MollysBrother.com

Identity Theft: My Friend’s Story

For those of you who read this blog with some level of regularity, you already know that I am a huge fan of online banking. I think it offers an unparalleled level of ease and convenience. Personally, I think it’s been the best innovation to come out of the internet.

I check my online accounts regularly for various reasons. I want to see the balance. I want to make sure that there haven’t been any computer glitches (call me paranoid). Most importantly, I want to make sure that there hasn’t been any fraudulent activity.

Go ahead. I gave you permission. You can call me paranoid. Many of my friends do.

These same friends have heard my monlogues about the virture of monitoring financial accounts online and my diatribes against their level of concern. They’ve heard it over coffee and over drinks. They’ve heard during lenghty phone calls and they’ve read it in short emails.

They’ve even read it here on my blog.

Earlier this week it came as no surprise when I received a phone call.

Friend: By the way, thanks.

Me: For what?

Friend: For getting me to sign up with my bank online.

Me: (I could hear his tone.) Uh-oh.

And that’s when he told me. He found out that someone had hacked into his account. A check had been sent, an electronic check. The only problem? He didn’t know anything about it.

Earlier this week, he logged online and noticed that an electronic check had been sent out of his account for $237. This raised an immediate red-flag for him due to various reasons. First of all, it wasn’t the bill-paying time of the month, so he didn’t know why a check had been released. Second of all, it was a number that was wholly unfamiliar to him. (Why would he write a check from that amount? It matched none of his bills.) Finally, he did not recognize the name of the company to which the check had been made.

So he called the bank and they got on it immediately.
This prompted him into action. He told me that he signed up with LifeLock to safeguard against something like this happening again.

I am glad that my paranoia has rubbed off on him (and others). Thankfully, this time, the theft was discovered and the amount was–relatively–minimal.

Just as a reminder to help protect yourself against ID theft:

• Monitor your bank accounts.
• Shred your financial documents.
• Protect your personal and financial information.

It’s as easy as 1-2-3.