Oh man, so sorry. Had to deal with that several years ago. Froze my credit, DH’s and even some of DS#1’s credit b/c at that time his college used his SSN as his student account #! Hated that and the college finally changed it. Reminds me I need to give him the info to unfreeze his credit.
One of the bureaus (I think it was trans union) updated their database several years ago and managed to “lose” the police report I had on file with them (um, how??) so charged us when I had to temporarily unfreeze our credit. I sent all the documentation in again, but b/c the police report only had my name (my credit card got hacked even though the account is in both our names and DH had a card too) somehow the police report only had his name, so Trans union will still charge him to unfreeze/refreeze his account. Annoying, because its their error, but not much I can do.
Good idea to notify Soc. sec. so they dont sell her SSN. So sorry you are going through this. Its no fun.
Your daughter can file this IRS form, which alerts the IRS to the fact that her personal information was compromised and that this might affect her taxes. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf
We did the same thing as Bay - called and got the number over the phone - when our mail with Mr’s paystub (with his SSN!!!) was stolen from our mailbox. Remember those good old days when your SSN was all over your college transcripts and med insurance explanation of benefits?
ARGH! I can’t believe yet ANOTHER security breach! This is the 3rd, 4th or 5th time our family’s ID may have been breached in the past 12 months–Target, Home Depot, Anthem, OPM, and now TMobile! This is crazy! I can see the attractiveness in going to cash and check only and forget all this credit stuff. ACK! We’re supposed to TRUST Experian who let the breach happen to monitor our credt for 2 years for the TMobile breach? Say what? How does that not feel comforting!!! I may not even be aware of other potential breaches that may have happened to our family’s credit. Maybe I will have to go ahead and put a credit freeze on all our accounts.
I tell my kids not to put their SS # on their doctor’s forms. Doctor’s office forms still routinely ask for patient’s SS # when insurance companies no longer use SS # as their policy number. There is no reason to give out one’s SS #.
@intparent, we were told to contact the SS office and have the number flagged. This was several years ago when our neighborhood had a rash of people going into garages and stealing purses while people were taking in groceries, small children, pets, into their homes.
The SS number “ALERT” would flag anyone who attempted to use it illegally, because the “number” would be sold to people trying to get US employment. Then the legal user would be mistakenly “taxed” on any extra income gained during the year. It is a big mess to clean up after the fact. We now have the Locks on the account provided by DHs employer, free of charge.
So sorry, @intparent, I know exactly how devastating this one incident is placing your life on hold.
We’ve got your back! We will provide as much info as we can to help.
Use the consumer protection agencies to your advantage.
Filling out the FTC complaint now (recommended step on govt website onID theft). I am wondering if these holds, which are obviously necessary, will make it hard for D2 in the future. She will have an address change in December, and will eventually be applying for credit cards, etc. Wondering how she doesn’t get stymied by the holds.
^^^^^It shouldn’t be a problem if you “add” her as a new acct under you or your husband’s name. You can ask at your bank.
Yes, report it in her college town. She has to tell them she’s a student and that her permanent address is out of town (old drivers license?). She can also reference the scanned letter. We were told also to carry a copy of the police report with us, in case of “problems” with merchants or sheriff/police agencies. I carried mine for a year.
You put temporary ‘lifts’ on the freeze when you are applying for any kind of credit. You alert them to an open window when a specific company (that you’ve provided the name of) is going to run a credit check before issuing you some sort of credit (mortgage, car loan, credit card, etc.) For instance, you know you’re going to apply for a mortgage with ABC Lending the second week of October… you supply the credit reporting agencies with that information, and they will unfreeze your credit reports for that time period to that specific company. They say they need about a 3-5 day notice to get it unfrozen.
Also, if you have the police report, every time you freeze and unfreeze the credit report, there’s no charge. If you don’t have the police report, then you pay each time.
As I mentioned above, Trans Union “lost” our police report and it was a PITA to resend it and get it applied correctly (they sent incorrect auto responses by mail). Then they refuses to give it back to DH because his name wasnt on the police report (even though he had the free protection before). He has the same credit card, but I happened to call in for the police report and I was initially the victim of theft so didnt think to ask them to put his name on the police report too. Sigh. Was not pleased.
Just discovered an added complication… she texted me a picture of her driver’s license (FTC affidavit needs number), and her license expired in January of this year!!! :o It turns out you only get a 2 year provisional license in our state if you are under 21 when you get your license. They have always sent renewal postcards to us (have lived here for 30 years, and they did for D1 as well). I get the mail every day, and I KNOW she did not get a renewal post card. And no one noticed til now. Now she is across the country at college without a valid driver’s license… (no car, though). But she just squeaked through on passing her driver’s test (had to take written test twice). Looking into it… appears she can still renew in our state without retesting. BUT, we are moving to new state in December. And had no plans for her to come back here before then. And the new state will make her retest if she does not have a valid license from another state. Might not be trauma for most people to retest, but it will be for her after her struggle the first time. I think she has her passport at college, though, and could use that if she has to go to the police station. I am going to try a 3 way call with her Monday with the police there to see if we can do it over the phone, though.
I am going back to bed and pulling the covers over my head.
I wrote a long response- but decided to just say I work for the fed govt and the notices come by several times a week about hacks. There really need to be another method of ID- I vote for retina. My fingerprints are already probably taken too.
