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hayden_horn

By hayden_horn
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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11362

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Posted

it has come to my attention that some motherfucker filed for unemployment with the texas workforce commission, using my name, my ssn, and the name of my company. my HR department notified me. i've contacted the TWC and shut that down, and i've checked my credit report to make sure nothing new has opened. the TWC recommended that i file a report with the federal trade commission.

has this happened to anyone else? any advice would be most welcome.

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wood

wood 11225

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8 minutes ago, hayden_horn said:

it has come to my attention that some motherfucker filed for unemployment with the texas workforce commission, using my name, my ssn, and the name of my company. my HR department notified me. i've contacted the TWC and shut that down, and i've checked my credit report to make sure nothing new has opened. the TWC recommended that i file a report with the federal trade commission.

has this happened to anyone else? any advice would be most welcome.

One of these fucks got my ssn, address, dob, & phone number 3-4 years ago. He started opening credit accounts in my name or changing the address on accounts of mine to get new cards sent to him ... with varying degrees of success. He was able to charge $1000s on computer gear, phones, etc.  

I overreacted and immediately started a LifeLock account, which was a waste of money and time. They act like they're gonna handle everything for you. What they really do is tell you the steps you need to take.

Based on the little bit I learned from them and the whole lot I learned from my own research, I filed with the FTC and established fraud cases with all my  affected credit accounts, and filed reports with the major credit reporting agencies and had my credit 'locked' for a while. I looked into filing a report with APD, but found out they get 10s of 1000s of such reports every year and have little to no manpower to follow up on them. The report is apparently a big pita, so I decided to skip that. From info that a credit card company operator gave me (that she probably wasn't supposed to give me) I found out the guy's name and address in Arlington near Texas Stadium. Despite thinking of lots of ways to fuck with the guy, I thought better of it and didn't do anything with that except use it against him with other creditors. I just kept shutting down accounts he opened and made it basically impossible for him to open new ones, until he apparently gave up. Hopefully he threw my info away (probably wishful thinking, but it's been a couple of years now with no incidents) and moved on to the next poor soul.

It was a huge pita. I wish I could tell you differently, but sadly, there's no quick fix. Now I monitor my credit reports free through a couple of credit cards and through Credit Karma, which is outstanding. If someone's using my shit, I'm gonna know pretty quick.

What's crazy is that the SSA says in extreme cases you can get a new SSN, but you have to start from square one with a new credit history. For some ungodly reason they can't keep your history intact and just issue you a new SSN. Nooo. That would make too much sense.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13512

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, wood said:

What's crazy is that the SSA says in extreme cases you can get a new SSN, but you have to start from square one with a new credit history. For some ungodly reason they can't keep your history intact and just issue you a new SSN. Nooo. That would make too much sense.

I'm fairly certain that the SSA has nothing to do with your credit history so they can't control what the credit agencies will and won't do with a new SSN.  If you reach out to the credit agencies and prove the SSN switch, as well as report your new SSN to your current bank and creditors, your history should follow.   I'm sure it won't be perfect but it won't be as bad as starting from zero.

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wood

wood 11225

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Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I'm fairly certain that the SSA has nothing to do with your credit history so they can't control what the credit agencies will and won't do with a new SSN.  If you reach out to the credit agencies and prove the SSN switch, as well as report your new SSN to your current bank and creditors, your history should follow.   I'm sure it won't be perfect but it won't be as bad as starting from zero.

Yeah I worded that poorly. What I meant was that they said then that they couldn't just replace your number and facilitate you taking that new number to the reporting agencies to replace the old one. Apparently that's changed now though, at least to some extent. Seems they now allow the old & new numbers to be cross-referenced. 

It's gonna be a mess any way you slice it tho if you try to go this route imho.

Edited by wood
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EE2B

EE2B 1565

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Posted

I had something similar happen quite a few years ago. An employee with Chicago Bridge had started a 401K plan using my SSN. When I went to enroll in my plan at work, they called our HR dept and said that an account was already active with that number. I had to jump through a few hoops to prove that it was actually my SSN and not Pedro’s, but they got everything resolved. I ran all the credit checks and there was nothing else that showed up. I think he just need an SSN to get a job and pulled mine out of his ass.

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Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3024

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Posted

The filing for unemployment is a pretty bold move.  

TWC will likely go after him with much more vigor than if it was just credit card fraud....V/MC/AMEX just write down those losses and it is built into their model.

Not so with the TWC....

I'm not sure I've ever heard of that scheme....seems like it would bring too much heat - not enough juice for the squeeze when compared to just running up credit cards, etc.

I've been hit but found out pretty quickly - the thief was too stupid to check the correct boxes on websites and had all the merchandise they were buying on my stolen card shipped to my house and not a separate address.  I had computers, shoes, and purses among other things show up  over a few days.  I assumed it was someone local planning a drive-by to pick it up but then they got into trying to do some Western Union transfer and the offender was in another state.

I hope the TWC pounds their ass in your case, OP.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89674

Posted
Posted
55 minutes ago, wood said:

What's crazy is that the SSA says in extreme cases you can get a new SSN, but you have to start from square one with a new credit history. For some ungodly reason they can't keep your history intact and just issue you a new SSN. Nooo. That would make too much sense.

SSA wouldn’t give me info on the people using my SS# even though I had a little info about the perps, and the SSA folks I talked to were agreed that I was who I said I was.  

They recommended I get a new SS#.  Except that they might not approve of it, because they don’t care if SS#’s are stolen, only if they are seriously abused and it affects you   If it’s abused, but not directly affecting you, they don’t give a fuck, and they don’t consider it their responsibility to track theft  

Fuck them.  They could do so much more in this situations.   Like not allowing multiple people to access the same #.  

NPR had an article about it - SSA doesn’t really track this stuff  

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/15/414618292/theft-of-social-security-numbers-is-broader-than-you-might-think

Quote

One key detail: The burden falls on you to vigilantly monitor if you are a victim. The Social Security Administration has a policy: You can't change your Social Security number just because it's been stolen. You need proof it's been abused. SSA is strict about it. In all of 2014, they replaced only 250 Social Security numbers based on misuse and disadvantage.

The only reason I found out about mine, was I got something mailed to me by accident by a bank.   Wasn’t showing up on credit reports.  

I’ve heard SSA and IRS do nothing if it doesn’t affect you personally, because it brings in extra money.  

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wood

wood 11225

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

SSA wouldn’t give me info on the people using my SS# even though I had a little info about the perps, and the SSA folks I talked to were agreed that I was who I said I was.  

They recommended I get a new SS#.  Except that they might not approve of it, because they don’t care if SS#’s are stolen, only if they are seriously abused and it affects you   If it’s abused, but not directly affecting you, they don’t give a fuck, and they don’t consider it their responsibility to track theft  

Fuck them.  They could do so much more in this situations.   Like not allowing multiple people to access the same #.  

NPR had an article about it - SSA doesn’t really track this stuff  

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/15/414618292/theft-of-social-security-numbers-is-broader-than-you-might-think

The only reason I found out about mine, was I got something mailed to me by accident by a bank.   Wasn’t showing up on credit reports.  

I’ve heard SSA and IRS do nothing if it doesn’t affect you personally, because it brings in extra money.  

Yeah it's complete bullshit. They could put a process in place to allow us handle these things & basically shut down any further use of the stolen number. In this technological era and with the amount of ID theft that's going on, there's no excuse for them not to be doing it. But all you get from them is nope, nope, nope.

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hayden_horn

hayden_horn 11362

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Posted (edited)
28 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

The filing for unemployment is a pretty bold move.  

TWC will likely go after him with much more vigor than if it was just credit card fraud....V/MC/AMEX just write down those losses and it is built into their model.

Not so with the TWC....

I'm not sure I've ever heard of that scheme....seems like it would bring too much heat - not enough juice for the squeeze when compared to just running up credit cards, etc.

I've been hit but found out pretty quickly - the thief was too stupid to check the correct boxes on websites and had all the merchandise they were buying on my stolen card shipped to my house and not a separate address.  I had computers, shoes, and purses among other things show up  over a few days.  I assumed it was someone local planning a drive-by to pick it up but then they got into trying to do some Western Union transfer and the offender was in another state.

I hope the TWC pounds their ass in your case, OP.

that's sort of what i thought.

also, the lady from the TWC seemed to take this very seriously. when i said something about "finding out who did this," instead of this expected reaction:

9YwQhyy.gif?noredirect

she started talking about issuing subpeonas for IP addresses and opening an investigation. she also told me to feel free to call back and check on the progress of the investigation. i definitely got the sense that she was going to actually try and find out what happened.

they froze all my shit, so in the unfortunate situation where i have to file for unemployment (hopefully no time soon), i'll have to jump through a few more hoops than normally.

apparently the person did it online. and used my address, but not the full address, including the unit, which is why i haven't received the notifications from the TWC about my unemployment claim.

it's so strange. 

i've been thinking about it all day, and i forgot i had bought some identity theft protection from turbotax or something. i'll have to track that down as well.

but for now, it does not appear that anything new has been opened or linked to my SSN, aside from this one thing.

 

Edited by hayden_horn
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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7780

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Posted
31 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’ve heard SSA and IRS do nothing if it doesn’t affect you personally, because it brings in extra money.  

Huh?  Most of the SSN abuse I've heard of with the IRS is people filing for refunds that aren't theirs.  That is money going out, not coming in.  Doesn't sound like the IRS cares all that much, though.

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SHOOTER12

SHOOTER12 8810

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

it has come to my attention that some motherfucker filed for unemployment with the texas workforce commission, using my name, my ssn, and the name of my company. my HR department notified me. i've contacted the TWC and shut that down, and i've checked my credit report to make sure nothing new has opened. the TWC recommended that i file a report with the federal trade commission.

has this happened to anyone else? any advice would be most welcome.

I think, but I'm not sure that if you had had LifeLock before this incident you may have had better luck. Subscribing to them after the fact tends to be just them giving advice as you mention.

When I got burglarized back in 2015 I knew that my social security number and some account numbers had been jeopardized.  Before any nefarious activity took place I enrolled in LifeLock and had great success since I did it prior to any bad activity happening.

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BRLA

BRLA 106

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Posted

I just got notified by the IRS that someone has used my SS to gain employment.  Put a fraud alert in place with all 3 credit bureaus and had them check for inquiries - but nothing unusual has showed up yet.  Went to go see the SSA to see if there had been any other earnings except mine reporting in and then said no, BUT 2018 SSA payments don't get reported to them until taxes are filed.  I thought that was a little odd - I had just assumed that as SS was withheld from checks, that it dropped into 'my account' and was trackable in real time with SSA....but apparently not.

Now I'm going back to the IRS to see if I can get them to tell me the name and company of the person using my SS#.  Probably won't have much luck, but am at least going to try - and maybe see if my Congressman can help.

I'd like to file a police report and contact this guys company directly to let them know what's going on.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

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Bernard

Bernard 879

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Posted
4 hours ago, BRLA said:

I just got notified by the IRS that someone has used my SS to gain employment.  Put a fraud alert in place with all 3 credit bureaus and had them check for inquiries - but nothing unusual has showed up yet.  Went to go see the SSA to see if there had been any other earnings except mine reporting in and then said no, BUT 2018 SSA payments don't get reported to them until taxes are filed.  I thought that was a little odd - I had just assumed that as SS was withheld from checks, that it dropped into 'my account' and was trackable in real time with SSA....but apparently not.

Now I'm going back to the IRS to see if I can get them to tell me the name and company of the person using my SS#.  Probably won't have much luck, but am at least going to try - and maybe see if my Congressman can help.

I'd like to file a police report and contact this guys company directly to let them know what's going on.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

Yes. Shut the fuck up let them pay into your SS. If you’re not already maxed out every year, this Good Samaritan is helping you earn a larger payday upon retirement.

Bernard

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wood

wood 11225

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Posted
7 hours ago, BRLA said:

I just got notified by the IRS that someone has used my SS to gain employment.  Put a fraud alert in place with all 3 credit bureaus and had them check for inquiries - but nothing unusual has showed up yet.  Went to go see the SSA to see if there had been any other earnings except mine reporting in and then said no, BUT 2018 SSA payments don't get reported to them until taxes are filed.  I thought that was a little odd - I had just assumed that as SS was withheld from checks, that it dropped into 'my account' and was trackable in real time with SSA....but apparently not.

Now I'm going back to the IRS to see if I can get them to tell me the name and company of the person using my SS#.  Probably won't have much luck, but am at least going to try - and maybe see if my Congressman can help.

I'd like to file a police report and contact this guys company directly to let them know what's going on.  Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

IIRC the SSA won't tell you jack shit about the guy using your SSN, citing his right to privacy or some shit. It seems the criminal using our shit has more rights than we do in this case.

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bernorange

bernorange 8362

Posted
Posted
19 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

... using my name, my ssn, ...

 

19 hours ago, wood said:

One of these fucks got my ssn, ..

 

18 hours ago, EE2B said:

... I think he just need an SSN to get a job ...

 

17 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

SSA ... could ... not allowing multiple people to access the same #.  ...

 

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staboner

staboner 4971

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Posted
23 minutes ago, Wally Pryor said:

Everyone needs to put freezes on their the 3 credit reporting agencies. Like yesterday. 

If someone (authorized) needs access to them, you control things and give it to them.

 

yeah this. depending on where you are in life. if no house or car purchase, then freeze em. especially after the quasi government failure of experian

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RPM

RPM 26321

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Posted
On 12/27/2018 at 3:28 PM, South Austin said:

I’d hate to get a new social security number.  123-45-6789 has been so easy to remember.

AB doesn't have any problems with his. Only 2 numbers.

I've have my credit reports locked down since the Equifax leak. I had a credit card scammed once several years ago after a road trip and figured it was from a gas stop. Last week I get a call from Murphy Gas that my card is being used in Houston. It's obviously a fraud and they shut the card off. It's easy to see where this happened because I only use that card at 2 stations, the Murphy in Roanoke and the one in Decatur. That's it... except for one day a couple weeks ago when I forgot to fill up on the way home and had to buy $5 on the way in to make it to work. It was a middle of bfe on the highway gas station/liquor store run by Pakistanis called Kusin's. I normally avoid the place and this is an example of why, but I was in a bind and didn't have many options. 2 days after I used my Murphy card there it got hacked.

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mdmost

mdmost 43002

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Posted

Let me do some looking but 2 of the 3 credit agencies do web based locking and unlocking of your credit so if you need access to your credit, it is easily available. I think the one dipshit that needs it in writing is Experian who forced me to freeze my credit in the first place. Or maybe look into services like Lifelock or Privacy Assist if you are a Bank of America customer.

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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Posted
25 minutes ago, mdmost said:

Let me do some looking but 2 of the 3 credit agencies do web based locking and unlocking of your credit so if you need access to your credit, it is easily available. I think the one dipshit that needs it in writing is Experian who forced me to freeze my credit in the first place. Or maybe look into services like Lifelock or Privacy Assist if you are a Bank of America customer.

I just did this (unfroze again, after freezing/unfreezing in Sept to Oct) and it seems that everyone has made strides.  All of them seem to work now online, and I wasn't charged by anyone (in Sept. Equifax had an online unfreeze but it was borked, so I had to call them anyway, and they charged, I think TransUnion charged back then).

Anyway, this last experience about 5 days ago was actually pleasant.  All of them have redone their sites and make it pretty quick and aggy level difficulty.

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William_Cannon

William_Cannon 86

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Posted

Everyone should have their credit frozen with all three major bureaus by default. No exceptions.

File a police report whenever you’re a victim of identity theft. Also ask The police if you should contact the FBI. In addition file a fraud Report with the IRS because your Social Security number was used fraudulently elsewhere. The more paperwork you have indicating you were a victim, the easier it will be to clean up any messes.

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Okie State

Okie State 3821

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Posted
Yeah it's complete bullshit. They could put a process in place to allow us handle these things & basically shut down any further use of the stolen number. In this technological era and with the amount of ID theft that's going on, there's no excuse for them not to be doing it. But all you get from them is nope, nope, nope.
This. Should be the same as if a credit card number is stolen. Freeze old one, transfer history to new number, reverse any fraudulent activity, overnight new card with new number, life goes on essentially unaffected. I know, fantasy land.
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pch

pch 1259

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Posted

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.  I always order a free credit report at the end of every year to see what if any suspicious activity has appeared.  Now having read the stories of those who have been victimized, I just froze my information with all three agencies as a precaution.  I didn't realize it was free, could be done online, and while not 100% guaranteed, still makes me more secure than I was before.  I have had my debit card compromised three or four times and had to get Frost to take care of it-which they did without any issues, but have avoided any fraudulent activity to this point on credit cards.

My personal feeling is that lifetime banishment to the lowest level of Dante's inferno would be too good for those who practice this form of thievery.

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45688

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Okie State said:

I had no idea you could just freeze your credit whenever you want to. We don't plan on buying a new car for over a year or another house for at least four years so I may look into this.

Yeah there was a thread about it on the old site.  All 3 of mine and my wife's are currently frozen.  And when you need to take out a loan or somesuch, you can get a temporary code (IIRC) for the lender that let's them access your credit, but no one else, so you don't have to fully unfreeze.

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wood

wood 11225

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Posted
26 minutes ago, pch said:

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.  I always order a free credit report at the end of every year to see what if any suspicious activity has appeared.  Now having read the stories of those who have been victimized, I just froze my information with all three agencies as a precaution.  I didn't realize it was free, could be done online, and while not 100% guaranteed, still makes me more secure than I was before.  I have had my debit card compromised three or four times and had to get Frost to take care of it-which they did without any issues, but have avoided any fraudulent activity to this point on credit cards.

My personal feeling is that lifetime banishment to the lowest level of Dante's inferno would be too good for those who practice this form of thievery.

Personally I avoid using my debit card except when I really need to, exposing it as seldom as possible. We put everything on a Capital One Venture 2x miles card & just pay it monthly. If that card gets exposed, our bank account isn't vulnerable, they'll eat the losses, and they'll change our number & get us new cards pronto. And then we use the miles to pay for lots of travel. It's pretty sweet.

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AUS-97HORN

AUS-97HORN 11763

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22 hours ago, Bernard said:

Yes. Shut the fuck up let them pay into your SS. If you’re not already maxed out every year, this Good Samaritan is helping you earn a larger payday upon retirement.

Bernard

just beyond terrible advise. 

 

the real issue with someone using your SSN to get work is they can still file for a refund with the IRS using their real address on either the taxes they actually paid,  or they can completely make up a bunch of shit regarding income and taxes paid, allowing them to get a massive fucking refund. 

 

either way, if they file for a refund with your SSN, before you file for your own taxes/refund, your refund gets refused because its already been issued,, and the IRS marks it as a low priority fix.

It normally takes 3-6 MONTHS before they fix the fraud- with you having to do a shitload of paperwork and provide all kinds of crap to the IRS.   And then for the next 5 years, you have to apply for a special fraud pin you use when you file your taxes. 

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Bernard

Bernard 879

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Posted
1 hour ago, AUS-97HORN said:

just beyond terrible advise. 

 

the real issue with someone using your SSN to get work is they can still file for a refund with the IRS using their real address on either the taxes they actually paid,  or they can completely make up a bunch of shit regarding income and taxes paid, allowing them to get a massive fucking refund. 

Filing bogus tax returns is common fraud, but I’ve never heard of a case where the fraudster used a stolen SSN to get gainfull employment and then filed bogus returns. 

Nevertheless, my post was tongue in cheek, not actual advice.

Bernard

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mdmost

mdmost 43002

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Posted
12 hours ago, wood said:

Personally I avoid using my debit card except when I really need to, exposing it as seldom as possible. We put everything on a Capital One Venture 2x miles card & just pay it monthly. If that card gets exposed, our bank account isn't vulnerable, they'll eat the losses, and they'll change our number & get us new cards pronto. And then we use the miles to pay for lots of travel. It's pretty sweet.

I think it can go either way with a debit card. I have one I only use for ATM transactions. Never use it in foreign ATMs that aren't BofA. Still had my number compromised and put on a spoofed card. Used for 3 mini transactions at a gas station outside of Atlanta. I've never set foot in the state of Georgia. So someone got my number from a list and played credit card roulette. It's just the price of admission now. Thankfully, BofA was on it and shut the card down after the 3rd transaction. 

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NBMisha

NBMisha 224

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Posted

Had a few cards hijacked, sorted that out ok.  Started monitoring credit and was surprised at the frequency with which these people tried to open accounts.   Then about 7 years ago a fat tax return package got "lost" by UPS on the way back to the FA.  Holeee shit, that had every fuckin thing in it.  So, locked up the credit, and its been that way since.   Sleep like a baby now.

As posted above, it is ez as hell, nowadays, to reopen credit if you need to get a mortagage, etc. But generally, there is no reason not to have it closed for the remaining 99.9% of your life.

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