Yet ANOTHER Bank Loses My Personal Information ... and another identity thief gets its wings (Houston: transporting, mortgage)

[thesonofgray]

So about a year ago I received a letter from the "Bank of New York Mellon" saying they've lost a security tape with my info on it (name, address, social security number, etc). I didn't even KNOW there was a Bank of New York Mellon (and such a weird name, too).

And today guess who lost another "security tape" with all my info on it? Chase Bank.

Why can't these guys get their act together?! I know they contract out their information backup services to some 3rd party but that's no excuse. It's MY LIFE and MY FINANCES they're recording and passing around all wily nilly to other banks, institutions, and "secure information backup" services.

The only good thing about this ridiculousness is the free year of credit monitoring. I think the Feds should mandate they give free LIFETIME credit monitoring for their complete and utter inability to do simple tasks like transporting data tapes. If your information is out there, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle. Where's the consumer protection in all of this??

I'm not delusional enough to think my sensitive info will never be floating around the world wide web black market being sold to the highest bidder. And you shouldn't be either. So just be aware and vigilant in monitoring your finances and credit.

Did anyone else here in Austin get the "we're sorry we just gave up your identity to whoever finds the tape we lost" letter from Chase? My parents in Houston didn't get one and they bank with Chase as well. I'm wondering if it's a local thing.

/rant

Oh, one last thing: F U CHASE!

/rant...for reals this time

[pwherman512]

Sorry to hear about this! Unreal! Even worse- your info sells for $5 to $20 - that's it.

[tourbound129]

Sorry to hear about that. I have my mortgage with Chase but have not received any kind of letter (yet). If I do, you can be sure that when I call them and I hear "Your call may be recorded for training purposes" they will get one hell of a conversation/rant as a training tape (unless they lose it of course).

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by tourbound129

Sorry to hear about that. I have my mortgage with Chase but have not received any kind of letter (yet). If I do, you can be sure that when I call them and I hear "Your call may be recorded for training purposes" they will get one hell of a conversation/rant as a training tape (unless they lose it of course).

I'm actually going to go into my local branch this weekend.

I'm going to ask them what Chase will do when someone steals my identity with the information they lost - but only loud enough for every customer in there to hear.

I've actually banked at Chase my whole "banking life" and they've bent over backwards for me and my family before. So I'm hoping to get more than just 1 year of credit monitoring from them because of this. It just all-around sucks.

Oh, and I JUST got your lost tape reference. Good one.

[CATXTransplant]

I've heard that LifeLock is a good investment. I think it's $100 a year. It's the one where the owner of the company advertises his own SSN because he knows it's so safe.

[atxcio]

Have you already put a freeze on your credit with all 3 agencies? That's something everyone should do, even if you haven't already become a victim of identity theft:

Clark Howard: Credit Freeze and Unfreeze Guide on clarkhoward.com (http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html#framesize_190 - broken link)

It's basically cheap (or free, if you've had any fraud) and does the same thing that credit monitoring does. If someone tries to open a credit line, or otherwise attempt a hard inquiry on your credit (like loan qualification or something), the credit bureaus will reject it. When YOU want to open a credit line, you call them with a code to "unfreeze" it for that inquiry...

sounds pretty logical, huh? wonder why they don't do that by default!

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Have you already put a freeze on your credit with all 3 agencies? That's something everyone should do, even if you haven't already become a victim of identity theft:

Clark Howard: Credit Freeze and Unfreeze Guide on clarkhoward.com (http://clarkhoward.com/topics/credit_freeze_states.html#framesize_190 - broken link)

It's basically cheap (or free, if you've had any fraud) and does the same thing that credit monitoring does. If someone tries to open a credit line, or otherwise attempt a hard inquiry on your credit (like loan qualification or something), the credit bureaus will reject it. When YOU want to open a credit line, you call them with a code to "unfreeze" it for that inquiry...

sounds pretty logical, huh? wonder why they don't do that by default!

That's some really good info and something I'll definitely consider.

...except for the part where it costs $10 for each of the 3 reporting bureaus PLUS an additional $10 per bureau to temporarily unfreeze your credit. That could get fairly expensive after a while.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by thesonofgray

That's some really good info and something I'll definitely consider.

...except for the part where it costs $10 for each of the 3 reporting bureaus PLUS an additional $10 per bureau to temporarily unfreeze your credit. That could get fairly expensive after a while.

It is $30 well spent. How many times will you be applying for a loan/credit in a typical year? I think you'd only have to thaw it for the credit bureau that your lender is using. That would be $10... so if you do it 2 times per year, that's still just $30 (initial) + $20 = $50 total vs. $120 per year for those advertised credit monitoring services (although I'm not saying you turn down the 1 free year you are getting).

Anyway, more than 2 "hard" inquiries on your credit per year (like applying for loans and stuff) would start to hurt your credit score anyway... so I don't imagine a typical person would need to thaw their credit very often. I haven't done it once in the year+ since I've had the freezes in place.

Of course, you could probably get it all for free. If you can get a copy of the Chase police report about your data being stolen, that should be good enough... right?

[Mike78613]

Originally Posted by CATXTransplant

I've heard that LifeLock is a good investment. I think it's $100 a year. It's the one where the owner of the company advertises his own SSN because he knows it's so safe.

I use them and it works. For one... . I don't get any more credit card offers in the mail and I feel very secure for only $10.00 a month!

[thesonofgray]

Originally Posted by Mike78613

I use them and it works. For one... . I don't get any more credit card offers in the mail and I feel very secure for only $10.00 a month!

Wow, only $10?? That's cheap. But I'm weary of their Terms and Conditions. I'll need to read it some time, but the "if you become a victim of identity theft because of a failure in our service" in their marketing text is quite a big loop hole for coverage. I have written service contracts and stuff like that can leave you helpless.

Originally Posted by atxcio

It is $30 well spent. How many times will you be applying for a loan/credit in a typical year? I think you'd only have to thaw it for the credit bureau that your lender is using. That would be $10... so if you do it 2 times per year, that's still just $30 (initial) + $20 = $50 total vs. $120 per year for those advertised credit monitoring services (although I'm not saying you turn down the 1 free year you are getting).

Anyway, more than 2 "hard" inquiries on your credit per year (like applying for loans and stuff) would start to hurt your credit score anyway... so I don't imagine a typical person would need to thaw their credit very often. I haven't done it once in the year+ since I've had the freezes in place.

Of course, you could probably get it all for free. If you can get a copy of the Chase police report about your data being stolen, that should be good enough... right?

But that's the problem - there hasn't been any technical "identity theft"...yet. They just lost all of my data. Whoever has that lost data (if anyone) and their intentions are not known. I'm simply just more vulnerable.

A lot of these credit monitoring services seem "reactionary" to me instead of proactive in protecting your credit. Completely shutting your credit via the bureau freezes seems to be the best way to avoid any issues - it just seems like a huge headache. But it's better than nothing. Le sigh.