Hello everybody. So this past weekend has been quite a hard weekend for me. Let me share some info. Don't worry I summed it up on the bottom.
So everything in my life was going very well. Working two jobs (Apple and military-navy) and I have a long term girlfriend. Well there was a bit of talking of future plans and we both agreed on the idea of getting married. So on Friday, I asked my parents on what they thought and they loved the idea. I asked her parents and I got the their blessings as well. Great! Then I decided, alright! I wanna get a small personal loan thru my bank to get this nice ring. Was planning on ring shopping during the weekend. My bank (Navy Federal Credit Union) approved the loan instantly and put the amount of $5,500 in my savings. I then went to military work (I work nights in the navy) and got off at 5:30am on Saturday, came home, and went to sleep.
A few hours later, I woke up to two missed calls and a voicemail from navy federal asking if I could call them at my earliest convince. I call and proceed to ask them if something is wrong, thinking it had something to do with the loan. They ask me "did make a transaction in Colorado Springs by chance?" "No I live in WA. I am currently at home still in bed" Now at this point she proceeds to explain to me that my account has been compromised. She closed my checking and savings and made new ones. I started asking questions like what happened and what lead to this series of events.
They explained (according to the account notes) that someone earlier in the morning called in posing as me, explaining how their wife cheated on them and wanted to change the pin to their debit card (which is really my debit card). They gave them my personal info such as social, address, birthday, etc and doing so got them past the account verification part. Now having full access, they changed the debit card pin and telephone number connected to the account. Then requested a transfer of $2750 from my savings to checking (a good chunk of my loan). Next with a copy of my debit card and the new pin, they went to the USPS in Colorado springs and got a cashiers check for $2700. Now at this point, the fraud detection went off due a large amount in a location I haven't visited. It locked the account until I called. I called shortly after this happened.
It's scary to know it was that easy for someone to do all that. I can't buy a ring until my bank ensures it was fraud which could take up to 10 business days, then they reimburse me the lost money. I was going to come on this sub and ask about engagement ring buying advice but now I am asking about identify theft and what I should do or tips/tricks to prevent it. My co worker recommends life lock.
tl;dr : Wanted to get the girlfriend a engagement ring, got a loan for $5500. shortly after someone stole my information and called my bank. They changed the pin on my debit card. Using a copy of my debit card with the new pin, they went a USPS and requested a cashiers check for 2700. Fraud detection went off and locked my account. Victim of identify theft and no engagement ring.
Submitted July 10, 2017 at 07:25AM by Chrisagu28 http://ift.tt/2t4XxH1
