My ID theft woes continue
October 11, 2005 by Mike Wendland
I’ve written previously about how my mail was stolen by identity thieves who cashed those unsolicited convenience checks sent out by Chase.
My account was ripped off for some $10,000 in all.
I promised to let you know what happened as I try to sort it all out.
The September Chase statement came today for one of two credit card accounts that were vicitmized. Despite assurances from Chase when I reported the theft last month that the fraudulent charges would be removed…. you guessed it: They weren’t.
They even had the gall to bill me for late fees on the fraud.
I just finished calling Chase again and - after repeating the details three times and being passed back and forth between customer service agents for 19 minutes - was once again promised the bogus charges and the late charges would be taken off my bill.
Forgive me if I’m not very confident anymore that they will do what they say.
Maybe it’s because I instructed Chase last month not to send me any more of those blank checks. They promised I would’t.
But I did. Last week.
So not only is no one in law enforcment investigating this theft - I’ve reported it to local police, the Post Office and the Federal Trade Commission - no one at Chase seems very concerned, either.
No wonder identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime.
hey call the better business beaureu and they will take care of chase and their promises but you really need to check your credit report and make sure that is ok the bbb will help you with everything you need to do and they have a website as well you can find it on the colorado gov website i have had to use it myself and it is very informative
I *HATE* those “convenience” checks. I have asked a couple of my credit card companies if they would stop sending them, but the reps say that there’s nothing they can do about it. They just tell me to write void and shred them.
That really ticks me off because it seems that I get at least a half dozen of them every month. What I end up doing is throwing them in a drawer and once the pile gets big enough, I spend 15-20 minutes voiding and shredding each and every one.
I have never and will never use them. It’s sad that these companies are so hungry for cash that they’ll put my credit rating on the line in the hopes that they’ll make a buck.
No wonder a lot of people are ditching credit cards and using with debit cards instead. Personally, I have consolidated all my non-specialty credit cards and now have two pieces of plastic: a Mastercard and an American Express.
Now, I just wish stores (and ATM’s) would use biometrics instead of massively insecure PIN’s and signatures… but that’s a whole other story…
Mike, I’ve been through this before with Chase. My encounter was better, fortunately. When I reported the bogus charges, they immediately switched me over to someone in their fraud division. If I remember correctly, I had to fax them a written list of the bad charges, then they sent a separate affidavit for each one that I had to sign and return to them before the charges were removed.
According to pretty much all credit cards’ terms, simply calling them to dispute charges doesn’t preserve your rights. You have to put it in writing and mail it or I assume fax is ok. This is pretty much always printed somewhere on the paper bill they send.