Last year I had a day off from work when FedEx dropped off three packages to my house. Inside the packages were three brand new Dell laptops. I called Dell to let them know I didn't order them and they insisted I did. After a bit of investigating I found out what was going on.... at first I thought- who would steel my CC info only to have fraudulent sale items delivered to my house. This was indeed what happened! The thieves never expected that I'd be home. They purchased these laptops with my CC info and planned on picking it up at my door. It scares me to think what might have happened if my wife or daughter were home alone when the packages arrived.
Anyway...in my case theses people got caught. I found out that a fourth laptop was shipping the next day. Detectives worked with FedEx and had them hold the package at their hub in a nearby town. Someone claiming to be me called them to arrange a pickup, and when the perps arrived they got busted. I thought this was so random, but from what I found out.... maybe not so much
A couple of months ago my mother received a letter from her bank confirming her change of address request and the issuance of some form of debit card against an open line of credit on home equity. My mom was completely confused and called me to investigate. After a few calls to bank and a trip to the local branch, we found that someone pretending to be her had opened on-line access to the account and then called the bank and told them that she was moving to an address in Florida and that the cards should be sent there. Thankfully, the bank has a policy to write a confirmation letter to both the new and old address. Had my mom been on vacation say, or visiting my brother in Seattle which she does a couple of times a year, someone would have had access to $ 80,000 of crecit on home equity ! The card had already been sent to the Florida address and thankfully it was cancelled before it was received.
This person had my mothers address, date of birth, social security number and all the pertinent info required to pretend to be her. My mom had completely forgotten about this line of credit which she had opened in 2005 to help with my brothers purchase of a house. It turned out the deal fell through and my brother bought a less expensive house and didn't need the help, and my mother never bothered to close the account ! Now let's say they do something like this to 100 senior citizens and a couple of them are not home when the confirmation letter is sent, and ain a couple of months they are sent a statement for payments on the so called loan they took out !
What makes it worst is that the local police ddn't want to be bothered by this and said that a crime hasn't really been committed, since no money was used ! Crazy !
Squeeee!