan on your PC prior to doing this, of course. Do not use the same password or user name on multiple online accounts. Make each one different. Don't allow your browser to save your user name or passwords to important online accounts i.e. bank, credit card, utilities, etc... Open up a word document and type in all your user names and passwords for each site. Then save it on a removable USB thumbnail drive and not on the computer itself. Remove the USB thumbnail drive and keep it in a safe place as use it when needed.

And make sure you have a good quality shredder and shred anything that has an account number on it before it goes into the trash/recycling.

Don't log on to your account from a link embedded in an email. Log on to your account on the actual website for the account. People get caught by this all the time. It's called email Phishing and the pro's can make it look completely legit.

[red95gts]

Thanks for the info. Fraud Alert has been filed on all three credit agencies and we should have current copies of her credit report soon.

I got the Letter of Authorization from Pro Credit Track today. The email address is forged and the birthdate isn't even close. No SSN or any other identifying info. Seems ridiculous that someone can start a recurring charge on your phone bill with nothing more than the personal info you get out of a phone book.

I know it's a long shot, but the IP is: 99.57.146.241

Any takers?

Thanks again for all the info. Hopefully this will be the end of it but we'll see.

[03mustangdude]

IP address [?]: 99.57.146.241 [Whois] [Reverse IP]
IP country code: US
IP address country: ip address flag United States
IP address state: Texas
IP address city: Waxahachie
IP address latitude: 32.3703
IP address longitude: -96.8570
ISP of this IP [?]: SBC Internet Services
Organization: SBC Internet Services
Host of this IP: [?]: adsl-99-57-146-241.dsl.rcsntx.sbcglobal.net [Whois] [Trace]
Local time in United States: 2010-12-21 23:28

[LS1Goat]

T
I know it's a long shot, but the IP is: 99.57.146.241

Any takers?

Thanks again for all the info. Hopefully this will be the end of it but we'll see.

It's a SBC DSL IP address out of Dallas, TX. And there are about 200 host associated to the name server for the corresponding IP. It's a shot in the dark. Just keep doing what you've been doing. And it should resolve itself. The Fraud Alert and the rest of what you've done will do it's job.

[red95gts]

Alright...was worth a shot I guess. Thanks a lot guys - I appreciate your time.