Posted on 09/02/2007 3:11:13 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(WCCO) -- When it comes to unwanted credit applications some people shred, some people mix it with the garbage and others just rip them into pieces.
Carol Bungert rips and worries.
"If someone did find this in the recycling and pulled it out and filled it out, would they, would they get a card?" Bungert wonders. "Could they use my name and start charging stuff all over town?"
In a test to see if that could happen some volunteers used a little tape and some puzzle skills to turn ripped up applications into ones that are almost as good as new.
To see if credit card companies would actually accept applications that are now taped together, volunteers, including Bungert, filled them out.
"This is the worst looking application I've ever seen," said Lincoln Kallsen, one of the volunteers. "If they accept this, there's real problems."
The volunteers also changed the phone numbers and addresses on the forms. They used their cell phone numbers and WCCO's address which should be considered extra red flags that would make the applications stick out even more.
What will the credit card companies do when these ripped up applications arrive? The only way to find out was to mail in the offers and wait for a response.
"I don't know. I'd like to think it won't work," said Sara Lawrence, one of the volunteers. "I'm not gonna be surprised if it does." Lawrence never did receive word on the application and she said would have liked a call from Capital One to explain where her ripped-up form ended up.
Kallsen did get a call from American Express and it wasn't on the cell phone number he'd listed on the application.
"They called here, so somebody did enough work to at least say 'well that isn't the right number'," he said. "They were good enough to say 'well, we did receive a suspicious-looking application, we want you to know that.'"
Bungert filled out two applications and she got two phone calls, neither of which were on her home phone.
"Now that would make more sense actually," she said. "No, they did call me actually both times on the cell phone number." Bungert told American Express she didn't want the card she applied for and there was no problem.
However, when Bungert spoke with the other credit card company she applied for they wanted her to have the card.
"If I'd said, send the card, she would have done it. She would have sent it to the fictitious address and presumably the fictitious person then could have used the card," she said.
I have a large shredder next to the door. Anything from Wilmington, Delaware (where 90% of the credit card apps and other junk mail I get comes from) goes into it.
We don’t even get a chance to tear ‘em up in southern Az. Your mailbox is fornicated half a dozen times before you get home. Any that DO get through go in the BBQ.
We have crosscut shredders at work.
I make it a practice to shred *everything*, including mailers w/ my address on them, etc.
Identity theft is no joke. Your best defense is you.
Absolutely it is. It’s also an even better idea to shred the bills themselves once you’ve paid them. I also shred bank statements and even phone bills. There’s an awful lot of information there that probably doesn’t need to be.
I use my junk mail as kindling for the fireplace.
They’re just taking the credit cards that other people don’t want...
I once saved junk mail to use as kindling for campfires. But because high gasoline prices have decimated several camping seasons while the volume increased markedly, I now shred the applications and return them in the postage-prepaid envelopes with as much excess shredder debris as I can fit.
I have a joke file called “Fabulous Credit Card Offers”.
Because of past circumstances, my credit rating probably stinks. I have no idea why I’m “Pre Approved”.
I love that, “Pre Approved”. Hilarious ROFL. Pre Approved for what? “A roll in ze hay”? Bend over.
I ran across a similar article some time ago and in it there is a link to something called Optput Prescreen. If you sign up, it cuts your credit card offers to next to nothing. We did it and our junk mail went way down.
Here’s a link to the article:
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/03/what_if_a_despe.html
And here’s a link to Optout Prescreen:
www.optoutprescreen.com
or: 1-888-5OPT-OUT
I was at the bank with my son to take care of some of his banking and they told us he was pre-approved for a credit card. He’s 17 and has no job.
We have great bank people; she told us about it, shook her head, and got rid of it.
We BURN ours. Hard to piece together all those ashes.
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