I got a call the other day from Citibank Mastercard’s “early fraud” department to verify a credit card that had been applied for. I declined the authorization and they put me in touch with the fraud protection department. Then the snowball started rolling. After researching all of my credit sources, I found that someone has applied for multiple cards and had succeeded with transferring $800 cash from my account through Western Union. Luckily I was able to stop another cash transfer transaction for $2,500 just in time. Someone stole my identity.

It wasn’t until I spoke with a Capital One representative that things got scary. This representative was calling to verify another cash advance transfer and had just hung up with someone who claimed to be ME! She told me that this man knew everything from past addresses, all relatives names and addresses, social security number and worst of all, SOUNDED LIKE ME! This person had/has the nerve to order new credit cards to my personal home and I can only guess that they or one of their minions will be coming to my house and stealing my mail in order to get the card.

The LAPD won’t open a case until they receive documentation for fraud and the credit card companies can only submit this paperwork through snail mail. They told me it would take 7-10 business days. So there is no way to protect myself legitimately in the coming days of theft and mail fraud. It’s a race against the thief to preserve my identity.

The good news is that I was informed before it got too bad. So here are some things you should do NOW to protect yourself from this nightmare.

• Call all of your credit sources/banks and put a verbal password to verify your account. Only YOU should know this and it should be an obscure answer so don’t use; 1st pet, color of your car or anything obvious that could be looked up through anything, including social media outlets.
• Make sure you have a lock on your mailbox
• Be sure to have a “priority phone number” to call and verify all new accounts that are applied for. And be sure that your password is secure with your phone company as well.
• Subscribe to something like Identity Guard-http://www.identityguard.com/
  
• Be sure not to throw away any secure documents that could be pulled out from the trash
• BE AWARE- Not everyone is trustworthy. Use good judgement.

Have you been a victim of fraud? Please tell your story.