The Institute (協会)

...was the guy wearing a black mask like that, too? That would be the coolest crook *ever*!!!

...and, did the guy have your password? Like, mother's maiden name or whatever? That sucks.

He didn't have my password he did it over the phone by calling VISA directly. The rest is a mystery.

Someone opened an account with my social security # and spent $5000 at Car Toys. I only found out about it because they called when they hadn't received payment. My social was the only info they had that was correct. Violated indeed!

It happened to me a few years ago, shortly after I ordered some gifts over the phone from a catalog company. Our personal info was used to change our credit card billing address to some place in San Diego (we were living in TN). Then someone called Visa and said he needed a new card. When the bill came they then deposited $15,000 into the account using balance transfer checks (also stolen). A person with the card then went to a bank and made a $5,000 cash advance. The next day someone tried it again in Chicago, but Visa had flagged the account and the person fled on foot. Like you, I wasn't responsible for the theft, but I still felt violated.

Driver's licences here in Louisiana used to have your SSN printed right on the front of them. Then there (rightly) was a big stink about it, so now you can opt to not have it on there. Why would you want that on the front of your driver's licence. And a friend of mine was from California, and apparently at that time they used the person's SSN as the basis for their DL number. That freaked me out. I'm like you. I do not like the idea of my SSN just randomly floating around with stranger's. Yuck.

"My social was the only info they had that was correct."
You would think that would be a red flag to the company. Wow.

Dramaturge...thankfully info was enough that the company was VERY cooperative in clearing the charge...but how easy is it to walk into any store and open a charge account? You put all of your purchases for that day on the account and never have to think about it again. That's what happened at Car Toys. And even with a fake birthdate, home address, etc, the correct SS # is enough for it to make it to the very real credit report.

When I was on my honeymoon in Mexico I found out a week before we left someone charged a $1000 cab ride to my card. Who gets a $1000 cab ride!?

I'm sure you've taken some steps to fix this problem, but I found this website to be fairly helpful. It's the FTC site on what to do if you're a victim of identity theft.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/consumers/defend.html

Happened to me back in 1994--someone in the not so good sections of LA was pretending to be my wife and got lots of womens clothing and even an apartment on my credit--ironically while I was working for TRW. (but not the credit division)

Make sure you contact Equifax, Experian, and Transunion quickly to see what else this clown might be doing. You won't be able to get him arrested (only the credit issuer can do that), but you will need to get this off your credit reports in order to keep a good credit rating. Be ready to write some letters and be frustrated.

Put a "fraud alert" on your credit records too. This notifies potential credit grantors that some scumbag has gotten your info, and restricts what they can do in granting credit.