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It’s actually pretty unusual for someone who gets your number through a skimmer to make small withdrawals like that. Most commonly, they do it the way it happened to me. They make one very large purchase, and then never use it again. I actually think my number was sold to someone by the people who owned the skimmer. I don’t know if it was on the dark web or not.
I actually had more issues with my social security number being lifted from credit application in person at a furniture store. They wreaked havoc on my accounts, cancelling my and my mothers phones and buying new ones, opening multiple cards and maxing them out immediately etc. I was very worried they’d get into my bank account or file false tax return in my name but thank God that didn’t happen. It was crazy though.
This happened to a co-worker of mine. Although his number was lifted from a mortgage application at his bank. They caught the guy who did it. It was awesome! I got a call at work from someone at a some company calling to verify his employment. Since that's something only HR can do where we worked, I transferred the call to HR, and then casually let him know about the call I'd gotten. He got freaked out as he had not applied for credit at that company. He called the company about it, they said they had a credit application in his name, and suggested he call the Secret Service. Apparently they handle identity theft, who knew? The SS set up a sting and told the credit company to issue a fake card with a zero limit and send it to the mailing address on the application ( a PO box). They set up a stake out on the mailbox and caught the guy. He worked for the bank where my friend got his mortgage about a month earlier, and the perp pulled documents out of the trash and stole my co-worker's Soc Security number and employment info off the mortgage application. If I hadn't told him about the call that I transferred, they would've gotten away with the theft.
This happened to a co-worker of mine. Although his number was lifted from a mortgage application at his bank. They caught the guy who did it. It was awesome! I got a call at work from someone at a some company calling to verify his employment. Since that's something only HR can do where we worked, I transferred the call to HR, and then casually let him know about the call I'd gotten. He got freaked out as he had not applied for credit at that company. He called the company about it, they said they had a credit application in his name, and suggested he call the Secret Service. Apparently they handle identity theft, who knew? The SS set up a sting and told the credit company to issue a fake card with a zero limit and send it to the mailing address on the application ( a PO box). They set up a stake out on the mailbox and caught the guy. He worked for the bank where my friend got his mortgage about a month earlier, and the perp pulled documents out of the trash and stole my co-worker's Soc Security number and employment info off the mortgage application. If I hadn't told him about the call that I transferred, they would've gotten away with the theft.
None of that happened with mine. The only store that called me to ask me if I opened the account, was Macy’s. Every other store they went to the cashier open their credit immediately at the cash register, and let them max it out at that time. Those instant credit deals at stores don’t check info, often employers would be closed at 8pm when you’re at the register applying. Every time I opened an account at the register (usually you get 20% off the purchase, and I’d do it when I was buying something expensive) it was approved in less than a minute. And Verizon didn’t check anything either.
That’s actually how I found out about it, I went to make a phone call and discovered that my phone had been deactivated. When I called Verizon on my landline they told me I had deactivated mine and my mothers phones, bought brand new iPhones, and activated those. Even though it was done at a store a couple of hundred miles from my house, Verizon never questioned anything.
It was weeks after that, that I started getting bills from Dicks and other stores where I never opened credit. But I had filled out a police report after the Verizon breach, and been interviewed by the police and had an official document, and I was not held liable for anything. I did have to have a couple of phone calls with Verizon to straighten it all out, because on my next Verizon bill even though they took those new phones off, they never took any accessories off that the people bought. But even though the people were there in person, on camera etc., I don’t think anyone went after anybody.
Regarding the furniture store, I guess it’s pretty difficult to know at what stage the number was lifted. It could have been in the store, but it also could’ve been at the main office where they sent the application information. It was a chain furniture store, so I guess any number of people could’ve access the information along the line.
My situation was back in the 80s, when I guess identity theft was more rare, and actually caused a real investigation. Now it seems it's an everyday occurrence, and they write it off .
My situation was back in the 80s, when I guess identity theft was more rare, and actually caused a real investigation. Now it seems it's an everyday occurrence, and they write it off .
I wanted them to investigate when my debit card was used to buy the tickets to Santiago. I felt like they have cameras at the airport etc. why couldn’t they identify them? But they just write it off. I guess even if they identified them, they couldn’t do anything about it with the people in Chile.
...Most morality police are immoral themselves, going all the way up to the government and church leaders.
That is almost universally true, from the smallest and most primitive village, to the grandest and most sophisticated empire. Along similar lines, most advice is rife with hypocrisy, even if it's sincerely meant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dallasdean
I agree ... a delicate issue. I've ask many who I know, if they wished their mom had aborted. Haven't gotten a yes yet.
Well, I'm a definite "yes". I've never forgiven my late-mother for not having had an abortion. And whenever some unpleasant, stressful, embarrassing or jarring incidence occurs in daily life, my immediate thought is neither to curse, nor to get angry, nor even to forgive the offender or to draw a lesson for myself, but to mutter in quiet desperation, "This would never have happened, were 'I' to have been aborted".
Quote:
Originally Posted by ocnjgirl
...I felt the same way about Suze Ormon. She was never targeting people who already know what they're doing. Her audience was people who didn't have basic financial literacy ... I learned a lot from her and I loved her approach. But she got torn to shreds in every thread that mentioned her.
The trouble with nearly all financial advice is that it's aimed at beginners, at people without a lot of money, at those beset by some crisis or who need a psychological jolt to recover from their reverie and fog. Where is the advice for those who have already exceeded those magical charts of retirement-objectives, hawked by Fidelity and Vanguard and Schwab?
Imagine this call into the Ramsey or Orman or whatever show:
"Hey Dave, my name is Dan Smith. Yeah, that Dan Smith, quarterback for Capital City Sharks. Listen, I'm retiring from the NFL soon. Over the years I've been saving my money and putting it in the stock market. I'm up to about $60M, maybe $70, depending on how that Microsoft stock is doing. So hey, my question - should I try to buy-out the owners, taking the Sharks over? Or should I get into real estate? Oh yeah, another question, Dave... those stocks are really whacking me with taxes on my dividend distributions. Got any ideas for how to minimize that hit?"
Or how about this:
"Suze, pleasure to talk to you. I'm a captain in the NYPD, 27 years of service. Should I take an early-out? Lump sum, maybe? Oh yeah... I also own a couple of apartment houses in Brooklyn. With the rent freeze and all that, and the top of the housing market, should I maybe sell those places? And if I do, OK, where would I put the money?"
Instead calls to Dave normally go something like this:
"Ummm. I'm 62 years old, have nothing saved for retirement and still owe 75K on my student loans. I'm hoping to go back to college to get my Masters degree. I'm wondering if I should tell my husband that we owe 300K in credit card debt."
Okay, number one, I'm sorry, ohio_peasant, if life is so bad that you wish you'd been aborted. I probably would've been aborted if that was an option back in the day.
I was an "oops" of my mom's when she was separated from her husband, and she had some sort of dalliance with a boy down the street (ages 22 and 19).
I totally believe in a woman's right to choose, but I am glad I'm here. Life is beautiful to me, and I enjoy it. All of it. The stinky parts, and the absolutely amazing parts. I feel like I'm in the most interesting movie, and I hope it never ends. I have about 25 years to go, so I hope I live it all. We all might've never (or only shortly) existed, due to abortion, miscarriage, SIDS, childhood diseases, accidents, or war and famine like in other countries. I never have wished for death or non-existence. I hope you find peace and can stop blaming your mom for her choices.
I'm sure a lot of the politicians that helped overturn or campaigned on overturning Roe, paid for their share of them, too!
Yep. All the laws they enact on the little people never apply to themselves. No health care for you! But they have their life-long gold Cadillac plans....
Dave Ramseys advice is fine. The problem most people have with his advice is they believe it's for everyone. A common thread is people bristle at the fact that he says you should have NO credit cards, no car loans, etc. Those of us who have a bit of financial responsibility think he's talking to us when he's actually talking to the true monetary morons. Do you think an AA counselor would tell you it's ok to drink a little, maybe on weekends? How many times do you hear a Dave Ramsey caller say they are $300,000 in debt but that 0% credit card is just too good a deal to pass up? "I owe $55,000 on my car and $37,000 on my wife's car, but, if we buy a boat we could then have less expensive weekend activities to pay for." He's talking to these people.
That is almost universally true, from the smallest and most primitive village, to the grandest and most sophisticated empire. Along similar lines, most advice is rife with hypocrisy, even if it's sincerely meant.
Well, I'm a definite "yes". I've never forgiven my late-mother for not having had an abortion. And whenever some unpleasant, stressful, embarrassing or jarring incidence occurs in daily life, my immediate thought is neither to curse, nor to get angry, nor even to forgive the offender or to draw a lesson for myself, but to mutter in quiet desperation, "This would never have happened, were 'I' to have been aborted".
The trouble with nearly all financial advice is that it's aimed at beginners, at people without a lot of money, at those beset by some crisis or who need a psychological jolt to recover from their reverie and fog. Where is the advice for those who have already exceeded those magical charts of retirement-objectives, hawked by Fidelity and Vanguard and Schwab?
Imagine this call into the Ramsey or Orman or whatever show:
"Hey Dave, my name is Dan Smith. Yeah, that Dan Smith, quarterback for Capital City Sharks. Listen, I'm retiring from the NFL soon. Over the years I've been saving my money and putting it in the stock market. I'm up to about $60M, maybe $70, depending on how that Microsoft stock is doing. So hey, my question - should I try to buy-out the owners, taking the Sharks over? Or should I get into real estate? Oh yeah, another question, Dave... those stocks are really whacking me with taxes on my dividend distributions. Got any ideas for how to minimize that hit?"
Or how about this:
"Suze, pleasure to talk to you. I'm a captain in the NYPD, 27 years of service. Should I take an early-out? Lump sum, maybe? Oh yeah... I also own a couple of apartment houses in Brooklyn. With the rent freeze and all that, and the top of the housing market, should I maybe sell those places? And if I do, OK, where would I put the money?"
I think Suze would be able to answer those questions. She is a bona fide financial planner who learned and trained at Merrill Lynch, and later formed her own investment/financial advising firm. But she wouldn't have taken those calls, because that's not what her show was about. It wasn't an investment advice show, it was a basic financial literacy show and more than that, a financial/psychological counseling show. Her wheelhouse would be more geared to the football player who spent too much money and is upside down in mortgages and cars while using his savings to cover his bills.
I think almost all financial advice seemed geared for people who already were already in a decent place financially and ready to invest. She was an exception to that. There are people/shows like Jim Cramer who are more geared for more experienced investors.
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