Topic: I Am a Possible Victim of Identity Theft

[Alieo]

I'm going to use this thread to both vent about a horrible experience that happened today on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, and to also log events as they happen and evolve in this issue.

As some of you may or may not know, I am sick of my grocery store job and have been for some time. I recently took a career aptitude test and found my top three strengths are: #1, writing; #2, clerical (only one point behind writing); and #3, arts. Retail (grocery) was among my BOTTOM five. So, I've been looking through various employment guides and websites for job offers in the office admin/clerical field.

Last night, I responded to an ad on craigslist for an "Office Support Position," seen here: http://houston.craigslist.org/ofc/2724784750.html

I sent them the following email, asterisks used to cover up sensitive information:

Dear Sir or Ma'am:

      My name is ***** and I am responding to a job posting for an "Office Support Position" as seen on Craigslist. I am ** years old and have been in a fast-paced sales and customer service environment for nearly ten years and have performed many routine office duties daily in my current business venture. Please review my attached resumé. You will be pleased with what you see. I am looking forward to getting a call inviting me to work for your company.



Sincerely,


*****



I got a reply a day later (today, 11/30) at around three in the afternoon:

Thank you for your response to our Craigslist posting, and as well as inform you, that after reading through your application, we are interested in discussing this position in more detail. As of this moment, we have narrowed it down to 3 potential candidates, yourself being one of them. 

I would like to congratulate you in making it to the next step of our hiring process. As part of our company's policy, and to insure our company against liabilities and potential issues, the next step of the hiring process includes getting your credit report checked. Please be aware, that a poor credit history in no way disqualifies you from the position, but will allow us to gain a better feel for you.

In lieu of this, we have arranged a FREE service to make the process easier.  Click here to receive your report. Once you have completed this process, please email me confirmation ASAP, so we can move forward. Please, DO NOT include any sensitive information in any emails. Please perform this step quickly, as we would like to fill the position very soon. Upon receipt of your report #, myself or Mr. Dawson, our HR manager, will get back to you to set up a meeting. 

Again, Thank you for your interest, and I hope to hear from you soon.

 
Thank you,

Donna Mitchell

Head Administrator

Creative Works Media LLC

www.creativeworksmedia.net



So far, everything looked legit to me. The ad was posted at my zip code and I thought the credit report thing wasn't a big deal. That "click here" in Donna's letter linked to the website www.creditreport.com

Before entering any information, I looked around the site to see if it was legit. They had some sort of sponsorship with Experian, one of the three credit reporting bureaus. So, I did it. I input my social security number. Then, there was a field to put my debit card number. They said it wouldn't charge my card and it's needed to acquire current banking information. Note that I put my debit card number and not my checking account number.

Okay, so I did all that, got the credit score, and sent back the following letter:

Ms. Mitchell:

Upon completing the credit report from CreditReport.com, they do not make it obvious to me where a "report number" is. However, they do have a "Membership ID#" and that number is *****, and if you are referring to the actual credit score, it is *!*. I hope this helps.

Please let me know if those are not the correct numbers. CreditReport.com has not emailed me a "report number" or anything at all upon completion of the credit report. I appreciate being considered for employment.



Thank You,


*****


So, I thought, YES! I'm finally going to move away from the grocery store into what's practically my DREAM job! TOO good to be true!

It was.

I started having doubts and second guessing why they would want me to do my own credit report. If this was a phishing scam, could they have gotten my debit card number, or worse, my social security number? *GULP!* If you haven't looked into the website www.creativeworksmedia.net already, you'll notice it goes to a nicely designed website with the title in the upper right corner that reads "Faris Wheel Productions" and "Est. 1996." I wondered why they would name the URL to the site something else and the name of the site be "Faris Wheel Productions." So, I Googled "Faris Wheel Productions" and discovered the following website: http://fariswheel.com/index.html IT'S THE EXACT SAME THING!!! IT WAS A CLONED WEBSITE!!!

That sinking impending sense of doom dropped my stomach down below hell as my heart shot up and out my body towards the heavens. How in the F**K could I be so G** D**N STUPID?!?!?! I shook my head. I started Googling some more. I Googled "www.creativeworksmedia.net" and found the following link from flakelist.org, a watchdog site for Craigslist: http://flakelist.org/page/viewpub/tid/1/pid/5586 It was an experience similar to mine from someone in Abilene, TX. If you click that link, you'll see a letter from a DONNA MITCHELL that looks VERY similar to the one she sent me. Bitch.

Then, I decided to read the email again and click that link that links to the CreditReport.com website. By that time, which was at around 8:30PM, THE LINK HAD TIMED OUT!!! This is the link (I wouldn't recommend clicking it): http://idprotectionchecker.com/3232323/redirect.php?id=s792ee2mcu and when I click it, a blank white page with the simple text, "Link Expired!" appears. When I first went to the link, it went to www.creditreport.com . What the HELL is that? Were they possibly remotely viewing what I was looking at online at the time? Were they watching me input my information on www.creditreport.com?

I then Googled "www.creditreport.com" and found this website: http://dev.phileoca.com/?q=node/177 which states that www.creditreport.com is a scam! It basically told the story about this guy who didn't notice that they were charging his card for their services... Next, I checked on the BBB website what their rating was, and it was an A-. Relieved, because that means it's an actual "LEGIT" business, I went to their actual website (by typing it out in my URL field in Google Chrome) and logged in. I wondered if I could log in. If I couldn't, I'd have been really really pissed.

I did! I was able to log in! Thank goodness. I searched for a way to cancel my subscription. It wouldn't let me do it from the website, but it DID give me a phone number. I called them and explained what happened. The girl on the phone sounded like a typical valley girl telemarketer. She was VERY aggressive in trying to get me to stay with my subscription and that I should keep my subscription. I was beginning to wonder if this company actually set up this whole thing.

I told her I wanted to cancel my subscription. She told me that I was in the middle of a free 9 day trial and that I wouldn't get charged $19.99 until Dec. 9th, but I insisted on cancelling. She then offered me the exact same "identity protection service" for $9.99. I still refused. She went ahead and cancelled it. While she was waiting for a confirmation number (WHICH IS THUMB TACKED TO MY WALL) I went ahead and made some small talk. She told me  their hours were from 8AM to 9PM Central Standard Time (It was like, 8:48 when I called her). I made the comment, "Oh, so you're in my time zone. That's great! What city are y'all located in? She hesitated. She replied, "Oh, somewhere between Texas and Oklahoma. I paused and chuckled a bit. "Wait, whaddaya mean you're "between" Texas and Oklahoma, which is it?" "Just somewhere there. I really am not at liberty to say... since... (hesitation) we have so much valuble information." Oh, bullsh**! She made that crap up. She said I'd be getting a confirmation email. I never got one, but she did give me a confirmation number on the cancellation of my "protection plan." She could have made those numbers up.

Right after that call, I called my bank and cancelled my debit card to insure the fact that they could not charge me. At least that part was easy. Now I have to wait for them to send me another card. Then, I decided to go back to the creativeworksmedia.com website to look something up. I right-clicked it and clicked "Inspect Element" on it. I am NO web designer, but maybe I find the following text EXTREMELY suspicious: <!-- Mirrored from fariswheel.com/ by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2010], Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:06:19 GMT -->

Jesus Christ! This is horrible! And I went ahead and inspected the element of the actual website http://fariswheel.com/index.html and it was all normal looking html language.

I went ahead and went on the experian website, which is one of the three credit reporting bureaus. I put in my information there to file an alert on my social security number and credit.

SOOOOOOOOOOO.... what do YOU think? Am I a possible victim of Identity Theft? Are there any other actions I need to do? Should I sign up for a service like Life Lock?

[Matthew]

Dude... Hover over links before you click them >.>

[TechPro]

If you ARE a victim of identity theft...

• Change ALL of your passwords
• Get rid of ALL of your credit cards ASAP if you can.  If you can't do that, watch the transaction histories on them as closely as possible and if ANYTHING shows up that shouldn't be there, cancel immediately and notify the card company.
• Click here for more steps.

[Scyphi]

See, this is part of the reason why I'm not keen to job hunt on sites such as Craigslist. I feel more confident searching for such jobs through other means (even though it does narrow the range of my search).

Nonetheless, Alieo, once your suspicions were aroused, I think you've acted smartly. These days, one probably shouldn't treat these matters lightly.

[VANGUARD]

It's why I don't trust craigslist, or even jobsinminneapolis (being it's my city pretty much), monster, career finder, yahoo, etc. almost anything online with jobs.
I have seen websites, years ago, that people phishing for info has the "same" layout, as you mentioned alieo, but obviously, the URL is different.
There MAY have been one slight difference like the layout of logging in or not.
I got something from USBank, and actually called the local number (not on the site/email, but the legit one from a card there or phone book), and they said it was legit.
But they may have theirs out, and the phishers may have their own.

My rule of thumb:

1. ALWAYS go to the official website
2. If you believe it is the official website, google it first and see if others talk about that company or not.

Best to take precaution.

[Alieo]

yeah, I contacted Experian and put out an alert on my credit. Does it help me (and hurt my identity thief/thieves) that I have high risk credit, at my own fault? If so, maybe they WON'T try to get a card in my name, or better yet CAN'T! Maybe bad credit is a good thing! I'm wondering if I should sign up for such websites as LifeLock. I'm going to do research on the matter before I jump on it though.

And by the way, I had another job offer from one of the posters I replied to on CraigsList, even before all this sh*t went down. This time, all they said was they were interested and required me to send in my resume. However... wouldn't sending in your resume BE identity theft if it got to the wrong hands? All my references' phone numbers are on there, my home address and phone number, email, etc. I think I'm going to slam the door on CraigsList. The site was a good idea to help people with cost free postings, but the human species is just too evil as a whole to let a good thing be intended on being used as a good thing.

And I don't think I'm going to email anybody a résumé ever again. I will call the employer, or email them if it is a newspaper ad, explain the risks of emailing résumés, and request that I hand them a résumé in person at their office. And, better yet, I'm going to stick to paper publications or watch for job fairs in the future. The Sunday paper has some good ads in there as well.

Enough of the BULLSH!!!!!!!!T

[VANGUARD]

I just have a temp agency look for jobs for me, mainly because I don't want the wrong people to get ahold of my email, postal address, phone number, name, etc

[Matthew]

As far as I can figure, a resume only has your name and your qualifications on it, so it could only be used if somebody was applying for a job as you? Which would mean they would already need a bunch of information other than a resume.

[Scyphi]

I guess it depends on one's resume. Mine is like yours, but it also has my address and phone number. But in this day and age, having other things such as e-mail addresses and the such is almost a must.

[Matthew]

I guess it depends on one's resume. Mine is like yours, but it also has my address and phone number. But in this day and age, having other things such as e-mail addresses and the such is almost a must.

Which is still not really enough for identity theft. Anybody can get your address and phone number, and email address isn't even really personal information.

[Scyphi]

True.

But that's all the information people like Telemarketers need. That's reason enough for me to protect it.

[VANGUARD]

True.

But that's all the information people like Telemarketers need. That's reason enough for me to protect it.

Yeah. I tend to hate giving out info, this is one of many reasons I hate facebook. Don't like it and once I signed up for it, I got adult email.
It's amazing how little i use the Internet.

[Matthew]

I've never gotten anything from facebook. Then again I also have 0 apps installed and have only the bare minimum of information.

[VANGUARD]

I kept it as private as possible with 0 apps, but got junk mail.

[-<WillyP>-]

Junk mail from Facebook? I have been on Facebook for a couple years or more and only get notifications I enabled. But then again, I don't play any games on there, never accepted any apps.