Contact with scam artist - should we get Identity theft protection?

KatieCutie05 · May 2014

My husband almost got involved in a craigslist spam. He texted this "lady" about jetskis that were listed for really cheap thinking they were like older and needed a lot of work... find out she's selling 2 new jetskis for 1,900... i thought okay this is just too good to be true. you'd have to be really stupid to not know they cost more then 2k... So after texting and emailing this lady we come to find out they are in another state and she's going to ship them for free. and she uses "ebay buyer protection" because apparently thats "her" way of making it sound legit... so DH googled it and finds a bunch of fraud alerts and people posting the emails she sent to them and they are word for ford from what my husband recieved. My husbands gonna see who he can report this guy to to get this creep caught.

But now i'm worried because this guy now has his phone number and his email address... what else can he get from that then? Can he get into like other personal information from just replying to an email or just knowing his phone number and email address? We use that email address to log in to a lot of accounts with our personal or banking information.

Before this i've had my yahoo email hacked multiple times and someone got my phone number from it and i never give out my phone number.

And I used my debit card during that whole Target card hack that was going on. I did order a new card tho.

Am I worrying too much because its just an email and phone number and we caught it before giving them any money...

I've thought about signing up for ID theft protection for a while because Dave Ramsey keeps recommending it and you hear enough horror stories... its 145 per year for both of us. Does anyone else have ID theft protection?

brij2006 · May 2014

I would have him change his e-mail password to something difficult to keep a hacker away, but that's it.

I constantly receive scams through e-mail and on my phone because my business is advertised online with that information listed. If you would feel more comfortable getting the theft protection, then go ahead. However, if you are okay with doing the legwork if your identity were to be stolen, then I wouldn't worry as much about it.

hoffse · May 2014

I think you're probably fine. Protecting your identity is really important though.

That said, I would absolutely not pay $145/year for identity theft monitoring. Just freeze your credit. It should cost $15 or less per credit bureau (depending on your state). There are three of them: Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.

Once your credit is frozen, they will send you a PIN number that you MUST KEEP IN A SAFE PLACE which you will use to unfreeze your credit later when you need credit extended to you. Without that PIN, your credit cannot be unfrozen again.

Having your credit frozen means that nobody can take out new credit under your SSN. That includes you. If you want new credit, you will need to unfreeze it, which requires the PIN. So identity thieves really have no chance. Your credit score will not be affected by the freeze - but anybody trying to pull your credit report to see it will be blocked while it's frozen. And any new attempts to extend credit will be denied while it's frozen. No new credit cards, no car loans, no mortgages, etc. while it's frozen.

When you want to unfreeze it, you can do so permanently or temporarily. I think most temporary lifts on your credit freeze can be done for 1-30 days. You pay a small fee each time it's lifted.

I'm not going to lie: unfreezing my credit is a PITA. It usually ends up being about a 30 minute process each time. So when I unfreeze my credit, I typically do multiple things at once before it freezes again. That said, the peace of mind is absolutely worth the trouble, and the reality is that I don't need my credit open 99% of the time. Keeping it frozen means that I simply don't worry about people getting my SSN and DOB. They can't do anything with it. And sooooo many people I don't know have access to my personal info (HR, people at banks, people who work at every college and law school I ever applied to), that I think it's worth the effort.

hoffse · May 2014

Honestly, I would freeze your credit anyway. Identity theft can follow you for years. And it might take years to discover it.

My dad had his identity stolen before credit freezes were offered. The person opened a brokerage account with a bank in Utah using his SSN, made a ton of money in the stock market, and then sold the funds without paying taxes. 5 years later my dad got audited by the IRS because the bank reported those gains to the IRS, and my dad obviously did not report those gains on his tax return. He had no idea the account existed, since it was fraudulent.

He got it worked out, but it took months. It was an absolutely massive problem. After watching that, I determined that keeping my credit frozen was worth the hassle. It's waaaaay less work than actually dealing with identity theft.

jessica490 · May 2014

I would just change your email password as well. It doesn't sound like you did any sort of transaction so I wouldn't worry about the credit protection.

Contact with scam artist - should we get Identity theft protection?

Re: Contact with scam artist - should we get Identity theft protection?

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