We Think Lisa's Identity Just Got Stolen and Someone Bought a Car

[shilala]

Today we got a payment book from PNC bank for 72 payments of around $350 for something.
Lisa called PNC bank to inquire. Being as she couldn't verify the account within their stringent guidelines, they wouldn't even tell her what was bought using her name and identity, or where it happened.
But they would give a loan to someone that wasn't her. I guess the loan giving guidelines aren't so stringent? The best they can do is "file a fraud something and get back to us in 7 to 10 days".
Lisa is now doing the fraud alert steps to protect her credit.

In the last couple weeks we had been refinancing the house and she got some odd declined credit applications as if she'd applied for loans, but she thought that was maybe just a result of things the bank was bouncing around related to our refinance, she never gave it much thought.

I assume this will become a great big convoluted mess, but neither of us are really upset at all. I do admit to being somewhat pissed at the phone knucklehead at PNC, though. I would certainly hope they'd be far more helpful and supportive with something this important.
We have a little identity theft insurance, so that's good. We caught this quick and we're doing the due diligence, including filing a police report. It'll all work out, I'm sure. God has bailed us out of far, far more dire things than this. This is just a bump in the road.

The reason I'm posting is to get any input I can from any of you guys that may have dealt with this. What happened, how, what did you have to do, etc.
Any stories you can tell would be priceless and any suggestions for us as we proceed would be awesome.

[Boz]

Oh wow Scott thats crazy. Is there a local branch where maybe you could speak to a manager and see if being face to face will get you a little farther than the phone dummies?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Boz

Oh wow Scott thats crazy. Is there a local branch where maybe you could speak to a manager and see if being face to face will get you a little farther than the phone dummies?

We live in Ohio, PNC is Pittsburgh PA based bank.
Lisa had been working in Washington, PA for a long time which is very close to Pittsburgh. She could have had her driver's license info stolen from any of the copies that hotel personnel took along the way.
I'll check and see if there are any branches here in OH, but I've never seen one.

Edit:
I checked. There's a bunch right around here. One is 4 miles down the road. Thanks, Brian, that was a big help!!!

[MurphysLaw]

Scott, this is the info I'd give to ID theft victims FTC website Good luck with everything, and hopefully everything is resolved for you soon.

[massphatness]

If you were someone else, wouldn't you want to be Lisa? I mean, it makes all the sense in the world, Scott.

Hope it works out easily bro

[Subvet642]

I suppose if you could find out where it was bought, you could find out the make, model and VIN number, with that the perpetrator could be found via registration records. Heck, you might even be able to file a stolen car report. After all, they bought it in her name.

[hotreds]

Not good, brother! Be sure to cancel all your ccs just to be safe. And, yes, I'd try to get a face to face with someone at PNC and mention how poorly you were treated- hopefully you have the guy's name. Prayers sent for a speedy resolution!

[hotreds]

You live in Ohio now??!!

[kaisersozei]

That's all kinds of f'd up. Seems like the responsible party would be the auto dealer who set up the loan financing--what the heck kind of lax requirements do they have?!

When my wife's employer accidentally released personnel records when they updated one of their servers (so if you Googled her name, tons of stuff, including SSN, performance appraisals, etc.) were available, we had to go with one of the identity protection bureaus. At least it was paid for by her employer. Haven't had any issues as a result of the breach, so we're fortunate so far.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

That's all kinds of f'd up. Seems like the responsible party would be the auto dealer who set up the loan financing--what the heck kind of lax requirements do they have?!

When my wife's employer accidentally released personnel records when they updated one of their servers (so if you Googled her name, tons of stuff, including SSN, performance appraisals, etc.) were available, we had to go with one of the identity protection bureaus. At least it was paid for by her employer. Haven't had any issues as a result of the breach, so we're fortunate so far.

We really don't know if it's a car, Gerard. Sure looks like it, though. 72 payments of $347.40 and the payment book is the kind you get for a car.
Do you remember the identity protection bureau your wife used? I already mentioned it to Lisa and we're going to jump on that as soon as she gats back from filing the report at the police station.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by kaisersozei

That's all kinds of f'd up. Seems like the responsible party would be the auto dealer who set up the loan financing--what the heck kind of lax requirements do they have?!

When my wife's employer accidentally released personnel records when they updated one of their servers (so if you Googled her name, tons of stuff, including SSN, performance appraisals, etc.) were available, we had to go with one of the identity protection bureaus. At least it was paid for by her employer. Haven't had any issues as a result of the breach, so we're fortunate so far.

Gerard, Lisa signed us up for LifeLock. It was a toss-up between them and Identity Guard. LifeLock is the outfit that ran around with the guy's social security number on the side of the van. I remembered thinking that was pretty cool when I saw it.
I checked all the Consumer Reviews and those two companies were neck and neck. There are four of those types of outfits that are all pretty equal but the top two are the ones I mentioned.
They're about $100-$250 a year, which is a bit painful, but they'll provide us with all the credit reports we need and will monitor our names, address, ssn, everything from here on out.
It can't undo the damage that's been done, but it will halt anything that happend from here on. There's $1,000,000 identity theft insurance included and all sorts of other benefits, too. It's a tremendous service and a real Godsend for us right now.
I can't thank you enough for just mentioning it, it's really gone miles toward putting us at ease.

[longknocker]

So Sorry To Hear This, Scott. Thoughts & Prayers Sent For A Quick Resolution, Brother!

[Starz26]

Scott,

Sorry to hear, glad you caught it though...

Funny thing about lifelong, you can do everything they do for free, it just takes some work......oh, and the founder had his identity stolen after plastering his SSN all over the place

Originally Posted by shilala

Gerard, Lisa signed us up for LifeLock. It was a toss-up between them and Identity Guard. LifeLock is the outfit that ran around with the guy's social security number on the side of the van. I remembered thinking that was pretty cool when I saw it.
I checked all the Consumer Reviews and those two companies were neck and neck. There are four of those types of outfits that are all pretty equal but the top two are the ones I mentioned.
They're about $100-$250 a year, which is a bit painful, but they'll provide us with all the credit reports we need and will monitor our names, address, ssn, everything from here on out.
It can't undo the damage that's been done, but it will halt anything that happend from here on. There's $1,000,000 identity theft insurance included and all sorts of other benefits, too. It's a tremendous service and a real Godsend for us right now.
I can't thank you enough for just mentioning it, it's really gone miles toward putting us at ease.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Starz26

Scott,

Sorry to hear, glad you caught it though...

Funny thing about lifelong, you can do everything they do for free, it just takes some work......oh, and the founder had his identity stolen after plastering his SSN all over the place

I went and looked up about the LifeLock guy. He had his identity stolen 13 times.
They also got fined $12,000,000 by the FCC for deceptive business practices, and news surfaced that the co-founder once stole his own father's identity in order to get an American Express card, so he resigned.
Honest to God, this world is screwed up.
Fortunately it'll still feed us the info we need in one easy place. Weeze doesn't have time to chase this thing all day every day. It'll allow her to keep an eye on what's happening, so it's still worth the price.

[G G]

Originally Posted by shilala

Honest to God, this world is screwed up

That is a fact.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by shilala

Gerard, Lisa signed us up for LifeLock. It was a toss-up between them and Identity Guard. LifeLock is the outfit that ran around with the guy's social security number on the side of the van. I remembered thinking that was pretty cool when I saw it.
I checked all the Consumer Reviews and those two companies were neck and neck. There are four of those types of outfits that are all pretty equal but the top two are the ones I mentioned.
They're about $100-$250 a year, which is a bit painful, but they'll provide us with all the credit reports we need and will monitor our names, address, ssn, everything from here on out.
It can't undo the damage that's been done, but it will halt anything that happend from here on. There's $1,000,000 identity theft insurance included and all sorts of other benefits, too. It's a tremendous service and a real Godsend for us right now.
I can't thank you enough for just mentioning it, it's really gone miles toward putting us at ease.

Scott, hope this service works out for you. My wife (also a Lisa ) sounds as tenacious about banking records, paperwork, etc., as your Lisa. Her employer enrolled everyone in Experian

http://www.experian.com/consumer-pro...rotection.html

I don't know much about these kinds of services because up until now, we haven't felt the need to use one.

[Drez]

scott good luck to you and lisa with this. i know this can be a very stressful ordeal. hopefully since you caught it early its just a matter of canceling the loan and your current credit cards.

make sure to stay on top of this and monitor all your bank statements and credit reports for at least a year or 2 after this just in case they try something again.

maybe try talking to the DMV and getting lisa (and maybe yourself) new drivers licenses just so if they do try again its more proof that it wasnt you guys (because they used a old DL).

GL brother

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Drez

scott good luck to you and lisa with this. i know this can be a very stressful ordeal. hopefully since you caught it early its just a matter of canceling the loan and your current credit cards.

make sure to stay on top of this and monitor all your bank statements and credit reports for at least a year or 2 after this just in case they try something again.

maybe try talking to the DMV and getting lisa (and maybe yourself) new drivers licenses just so if they do try again its more proof that it wasnt you guys (because they used a old DL).

GL brother

Frank, the people used old info. The loan is in her last surname (smith), not our last name. She got her new driver's license immediately after we got married because we needed it to get passports to go on our honeymoon. That all happened last January.
She only lived at this address for a short time under her old name, and the loan is addressed to our current address.
That in itself shows someone didn't do their due diligence along the way, I'd think. Whoever got the loan used expired info, so it had to be info they got from before last January.
That's why I'm thinking it was lifted from one of the hotels she worked at.

Lisa is awesome at paperwork and she's taking this all in stride. Nothing slips through her fingers. She already has this nailed down tight and the loan booklet only showed up an hour and 45 minutes ago.

[Drez]

Originally Posted by shilala

Frank, the people used old info. The loan is in her last surname (smith), not our last name. She got her new driver's license immediately after we got married because we needed it to get passports to go on our honeymoon. That all happened last January.
She only lived at this address for a short time under her old name, and the loan is addressed to our current address.
That in itself shows someone didn't do their due diligence along the way, I'd think. Whoever got the loan used expired info, so it had to be info they got from before last January.
That's why I'm thinking it was lifted from one of the hotels she worked at.

Lisa is awesome at paperwork and she's taking this all in stride. Nothing slips through her fingers. She already has this nailed down tight and the loan booklet only showed up an hour and 45 minutes ago.

dont be surprised too scott if this wasnt a inside job between the thief and car salesman.

down here in south florida we were having peoples credit card info (along with other personal info from fast food joints and stores with skimmers) and they would in turn sell all the info to the scammers. those scammers would in turn give the info to people they knew who worked at other stores who would open up lines of credit and run up the bill within 24 hours before the victim even knew what hit them.

another problem was people taking the elderly info from the mail at nursing homes and using that with people on the inside of banks to open lines of credit or withdraw all the money from savings.

again good luck brother and if you need anything contact me!!!!

[14holestogie]

Sorry for your troubles, Scott. Love your upbeat attitude with everything that seems to hit you. Wish I had half of that attitude.