Posted on 08/15/2017 1:28:24 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte
I am embarrassed to post this, my first vanity after being registered lo, these many years.
Last week, one of my credit card accounts was hacked. I received an email verifying that my login was changed, and to report it if I had not made those changes. I had not done so, and immediately called the credit card company. Apparently, someone posing as me had tried to logon, and requested to reset the password. they then changed my adress to one in Miami, FL. (this is where it gets interesting). The card company said they texted a code to my mobile phone, and the code was then used to verify that it was me. I had not received a text from them that day. At the time all this was going on, I did receive a text from a number I didn't recognize. The text consisted of a period. No words, just a period. I believe my phone was hacked, and the the hacker intercepted the text the card company sent. The "." that I received was somehow involved in the hack. The credit card company suggested that the hacker had managed to forward my texts to his phone. The phone number comes up as a Miami, FL #
I called T-Mobile to report the hack. They seemed incredulous and denied that my phone can have been hacked in the way I described.
I got a call a couple of days later from another credit card company that wanted to verify that I had opened a new account (which I of course, had not). They would not tell me the address of the hacker, but confirmed it was a Miami, FL address.
I have since registered with the FTC as an identity theft victim, and with one of the 3 credit reporting agencies. Does anyone who had gone through this have any advice as to what else I should do? I did a factory reset on my Samsung Galaxy S4, but I'm frankly afraid to use it and keep it on airplane mode now and just carry it in case I need to make an emergency call. I am inclined to leave T Mobile and find a carrier who at least believes phones can be hacked. Are iPhones harder to hack?
Broken seals. The seals are placed when price changes maintenance is done. If a seal is broken don’t use a card there. You just have to go look at some pumps and identify the seal so that you will notice it quickly.ATMs are notorious for skimmers, too, but they are usually easier to spot if you are looking for one. They are usuallyan addon to the outside.
Lifelock has caught some stuff for me too.
It’s worth it.
My company is issuing me a new card and they are slow. Today I called the credit union and bitched.
Just checked my Citi card and there was a $59 online charge to some night club in Santa Ana at 2:30 a.m. the night before They were on it right away, cancelled that account and are sending me a new card. I set all my cards to alert me immediately when any charge over one cent is made.
Good luck.
I'd be pleased to have hackers pay my bills....
The 3rd is Transunion.
Call all three credit reporting agencies and “Freeze” your credit. You can do this online.
It’s either free or a nominal charge. I recall two were free and the third just a couple dollars.
Freeze your credit!
Some agencies let your choose your PIN.
Some auto-gen a PIN for you.
Experian, Equifax, Transunion are the three.
Unless you need to make any financed purchases in the near future, call all 3 credit bureaus and put a freeze on your credit. this will still allow you to use your existing credit but will prevent any new credit from being issued in your name.
Tell your credit card carriers you want to set up the highest security. We have really wacky security codes on our credit cards. If either one of us calls on our credit cards they have to ask for the code, they absolutely will not proceed with anything without the code. When I travel out of state I call the credit card company first to tell them the dates of travel, what state they can expect to see charges, etc. They always call to verify the out of state charges even though they were informed ahead of time. Sure it's a bit of a hassle but a lot better than ID theft.
there was a $59 online charge to some night club in Santa Ana at 2:30 a.m.
Where was your significant other? : )
“I would NEVER do any banking or financial transactions of any kind on your phone.”
—
I only do them from my landline and only from an old,plugged in phone,because the cordless ones aren’t secure.
.
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One of my carpool riders had that happen to him the year before last. Did his taxes with Turbotax, and when he tried to send it in, received a message that he'd already done so. Took the better part of a year to get his refund. There were a lot of Turbotax customers who got hacked at that time.
I’ve seen the Seals on Gas Pumps, but couldn’t a Hacker just make a fake Seal and put it on the Pump after they are finished tampering with it?
Just a thought.
All I am finding is KeePass. Is that it? Do you use a separate password generator?
For top security, prepay inside. Prepay for over the amount and the overcharge will be credited.
>>>”Android is not a secure OS.”<<<
In bed next to me!
I have not yet heard of that happening.
when they put in a fraudulent return and get a refund, the consequences to you are considerable, you won’t be out $ but the time required to fix it is substantial. plus you won’t be able to efile for years and the IRS will be giving you extra scrutiny for years.
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