Sometimes It Takes A Lot of Patience

I had been getting letters from time to time from Capital One bank talking about an account I was supposed to have. I had hoped it was just a marketing ploy so I brushed it off, even when we sent me a debit card I could link to my supposed account. I saved the card and that letter just in case I decided to investigate, but I knew it would take a lot of time…time that I didn’t want to spend.

But then I received a letter saying someone had changed my address from my current one to one in Yonkers, New York. I could no longer put it off. Sure enough, it took several phone calls yesterday and a lot of time on hold, but someone had indeed opened an account. I had Capital One close it and asked what I should do about a fraud alert. They connected me to TransUnion who activated a one-year fraud alert at all three credit organizations (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax). I’ll put a credit freeze on my information next year. In the meantime no one can look at my files or apply for credit under my name without phoning me here first.

The thing that puzzled me was what good would it do anyone to have my name on a bank account? It wasn’t a credit card. Then yesterday afternoon I received a letter from Capital One saying they couldn’t process my credit card application until I sent them proof of my identity, proof of my address, and proof of my finances. I was thrilled…the system was protecting me from identity theft and fraud even without the identity theft monitoring/protection I buy from Experian each year.

My personal information is on the dark web thanks to a security clearance I received decades ago. The organization that did the clearance was hacked a couple of years ago… which doesn’t inspire confidence in our national security system, but that’s another story. No sense fretting about it, just do what I can to protect myself and get on with my life.

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20 Responses to Sometimes It Takes A Lot of Patience

  1. tammy j says:

    wow. kind of scary though to see how fast and deep they can go whenever they do try to steal your identity! glad the company was on top of things!

  2. Grace says:

    Capital One Bank has most excellent security. It wouldn’t have taken much time at all. Because my husband worked for the Fed. Gov’t we were affected by that hack and we were given identity theft protection. My email address is on the dark web.

    • Jean says:

      Actually it took a couple of phone calls to get to the right place, then I was on hold for at least 50 minutes. I am pleased with their security. Most of my personal information is on the dark web, not just my email address. The federal government offered me a few years of identity theft protection, but their program didn’t look as good as what I was already paying for so I declined.

  3. Rose says:

    This is scary…

  4. Ann Thompson says:

    That is odd that someone would open a bank account in your name. Maybe that was the first step in seeing how far they could get with your info

  5. Hootin' Anni says:

    This is concerning to be sure. I had an email telling me that someone tried to log into my account ….from Iran

  6. Myra Guca says:

    Scary times! I’m OCD about checking our accounts every day — but never gave thought to those annoying credit card offers.
    Love that comic!

  7. MadSnapper says:

    i have signed up for alerts on several sites, one of them comes with alerts about identify theft and this sounds like it might be what yours is. we are all at risk. glad you caught this. i get emails from 6 banks saying there is something wrong with my account and a link to log in. so many ways for people to ruin our lives

  8. Cindi says:

    So glad that it was caught!

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