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Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

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Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#171

Post by squeaky-clean »

aptwebapps wrote: post #116

If I saw a new account opened in my name I would be pretty concerned and would probably come back to this post for advice. However, is it necessary to get be this thorough (going to the police, etc) for things like incorrect tradelines in your report? When I first requested my free reports a few years ago all three had multiple tradelines that were not mine and two had a similar situation as Patrick's - namely an acc…

It helps you in the worst case scenario. What would you have done had they never responded or taken any action? Or if they responded with incorrect information / misunderstanding the original claim like they did in the article thinking OP was talking about their child's birthdate, when OP was clearly talking about themselves?

It's a relatively small price and additional amount of effort to protect you in a situation that can be very important to you financially for a long time. What if 20 years from now those accounts are reopened in some credit report?

Also just anecdotally, but I bank with Chase and their customer service has always been so terrible, I'd expect all these to happen to me.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#172

Post by tedmiston »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #106
milkytron wrote: post #83

> Mean words cannot hurt a bank. Threats cannot hurt a bank. Paper trails, though, are terrifying to regulated institutions. Your bank’s customer support representatives are taught to evaluate whether someone looks like they’re competent and collecting a paper trail. If they are, the CS rep is supposed to stop touching the case immediately and instead escalate them to a supervisor or to the legal department. This is…

Recording phone calls without the other party's consent is super illegal, as in criminally illegal, in all-party consent states [1]. Needless to say, one gives up leverage when one commits a crime. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws

This comment glosses over the fact that most US states are one-party consent states not requiring notifying the other party that a telephone call is being recorded.

From your source:

> States that currently require that all parties consent to the recording include: California,[21] Connecticut,[22] Florida,[23] Hawaii (in general a one-party state, but requires two-party consent if the recording device is installed in a private place),[22] Illinois (debated, see next section), Maryland,[24] Massachusetts[22] (only "secret" recordings are banned, but is the only state without a "public location" exception),[25] Montana (requires notification only),[26] Nevada,[27] New Hampshire,[28] Pennsylvania,[29] and Washington (however, section 3 of the Washington law states that permission is given if any of the parties announces that they will be recording the call in a reasonable manner if the recording contains that announcement).[30]

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#173

Post by redthrow »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #28
tptacek wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was a really excellent post, the best I've seen you write up this material, and among your top 5 posts ever. Having said that, I'm tentatively going to disagree. I made a conscious, somewhat coerced choice in my early 20s never to rely on revolving credit. A combination of random course-of-business (of course resolved) delinquencies and no history of revolving credit resulted in my having relatively poor credit.…

I mean, you're rich. The normal rules don't really apply. Your poor credit sounds like my poor credit, but it has a pretty big impact on my life. You once mentioned you paid out of pocket to get your family member some kind of medical procedure. I think it was a CT scan? Anyone who can do that isn't really in the same class. Here's one way it matters: every year, your entire well-being is determined solely by your la…

It feels like there are many market-based solutions these days even if you had poor credit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1AKOVHd3r4

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#174

Post by moduspol »

quuquuquu wrote: post #157
moduspol wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems odd to extrapolate to the entire world's population of adults, yet rule out the possibility of living anywhere that houses cost less than a million dollars.

Thanks for writing :) I suppose the issue here is that the "wait and save" approach does not always have success, especially in the Bay Area. The reason for that is because there is a finite number of houses, and an excessive number of bidders. These bidders use loans and leverage (other people's money) to pay a higher price than they normally would be able to afford. Thus, waiting and saving is tougher. Of course th…

I can just tell you, respectfully, as someone who has a successful career in tech far from the Bay Area, that it comes across as obtuse to presume one can't work or buy a house anywhere else.

Your comments imply Bay Area housing costs are the default, but they're not. They're the exception. Contrasting the number of global millionaires with Bay Area housing costs in response to a general statement about saving to buy a house is silly.

I'm not sure how realistic it is to save for instead of getting a loan for a house, but I started my career 30 minutes from a city in the US with an international airport. I got a mortgage, but the house was $117k, in a safe neighborhood, with a garage, three bedrooms, and 2.5 baths. There is a whole world outside the Bay Area.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#175

Post by andrewhillman »

"These days they have streamlined online applications for writing to them, but I suggest that you only send them paper letters. This is a really weird thing for a technologist to suggest, but when you send paper letters, you can establish and own a “paper trail.” When you type words into their godawful web applications and hit submit, you will likely fail to retain a copy of those words and fail to retain records about what they told you (exactly) and when. This will complicate your resolution with them. Communicate with them only over postal mail. Keep a log of every mail you send (including what you said) and when it was sent; keep a copy of every letter they send to you and when it was sent. You don’t need physical copies; digital is fine. I like organizing all of mine on a per-incident basis in Dropbox."

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS SEND LETTERS WITH 'USPS RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED.' (It's the green card you get at the post office and once the recipient receives your letter, you will get a green card in the mail serving as proof of delivery and acceptance.) This is the lowest costing form of legal proof for a paper trail. Well worth it. I use it all the time and I learned this from my dad who has spent his life practicing law.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#176

Post by thecrazyone »

sly010 wrote: post #112
AmIFirstToThink wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Question: When the party states that "this call may be recorded for quality or training purposes", does that give you reciprocal permission to record the call or do you have to explicitly ask for it? Any lawyers with opinion on this?

Perhaps answering every notice of recording with "me too" is enough?

Wow! this is a good one. I would love to hear a lawyer's take on this to see if this is notice enough. Seems like it though :)

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#177

Post by thecrazyone »

code4tee wrote: post #53

All very good advice. The bit about calmly but methodically collecting a paper trail and then reading it back to them is excellent advice for any out of control bureaucracy. Such entities can handle angry irate people all day long, but a calm and collected person that posses ample evidence of documented screw ups and potential illegalities is a bureaucracy's worst nightmare.

This puts things in perspective.

I used to get angry when the other party used to screw up, have stopped getting angry seeing how futile getting angry at a random (and ever changing) customer rep is.

This puts calmness in a new perspective

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#178

Post by thecrazyone »

phant0mas wrote: post #108

I see the same thing with all my family and friends. Whenever they have to do something that involves bureaucracy, they give up and/or start shouting. Especially in Greece, where the public sector and the banks depend on you giving up. Personally I always make sure to go fully prepared, with every legal paper ready before hand, and having ready answers/solution for every possible issue. And above all else I talk as p…

I feel sad every time I hear things like this. That we've to be happy that we got our job done even when all our documents are in the clear. Or that we've to hope get some favor from them by fawning (not alleging that you did that). It makes me feel like we're treated like dumb children by our governments.

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#179

Post by tombrossman »

seanalltogether wrote: post #131

Does anyone know what I can do as an US citizen abroad to protect myself now? I tried to get a free copy of my credit report but it required a us address to process. I tried to set up an account to freeze my credit but those require a us address as well.

No idea, but I asked the same thing on the expats Stack Exchange site earlier today[0]. No responses yet, maybe we have to wait until Monday and call them? You might also contact the US Embassy in your country and ask.

I had a similar problem with signing up for an online "my Social Security" account, and learned that it is impossible. The US Embassy in London wrote back: "You must have a U.S. mailing address in order to create a my Social Security account and cannot open an account without one."

Having a credit record in the USA is no longer important as I do not plan to return, but you would think the credit reporting agencies should have some way of telling them "I'm long gone, if you see a credit application from the USA it's definitely fraudulent". Can't be done I guess.

[0]https://expatriates.stackexchange.com/questions/12104/how-ca...

Re: Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You

#180

Post by pmarreck »

analog31 wrote: post #111
astral303 wrote: post #58

"Angry people demand; professionals “require.” " YES YES YES--it's not enough to merely be aware of the connotations of your words. You must also be aware of any unintended information conveyed through their use. For example, despite being synonyms, the use of the word "demand" in this context exposes one as an amateur. It doesn't matter if you think this is unfair. It matters that you know all information conveyed,…

It might not be a formal difference, but here's something that I first noticed when reading the opinions of the Church Fathers when I was a grad student at Notre Dame. They always wrote in a language suggesting that their opinions emanated solely from objective facts that were not of their own choice. "The law requires you to comply" is a statement of fact. "I want you to comply" sounds more like a personal feeling.…

https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFalla...

Anyway, if you continue down that path, you will get less religious. Not necessarily a bad thing.

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