PSA: Identity Theft Scams Are Real, This One Happened In Crown Heights
by CrownHeights.info
Identity theft scams are real, and they don’t always require the thief to have your Social Security number.
One Crown Heights resident opened her phone Motzei Shabbos to find a whole bunch of texts from Chase Bank. Had she made nearly $5,000 worth of purchases over shabbos?
Acting fast, the woman called Chase and canceled her compromised card, but as for the purchased merchandise, it was already too late.
But was perhaps a more startling side of this theft.
As many retailers require that the billing and shipping address to match, or have otherwise blacklisted certain addresses, the thieves had ordered the items to the victims home in Crown Heights. Not to miss their arrival, the thief and an accomplice pulled up on the victims block around 11:50am Monday morning.
Surveillance video from the victims home shows as the suspected thief waited an incredible four hours for the FedEx delivery driver to arrive on the block before getting out of his car around 3:40pm and sitting on the victims front steps.
While on camera, the delivery driver can be seen driving further down the block before the thief approached the man, and after conversing with him for a few moments, walks off with a large package.
The victim, who was completely unaware what was happening at the time, suddenly received an email saying that items were delivered to their home. She quickly checked her cameras and discovered the thief’s use of her address.
As a way of deterring such thieves, people are advised that when they have discovered fraudulent purchases on their accounts, they should also immediately contact the retailers and advise them not to ship the items.
Ira Finkelstein
What is not stated is how did they get her Chase information?
mendelsphotography
I Would say possibly from a breach where this is a huge issue of people resuing the same passwords We need to 1. Use secure passwords and unique for each website. 2. Use a passwords manager, tons of free and paid ones out there online.