Know a victim of identity theft? You're talkin' to one!
How would you feel if someone stole from you and infringed on your personal life....violated, angry, out for revenge? I am all three. Yes, I was a victim of identify theft!
Saturday morning I wrote check #2096 to the Madonna School here in Omaha for $20.00, a remembrance for a friend who had died earlier this week. I put it in my mailbox, put the little red flag up at about 1:00 for pickup. I had also put in a birthday card and money for my niece and a gift for a friend's new baby in Kentucky.
We needed some things at the store, so hopped into the car, 20 minutes roundtrip....shopping for fruit, milk and bread doesn't take very long.
As we drove up to our home, I noticed that the mailbox was open and empty but the flag was still up. Strange, my mailman never comes this early and is very good about closing the box door and putting the flag down. I thought "I wonder if somebody took our mail....naw, couldn't happen"....I was wrong.
Sunday morning I decided to check my bank account online....whoa! what was this, a check for $625.00 had been cashed, and the check number was the same as the $20.00 check to Madonna School. All that the online description said was "ONUS CHECK WITHDRAWAL 2096". I called the 24 hour banker but all she could tell me was that a check had been cashed....and that I would be able to get more information on Monday.
Monday 8 am I was at the bank door and was taken to a personal banker. I told her that I did not write a check to anyone for $625.00 and needed to know who the check was made out to. But I was told I would have to wait until Tuesday when the checks arrive from the satellite bank. In the meantime, I had called the post office in regard to the baby gift which had a tracking number. They had not received it....so, it was not picked up by the mail carrier....I made a report to the Postal Inspector General...don't know what that office can do, but it least I felt I was doing something.
Tuesday morning I went online and looked at my checking account....the $625.00 cash withdrawal was gone! First I thought "could I have made some dumb mistake and caused a big fuss over nothing"...
I went back to the bank and talked to the personal banker....she had tried to call me earlier. She said that the check had been altered by some sort of material that dissolves the ball point pen ink. The check was made out to (xxxx since she has now been released from prison, I will not give her name) and also a driver's license number. On the check she wrote what she had been "paid" for...two weeks of baby sitting service....my husband and I are both in our 70's, no babysitting needed in this household.
This does not necessarily mean that the name and license belongs to the thief since I doubt if they were dumb enough to use their own. (wrong again! This was her real name...the police officer told me that they don't think they will be caught!) But... the bank had a THUMBPRINT and also a surveillance video of the woman. The check was date and time stamped by the bank at 15:55 - it took them less than 3 hours to wash the check, forge it,and drive to a bank on the other side of town to be cashed. They probably hit a few more mailboxes on the way.
As for my baby gift, a really cute pair of Winnie the Pooh pajamas, birthday card and several other pieces of mail...they are gone, never to be seen again.
Remember what I said about violation, anger and revenge...when this group/person is caught I will be first in line to prosecute. My life has been violated and I don't like it!!! I was very lucky that my bank cancelled the $625.00 charge on my account. It wouldn't have thrown me into bankruptcy or caused bad credit but it did cause some sleepless nights.
I don't feel safe writing checks anymore....and have learned NEVER to put the flag up on my mailbox when I put something in it. Its like a "come and get it" to anyone who makes a habit of helping themselves to another person's mail.
I often wonder about the other people who had their out-going mail stolen. It would be quite a nasty surprise to receive a letter from your bank, credit card or other lending agency saying that your monthly house payment, credit card bill, car insurance, etc. payment had not been received....and inaddition to that, you will be charged a late fee for non payment.
(note) Ms Thief and her partner were caught several days later with a backseat full of opened mail) They were tried and sentenced to 4 years in prison... not nearly enough to make up for the stress and sleepless nights she caused us. Unfortunately the maximum penalty is up to three years in prison for mail theft and up to two years in prison for theft. And, I think she returned my Winnie the Pooh pajamas to the store for a full refund! grrrrrrrrrrrrrr )
Identity theft
Gel Pens and checks
Well folks, just got back from Wal-mart where I bought a package of Uni-ball pens. According to fraud prevention sites on the internet, they can help prevent check fraud. The pens are sold at other stores, Target, Kmart, Walgreens, etc. but Wal-mart is the nearest to me.
FROM THE NATIONAL CHECK FRAUD CENTER:
http://www.ckfraud.org/washing.html
Criminals rely on our mistakes to make their job easier. Taking a few precautions will make you less attractive to predators. Don’t leave mail in your mailbox overnight or over the weekend. Thieves wait for that red flag to go up to score an outgoing check or other personal information.
WHAT TYPE OF PEN TO USE WHEN WRITING A CHECK:
If you are a ballpoint pen lover, switch to black ink when security is important. Among water-based inks, remember that gels are the most impervious. But when you're writing checks to pay the monthly bills, only one type of ink, the kind in gel pens, has been found to be counterfeit proof to acetone or any other chemical used in "check washing." Most ballpoint and marker inks are dye based, meaning that the pigments are dissolved in the ink.
Based on recent ink security studies, we highly recommend that you use a gel pen, like the Uniball 207 that uses gel ink that contains tiny particles of color that are trapped into the paper, making check washing a lot more difficult. The pen sells for about $2.
Identity theft and forgery
Remember when I wrote that the person who robbed our mailbox wouldn't be stupid enough to put her OWN name and driver's license number on the "washed" check and then try to cash it.
I was wrong..a Saunders County, Nebraska Deputy sheriff arrested her and her companion Sunday morning..one day after robbing our mailbox, washing the check, forging it and taking it to our neighborhood bank to be cashed.
SOURCE: OMAHA (NE) WORLD HERALD May 14, 2008
OMAHA, Neb. -- Thousands of pieces of stolen mail were found in a car in Saunders County (NE) on Sunday, and authorities are now investigating whether the find is connected to an alleged identity theft ring found last week in a downtown Omaha hotel.
Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said his officers performed a traffic stop at 2 a.m. Sunday and found thousands of pieces of correspondence that belonged to individuals other than the people who were in the car. There were bank statements, credit card bills and checks in the car, Stukenholtz said.
Deputies also found scanners and printers, along with other items needed to make fake IDs, the sheriff said. Stukenholtz called it the largest identity theft case he's ever seen.
"We're finding correspondence from Council Bluffs, Ralston, Papillion, Bellevue and all over Douglas County," Stukenholtz said.
Two people were arrested in Saunders County. Authorities said they're not identifying the suspects so they don't jeopardize the investigation. (this is the pair that robbed our mailbox and forged a $625.00 check!)
Stukenholtz said the thieves doctored the checks they stole.
"On a check that would have been made out to Visa for $300 or $400, they would wash that check, put their name in it, make a fake ID to match that name, then cash it," Stukenholtz said.
Authorities said they believe the suspects burglarized homes and took some of the mail. Some mail was snatched right out of the mailbox.
Stukenholtz said his office is contacting anyone who may be affected.
***
I didn't wait to be called--I called the sheriff as soon as the story appeared on the 5:00 news. Maybe my $14.99 baby gift of a pair of Winnie the Pooh size 12 months pajamas is somewhere in the pile of things they found!!!!!
Washed checks
Suppose your stolen checks have been forged and cashed. The money has been withdrawn from your checking account....will the bank reimburse you?
In my case, I immediately notified my bank that there was a forged check on my account....and, they later credited my account with the $625.00 had been withdrawn.
(Personally, I feel that had the teller bothered to pull up our signature card on the bank's computer, they would have seen that the signature on the forged check did not match the one on the signature card)
According to the National Check Fraud Center.....
"IF YOU FAIL TO REPORT CHECK FRAUD WITHIN 30 DAYS OF RECEIVING YOUR MONTHLY STATEMENT, THE BANK DOES NOT HAVE TO REIMBURSE YOUR LOSS (UCC Code 4-406)"
If you have a habit of putting the bank statement in a drawer, planning to look at it later or if your statement is online and even though you know it's there, you seldom remember to look at it, you may NOT be reimbursed
.
Result....the dreaded OVERDRAWN statement!!!!!
Fraud prevention...protect yourself
After having my mailbox robbed, this advice hits very close to home. And this is where they belong!!!! 
SOURCE: A LOCAL ATTORNEY
Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.
1. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED.'
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have It printed, anyone can get it.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.
Unfortunately, this author,an attorney, has first hand knowledge because his wallet was stolen. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change his driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here's what is perhaps most important of all:
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.
The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
By the time he was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which he knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw his wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:
1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything. Pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about.
