Equifax fiasco

[The Annoyed Man]

If you have not done it yet go to Discover card and set up a passcode for telephone conversation with them. All happened about 2 years ago. A scammer actually had a Discover card issued to a California address by fooling a telephone employee at Discover card. I got a text message about the change so I was alerted. Went to the police with the info with the name and address of the California crook and they did...... nothing.

In my LEO days we caught credit card scammers with thousands in merchandise and multiple credit cards - open and shut cases. We couldn't get the credit card companies to sign a complaint for a value under $50K - they told us the losses were just factored in to the interest they charge.

So - if you carry a balance on your cards, just be aware that you are helping to support tens of thousands of credit card criminals.

Some lady living in a project in New Orleans once got into me for $46.5K when I lived in California. I was able to avoid responsibility for it, and get it cleared up with the credit reporting agencies, get my credit flagged for protection, etc., but even knowing the woman’s name AND address, I was unable to get the NOPD interested in driving to her house to arrest her, even after I volunteered to fly down there on my own nickel and testify at her trial. They told me that $46,500 wasn’t enough money to make it worth their while. They only go make an arrest when the amounts get up over $100K.

Basically, the thieves know that if they fleece 5 people for $50K each instead of fleecing 1 person for $250K, the police won’t bother them......and they still have $250K of someone else’s money/credit, etc. The failure of law enforcement to be willing to pursue for smaller amounts is what set that system up. The thieves are going to steal regardless, but their methodology, designed to avoid arrest, was created by law enforcement’s policies.

[Excaliber]

If you have not done it yet go to Discover card and set up a passcode for telephone conversation with them. All happened about 2 years ago. A scammer actually had a Discover card issued to a California address by fooling a telephone employee at Discover card. I got a text message about the change so I was alerted. Went to the police with the info with the name and address of the California crook and they did...... nothing.

In my LEO days we caught credit card scammers with thousands in merchandise and multiple credit cards - open and shut cases. We couldn't get the credit card companies to sign a complaint for a value under $50K - they told us the losses were just factored in to the interest they charge.

So - if you carry a balance on your cards, just be aware that you are helping to support tens of thousands of credit card criminals.

Some lady living in a project in New Orleans once got into me for $46.5K when I lived in California. I was able to avoid responsibility for it, and get it cleared up with the credit reporting agencies, get my credit flagged for protection, etc., but even knowing the woman’s name AND address, I was unable to get the NOPD interested in driving to her house to arrest her, even after I volunteered to fly down there on my own nickel and testify at her trial. They told me that $46,500 wasn’t enough money to make it worth their while. They only go make an arrest when the amounts get up over $100K.

Basically, the thieves know that if they fleece 5 people for $50K each instead of fleecing 1 person for $250K, the police won’t bother them......and they still have $250K of someone else’s money/credit, etc. The failure of law enforcement to be willing to pursue for smaller amounts is what set that system up. The thieves are going to steal regardless, but their methodology, designed to avoid arrest, was created by law enforcement’s policies.

The problem in my LE days wasn't with law enforcement - we were eager to make the arrests. The issue was with the credit card companies who refused to sign complaints. No complaint - no charge - no arrest.

[RoyGBiv]

I checked with Equifax and they told me that my data was compromised. Given the awful reviews of trustedid, I signed up for a different monitoring service. Hopefully I can get Equifax to compensate me for some of the costs.