ID Theft

HCCADC

I am hearing so many stories lately about identity theft. Last night I was at Target and was using a credit card to pay for purchases. They have a little machine that you just insert your card, sign on the dotted line and the card comes shooting back to you. I asked the cashier if she needed to see my card and she replied, no. And we wonder why it is so easy to steal personal info and use it!!!!

JudyT929

Where have you been? Those machines have been around for years. Just don't lose your card.

Dutch2

That littel machine has already contacted your credit card company, Visa, Master Charge, etc and they have verified that the card has not been reported stolen and have approved the purchase.
We receive a newsletter every week with reports of ID theft. Recently hackers gained access to Calif. State University and now have the names and SSN's of 59,000 people from their files. Personal information of more than 8,900 people was stolen when thieves broke into a Nevada Dept. of Motor Vehicles. Bank of America is monitoring 1.2 million government cardholder accounts for suspicious acitvity after computer tapes contaning charge card information were lost during shipment to a backup data center. And the list goes on and on.
Most recenty as our weather warms up we are reminding our customers to be aware of scam artists moving back into the area that will do roof, concret, and other minor and quick home repairs. Of course these folks are from out of state and once they get your down payment they are ususally gone. We seem to be having a rash of "phishers" in our area now. A phone call or an email needing to verify your bank account or credit card information, etc. and of course the firt thing they ask you is to verify your account number for them. It is absolutely amazing how many people will gladly give them there personal account information.
Good luck.

HRCalico

I have to confess I LOVE those things - it is so much faster. (I also use the self-check out at Wal-Mart - there is never a line!) But you're right - anybody could use anybody's card. It's sad that we have to worry about such things.

Don D

Card, what card? I just closely follow the person who just checked out ahead of me and quickly push the 'repeat entry' button and it allows me to scan my purchases as an addendum to the ones scanned by the prior customer. Never costs me a cent. I thought this was the purpose of 'express', to keep the lines moving and get people happily out of the store into their cars.

HRCalico

Note to self: If Don D is in line behind me, say "Oh, no, please go ahead. You only have 57 items? I'm sure I have 58. You first. Really. I insist."

Whatever

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-24-05 AT 08:38AM (CST)[/font][br][br]I'm impressed. How do you get away with 57 items on the expess line and survive in one piece?

National Guard

ID Theft? What's that? I regularly make late payments to drop my credit rating! No one wants my credit. I think I'm safe from ID Theft.x:D

safety

What a novel idea! O=*

Sam, give her a raise.

Don D

That is the funniest thing I've read in quite a while! Excellent post! If you ever have one of those calls from the woman in 'another country' who contracts with VISA or MCard, and they ask that stupid question, "Can you tell me why your payment is late or has not been made?", tell her, as NGuard suggests, "Yes, it's a goal of mine to screw up my payments so no one will steal my identity and try to use my credit!" She will actually type your reply into your 'notes file'.