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Identity theft can happen to anyone--anyone!

By Carl Heintze

Well, much to my chagrin, I'm the victim of identity theft. What's even worse, it's my own stupid fault.

As a result, my wife and I have had to chop up our credit cards and await the arrival of new ones, and the bank with which we do business may be out about $1,000.

It could have been worse, I suppose, even though the bank caught it within 24 hours.

It happened this way:

A week or two ago, I got an e-mail from someone who purported to be the bank. It was very official looking, bore the bank's logo and an excerpt from its contract reminding me the bank had the right to ask for reidentification now and then.

The bank had recently purchased the credit card company from another bank so I thought this was all in order. On the other hand, at the back of my neck, I had the nagging feeling that I should ignore the whole business. One reason was because the e-mail came to an alternative address I reserve for e-mail from people I don't really want to write to. I have another for what I consider personal mail, including communications from my bank.

The fact that it was delivered to the non-personal address registered, sort of, but not firmly enough to stick in my brain.

Another reason was some time ago, maybe a half year or more ago, I got a similar query from the bank, even though it did not represent the credit card company then. That inquiry I dismissed and never answered for that very reason. Which is what I should have done with the second one. But I didn't. I dutifully filled it out. Then I began to get suspicious.

I checked our credit card account a couple of times in the next day or two, but nothing seemed out of order. I could account for all the purchases listed. So I was lulled, as it turned out, into a false sense of security.

The following morning I got a telephone call from the bank asking me to give them the proper information about the account. They then switched me to their fraud unit which asked if I had charged two items, one for $200 and the other for $700.

Both had been made over the Internet and both had been made on Yahoo, a browser I almost never use. Obviously someone was using the information I had sent them and was charging items to our account.

I felt about 2 inches high.

What made it easier for the bank to catch the theft, even if they didn't catch the thief, is that the account is listed in my wife's name first and the thieves had used my name instead. Still, they had worked fast enough almost to get away with $1,000 in merchandise.

I tell you all this in the hope that you will not be as dumb as I was.

The arrival of the Internet has, alas, made this kind of thing much easier and made all of us much more susceptible. It's easy to be lulled into believing that no one is going to worm your credit card or Social Security number out of your hands.

That's certainly what I believed, and even though I almost never buy anything over the Internet, I know a lot of folks who do and who buy in quantity. How often they get taken by identity thieves is uncertain, but it clearly is a multi-million dollar business.

And, alas, apparently previous experience is not a good teacher, not for me at least.

About 10 years ago the same thing happened. Someone managed to get or guess at our credit card number and before they were caught were able to purchase three airplane tickets for destinations nowhere near California.

Unlike the present instance, I have no idea how they managed to do it.

The transactions just suddenly showed up in the bank's records and the bank, suspicious because we don't live in that part of the country and have never charged airplane tickets on that particular airline, called us.

Same thing: New credit cards, destroy the old ones and remain vigilant against a repeat of the same experience.

Well, I was vigilant for a few years anyway, but not, alas, vigilant long enough.

So I'll try again, but I don't make any promises.

And don't you, either.