I was a victim of identify theft for the first time in my life. Someone opened a Best Buy credit card under my name and spent about $2000. The only way I knew about this was Discover card offered free Experian credit report monitoring and alerted me to a new account being opened.
The crazy thing is I ALWAYS keep my credit reports all frozen. My SSN was breached via Blue Cross Blue Shield a couple years ago so I knew I'd be a target for this. So I unfroze my three reports for 10 days when I moved so I could apply for various things, such as utility accounts. This MFer opened the Best Buy account in that tiny window. So either people are CONSTANTLY attempting to open accounts in my name, or this was somebody who knew, like from my old apartments or a realtor or something that saw an application for something.
Anyway, the first thing I did was review my Experian credit summary on their website and saw the new account listed under CBNA. I googled that term to determine it meant Citibank, with whom I do have a card. I called citibank in the middle of the night last night and very quickly had confirmation that no additional consumer credit cards were open for me, but he advised he could be a store branded card which he couldn't necessarily see. So I go download my full report in hopes of seeing additional details, and I see it's listed as CBNA/BBY...another google yields Best Buy credit card.
Perfect, so I call Best Buy credit card department this morning and wait less a minute to get someone. I tell them it was fraudulently opened and they immediately closed the account, apologize profusely, and gave me the number for a dedicated Citibank identify fraud support team that could help me further on Monday. So I haven't yet called them, but I was very satisfied with this interaction.
Then I went to dispute the account with Experian. Their online dispute function is broken and says they are having technical difficulties but I could call during business hours. So I couldn't call last night but I called today. The first thing it does on the phone is condescendingly tell you that disputes can be entered on the website for free....yeah, thanks dudes. Their entire phone system is designed to chew you up and spit you out without ever talking to someone. Pressing 0 doesn't work. If you don't follow their phone tree options they just hang up on you. Trust me, their options are a maze. I eventually figure out the right order of buttons to press and am told I will wait 15 minutes to speak to someone.
After a 15 minute wait, I got somebody on the phone but they said they couldn't process disputes resulting from fraud, I had to talk to a different team. I've since been on hold for THIRTY MINUTES trying to speak to a fraud specialist at Experian. This is fun.
In the interim I've been researching the credit monitoring services they constantly try to upsell you on their website...I MIGHT have considered it but it's quite obvious this company does not stand behind it's services in terms of customer service. How can you make people wait this long in fraud situations? You're the biggest credit bureau in the world.
Anyway, I'm currently on the 1 month trial of their identityworks premium service. There's no option to cancel online, you have to call into this horrendous phone tree to cancel or send snail mail. That alone screams of an organization more interested in easy recurring revenue than actually delivering services.
Anyone else have experience with identity theft or dealing with Experian directly?
I'm honestly so thankful that Discover card offered the free monitoring alerts else I would have no idea this happened. They only monitor Experian though and I would like to monitor all bureaus, as well as my family members. The alerts ARE valuable by themself, but I would rather pay a company that has customer service. I'm pretty sure all the claims of $1million insurance for fraud are essentially uncollectible and an even bigger joke than this phone customer service is.
The crazy thing is I ALWAYS keep my credit reports all frozen. My SSN was breached via Blue Cross Blue Shield a couple years ago so I knew I'd be a target for this. So I unfroze my three reports for 10 days when I moved so I could apply for various things, such as utility accounts. This MFer opened the Best Buy account in that tiny window. So either people are CONSTANTLY attempting to open accounts in my name, or this was somebody who knew, like from my old apartments or a realtor or something that saw an application for something.
Anyway, the first thing I did was review my Experian credit summary on their website and saw the new account listed under CBNA. I googled that term to determine it meant Citibank, with whom I do have a card. I called citibank in the middle of the night last night and very quickly had confirmation that no additional consumer credit cards were open for me, but he advised he could be a store branded card which he couldn't necessarily see. So I go download my full report in hopes of seeing additional details, and I see it's listed as CBNA/BBY...another google yields Best Buy credit card.
Perfect, so I call Best Buy credit card department this morning and wait less a minute to get someone. I tell them it was fraudulently opened and they immediately closed the account, apologize profusely, and gave me the number for a dedicated Citibank identify fraud support team that could help me further on Monday. So I haven't yet called them, but I was very satisfied with this interaction.
Then I went to dispute the account with Experian. Their online dispute function is broken and says they are having technical difficulties but I could call during business hours. So I couldn't call last night but I called today. The first thing it does on the phone is condescendingly tell you that disputes can be entered on the website for free....yeah, thanks dudes. Their entire phone system is designed to chew you up and spit you out without ever talking to someone. Pressing 0 doesn't work. If you don't follow their phone tree options they just hang up on you. Trust me, their options are a maze. I eventually figure out the right order of buttons to press and am told I will wait 15 minutes to speak to someone.
After a 15 minute wait, I got somebody on the phone but they said they couldn't process disputes resulting from fraud, I had to talk to a different team. I've since been on hold for THIRTY MINUTES trying to speak to a fraud specialist at Experian. This is fun.
In the interim I've been researching the credit monitoring services they constantly try to upsell you on their website...I MIGHT have considered it but it's quite obvious this company does not stand behind it's services in terms of customer service. How can you make people wait this long in fraud situations? You're the biggest credit bureau in the world.
Anyway, I'm currently on the 1 month trial of their identityworks premium service. There's no option to cancel online, you have to call into this horrendous phone tree to cancel or send snail mail. That alone screams of an organization more interested in easy recurring revenue than actually delivering services.
Anyone else have experience with identity theft or dealing with Experian directly?
I'm honestly so thankful that Discover card offered the free monitoring alerts else I would have no idea this happened. They only monitor Experian though and I would like to monitor all bureaus, as well as my family members. The alerts ARE valuable by themself, but I would rather pay a company that has customer service. I'm pretty sure all the claims of $1million insurance for fraud are essentially uncollectible and an even bigger joke than this phone customer service is.
