OK, I got a letter from Melon Shareowner Services that somewhere somehow, our personal info kinda got away from them. Not exactly how the letter is worded, but you get the idea. Our personal info may be floating around, and we could be more likely to be victims to identity theft.

They are offering 24 months of free credit monitoring by the credit agencies, Experian, TransUnion, etc, and I can also utilize a credit freeze which sounds like a PIA if I forget that the freeze is on, and try to conduct some business which requires a credit check.

With the monitoring, they will advise me of credit activity for 24 months, then I can say yes that was me, or NO, it's a scum bag.

I've had my credit card compromised once, account was closed, new account issued, and the debit card that Rick uses about once in a blue moon (because I spend all the money) was also compromised once, and he was given a new account number.

This kind of thing is so common and of course a bit

So which option would you choose? Monitoring, or monitoring and a freeze?

 

We had some fraud (forged check on account; new credit cards set up w/o our knowledge) and have a 7 year freeze on the 3 tracking services. It's not really been a PITA....it's only been an inconvenience one time when we thought about switching cell carriers; no one was HOME to accept a call to verify. We just decided to skip it....due to quickly approaching travel plans.

IIWU, I would call the bank CS phone number; and make sure that the monitoring is free....and that nothing weird is going on

 

I did call, and they assure me the monitoring is free for 24 months, due to their screw up, I guess.

 

I have the same monitoring due to a possible compromise of my personal info. It was provided free by the "guilty" company, and is definitely legit. At least sign up for that. I get a monthly statement from them...so far, no activity in my name.

 

I just got notified by B of A this morning that someone pulled a bogus $1000 charge on my credit card (They called to verify a 2nd charge for almost $1000 that I in fact, did make) so I am going through the card canceling process and will be subscribing to a credit monitoring service just in case.

 

I have Fraud alert post right now on the three credit agencies. In May someone used Donna's credit card number to order a bunch of crap over the internet over a 2-3 hour period late one Friday night. Because so much happened so quick VISA automatically stopped approval and we learned of the freeze when one of our orders was rejected.

It was still never clear to us what the person was trying to accomplish since all the stuff they ordered was delivered to us and we simply refused to take delivery.

Naturally we replaced that card, which did envolve some delays and issues - ie, we had two cards before and they only issued one, etc. But, on the whole it only caused us a little frustration.

 

It is such a PITA to do that whole card cancel thing too.
Companies need to get on the ball and maintain their databases in an encrypted format that require keycodes to access.
Then even if the system is compromised you have the next level of internal security in place.

I did the Mellon thing to. Although I can't figure out the account that was compromised.
I wonder if it is a scam to get people to sign up and get used to it.
sure I'll give you two free years to get used to having the protection then you'll want to keep it.

 

So I had trouble registering for monitoring on line. I called. The SS # compromised is Rick's. OK, I know that number too.

I call the agency the bank told me to call, and nope, they won't speak to me. FCC regulations......it doesn't matter that my name was also on the letter from the company advising of the possible problem, they still won't talk to me.

So, back online I went, they don't know who is behind the keyboard/computer entering the info.

I hope their web site is secure.

 

One of my employer's accountants compromised my info. They were supposed to provide me with 2 years of free credit monitoring. It's been about 3 years now, and I still get emails every time an inquiry or update is made. I don't think I'll bother to tell them about their mistake.

 

When we had a problem, someone in North Phila used Kathy's info to open up a NEW credit card, which must have been registerd in THEIR address....but w/ her SS#. The alert company (M/card?) called us up to verify the alternate address of record....so we were able to CANCEL that account before anything was even ordered. I assume that they planned to order stuff and have it delivered (maybe close to their house....but not exactly at the same address?).....picked up and gone before the fraud was discovered.

I gave the bogus address to the police when fililing the 'theft' report (suggested by the CC company), but am sure that our local suburban police never contacted the Philly police to ??????? follow up As others have reported, we have not had any further suspicious activity.....I send for one of the FREE credit reports every few months (each one allows 1 freebie per year)....spacing them out over the year.

We believe the source of the 'original sin' was a cleaning person, who was her w/o monitoring for hours at a time. Now we do our own cleaning.....but not very often