Identity Theft

[Pagan]

I belong on one of those idenity theft commercials. Someone has stolen my life..... Well not really but they have stolen alot of my money.

I am so very pissed off today. I lost my wallet yesterday in the mall and figured that it would be returned because the world is predominantly good. I mean it had and identification card in it with my address and phone number and even had,"If found please return to owner reward will be given in it." Instead this person decided to go and write some checks to himself and then charge a few thing on my credit cards, heck he even got 7,000 out of my saving account with my ATM card. Even worse I had just came from the bank and had withdrawn a large sum of money for some major shopping. Then when the over draft charges kicked in they took their 973 dollars. My overall balance was lower then 3,000. I had to freeze both accounts and then file a police report and then the bank will think about reimburse.

What I didn't understand is how they could do all this without any photo identification, but then I looked at all the places he was spending my money at and it all made sense. The gas station rarely checks ID and neither does drug stores. What I don't understand is how the banks let him withdraw so much money. My daily withdrawal limit is just 1,500 and anymore then that they should have contacted my parent. Anyhow the bank people said my money should be back in a couple of weeks and hopefully my income tax check can keep the gas in the cars.

I propose a question to you out there. If somebody had dropped a blank check that just needed a sum and your name on it. What would you do, cash in or turn the check over to the proper authorty? Remember you couldn't get caught or nothing, it would be a clean get a away.

Me well after all I've been through, I'm still human and would take it for all its worth.

[Transtic Nerve]

You seem to have high hopes for humanity. Anyone who loses their wallet or purse, esspecially if they have cash in it, should never expect to get it back. I wouldn't. I would have froze all my accounts right away. When I lost my check card, I had my account changed and new card sent to me right after I realized it was gone.

And also I dunno how you lost it, but you shouldn't lose your wallet. It should be like a child to you, never keep your eye off of it.

Anyway if I found a blank check, I would probably return it, unless i recognized the name on it as someone famous or whom I hated, in which case I would cash it right away for as much as I could get for it. Like I said, you have high hopes for humanity. No one is going to return something they can get for free without anyone knowing. Not unless they are like... a clergy memeber or something, but then again, who knows... money is the highest temptation.

[G/S/B Master]

[QUOTE=Transtic Nerve]You seem to have high hopes for humanity. Anyone who loses their wallet or purse, esspecially if they have cash in it, should never expect to get it back.

And also I dunno how you lost it, but you shouldn't lose your wallet. It should be like a child to you, never keep your eye off of it.

Anyway if I found a blank check, I would probably return it, unless i recognized the name on it as someone famous or whom I hated, in which case I would cash it right away for as much as I could get for it. .[/QUOTE]

Check the pocket of where you keep your wallet every 3 minutes. Or what seems like 3 minutes. I'm always cautious of things. So don't blame me XD. You should run to your bank to freeze your account when you see your wallet or the Credit card is missing. And Transtic Nerve, you're so evil >_<.

Hells Fire, don't trust on america to bring back the things you care. Becuase we are greedy people. We're getting things then giving stuff nowadays.

[Izzy]

If I found a check or a credit card on the floor, I would return it only because there are ways the victim (check-owner or credit card owner) could get to me and thats not something I would want to happen. If I found a bills on the ground, they would go in my pocket.

EDIT: I love those commercials!!

[Guest Kaszokun]

I have had my wallet stolen twice already(at the swimming pool), so now I keep it on a chain attached to my belt or where I can see it always.

Also if I had found a wallet/blank check on the ground I would return it, since I know how it feels to lose them, also I was brought up this way.

[Corey]

[color=#2F4F4F][size=1]Hmmm... If I were to say that I'd return the wallet/check/credit car, I'd be lying. However it would really depend on a lot of different variables.

Maybe I'm short on cash and need to pay a ticket or something. Or rent.
But justification still doesn't make it right.

I guess that I would take it. Everyone can use a couple of extra bucks. And all the better if you get away with it.[/size][/color]

[Retribution]

I'd try to return a wallet, burn the unused check, and try to return the credit card by sending it to the information desk at the mall. If I couldn't return the card, I'd just cut it up into lotsa pieces...

I love money, dont get me wrong, but i dont think that justifies stealing. my conscience is really loud. If i took that money, my parents might be able to hear my mind saying GIVE IT BACK!!! What if they need it, what if they worked their *** off for this? What if they're about to be evicted without this money? What if, what if, what if....

Echoes through my head... I might even burn the wallet if i couldn't return it...

[Godelsensei]

[COLOR=Gray][SIZE=2][FONT=Courier New]That depends if you just saw some one drop it, or if it had been sitting on the ground, unattended.

I think I have enough of a shred of decency to be able to say that I would give it back to some one if they just happened to drop it on the ground in front of me without noticing.

But if I just found it lying on the ground and no one seemed to have any claim to it? Come on...free money![/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[AzureWolf]

[font=Georgia][color=blue]The general ideology you are raised with here in New Jersey follows [color=blue]Baron Thomas Babington McCauley's words:[/color][/color][/font]

[font=Georgia][color=blue]"[i][size=2]The measure of a man?s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out."[/size][/i][/color][/font]

[font=Georgia][size=2][color=#0000ff]I would just crumple and throw the check in the garbage. I'm lazy, so I'm not going to go out of my way to find the person, and I'm sure as hell not going to give it to anyone who might have inclination to do wrong.[/color][/size][/font]

[font=Georgia][size=2][color=#0000ff]I have a wallet, but it's pretty much empty of anything valuable. I do have some money and my ID, but that's all I carry most of the time. Anything of greater value stays at home unless there's a chance I might need it. I would recommend everyone to do the same when they are going out for a normal day.[/color][/size][/font]

[DeadSeraphim]

I'd probably throw the check out, because checks have next to no usefulness i Australia. The wallet? I'd prob try and get that back to its owner. But I'm not sure about the credit card...

Unforunately, if I lost my wallet I'd be screwed, because, as is family tradition, I keep EVERYTHING in it. Bank cards, membership cards etc. It would take me a month just to get replacements for the stuff I lost. The best way to not lose it, from my experience, is to put it in a pocket with a velcro flap over the top (cargo pants for example). Unless the velcro stuff is faulty, you should hear it if it falls out.

[future girl]

Hm, I've never lost my wallet because I keep a falcon-like eye on it and I never take it anywhere. It's a pretty big wallet, a lady wallet, if you will and I have everything in there, social security, birth certificate, immunization records. I rarely have money though, and no checks, credit or bank cards to my name. When I go out I usually stuff money into my front pocket and constantly make sure it's there out of habit.

In any case, like someone else said, if I found a wallet it'd depend under what circustances I found it. If the person dropped it right in front of my face well, I'd hand it back to them. If it was just sitting there idly, well I'd take the money and return the rest to lost and found. It's the way I was raised, seriously. As for a check, checks are complicated, I wouldn't bother.

[Gavin]

[font=Verdana][size=1]Personally I would either return the money to the person if I found them in the street or hand it into the nearest Police station and let them deal with it from there. If after a year and a day as is the window of claim nobody collected the money, I'd keep it if I needed it or give it to someone I felt deserved it, sappy yes but that's me... [font=Verdana][size=1]I've lost my ATM card twice from losing my wallet and I've been lucky to have it returned once, as for the other time I just changed my account and got a new card. [/size][/font]
[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=1]In your case Hells Fire I am sorry for your loss of finance and I would hope that the authorities deal with it swiftly and you are able to move on. In a case like this I would disagree with Transtic Nerves belief about people, I can asure him that if he dropped his wallet and I saw it, he would have it back. [/size][/font]

[font=Verdana][size=1][b]I was wondering what people would do if a cashier over changed them ?[/b] (i.e. the got more change than they should have). Personally and through experience I've alerted the cashier and given back the appropriate amount of money to them. [/size][/font]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[color=darkviolet]I sympathize with the whole, 'money out of your bank account and the bank doesn't try to call and ask why there are some strange transactions and ****' (sorry, can't really help it tonight) since the same thing was happening to my husband and I over the course of 2 months and the bank didn't call and say, what's up with your account, have you been doing anything? (Our other bank does that)

It's nice that you seem to be so optomistic about humanity to think that someone wouldn't try to take your stuff and run up your credit cards and such (someone did that to my mom, nobody bothered to call her for a while either). Unfortunately the world is full of opportunistic people and carckheads who need money for tehir next fix. If it was me, I'd probably have returned the wallet, but that's only because I'd want someone to do that for me. And I'm a optomistic person as well

I don't know why more stores don't start asking for ID (or POAs) when someone uses a credit card or a debit card for that matter. I know they do it in Las Vegas and if you don't have your signature on the card, but other than that your credit is fair game for any opportunistic person off the street. Which really sucks.

Next time tho, freeze your accounts, cancel the cards and order new ones after you report them stollen. That way they could catch the person.

I'd be in a bit of trouble without my wallet since my debit card, Social security card and Military ID are in there. But My hubby would be up ****'s creek since he also has his birth cirtificate and other crap in his. Okay well, i ran out of things to add. I hope your bank fixes that mess soon.[/color]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1][color=darkred]You sound like your folks are rich enough that it isn't going to permanently cripple you...but I sympathise with your loss. That is a helluva lot of moolah gone. How did they access credit cards though? Don't they need a PIN number?

I am like, ultra-careful with my money. I am so tight with my own money, that is isn't funny. Heh.

Seriously though, I can not believe the standards of some of you people. It is shocking!

[b]If I saw them drop it...[/b]I would alert them to the fact.
[b]Found a wallet...[/b] I'd hand it in to the police-station. Thankfully, Australian limit is 3 weeks. I'd just hope that nobody claimed it. It would have cards and stuff in it though... but ah well.

I would just think how I would hate to lose my money. I lost ten bucks at a hotel one time. I was on school camp, so that was a quarter of all my money gone. Luckily I borrowed from some friends...but it is a bastard. It really bites to lose stuff. I can't believe some of you would keep the money. Then again, I would keep money I found on the ground. I also kept a flashy watch I found on the ground [kinda flashy. But I had to pay to repair it]. So, I don't know. It would depend on my mood that day in all likelihood. But, I would hand in a wallet and probably...probably leave the check on the ground. I wouldn't have the balls to cash it in, I'm afraid.[/size][/color]

[outlawstar69]

Does anyone in here read Reader's Digest? I'm sure I can remember a few years back that they did an experiment of sorts, where they went to different places around the world and the US, leaving wallets on the ground to see if they would get returned or not. Things is, I can't remember the results. Does anyone remember that?

[SadClown]

Losing a wallet isn't really identity theft because all their doing is using your card to take your money and not neccesarily pretending to be you and creating accounts and racking up bills on services. Hell, people can do that without needing your walle, but I can tottaly sympithize with how rediculouse it is. I got a call from a collections adgency a few months ago saying that I owed about a grand in unpaid bills in an account I had with them. To bad I never even shop there. And companies are so stupid too. This person opened this account with an address that was three years old and no longer mine, a phone number that wasnt mine, a credit card that wasnt is my name and had tbe bills sent to a completly different town than the one that the old adress was even in. And they STILL thought it was me. I even asked them if they checked any sort of id when setting this us (becuase it was an ISP that the guy/girl was setting up). The company rep. didnt even know.

To this day I dont know how they were able to do this, but they did it with no more information than they could have gotten off a letter to me. So it can happen in many ways. Thankfully I DID NOT have to pay these outrageouse bills.

[Deedlit]

[color=#009966]Sucks to be you, HF.

Under normal circumstances, if I found a blank check, I would just rip it up instead of taking the time to hunt down the owner; that would be too much trouble. At least whoever lost it wouldn't lose some money as well. But if it's someone I [i]despise[/i], and if I'm in a bad mood, I would just leave it for someone else to take. Heh. The person shouldn't have lost it in the first place.

I wouldn't cash it because 1.) I'm not that "money-hungry" to begin with, 2.) my parents would have to take it to the bank to cash it, and they would get suspicious if I suddenly "received" a check for $30 or more from someone they don't know, and 3.) I'd probably get caught anyway. So, in the end, it's just a pain in the neck.

Anyway, I hope things turn out better for you. Maybe next time you'll be more careful.[/color]

[Ryu_Sakura]

[QUOTE=Hells Fire]I propose a question to you out there. If somebody had dropped a blank check that just needed a sum and your name on it. What would you do, cash in or turn the check over to the proper authorty? Remember you couldn't get caught or nothing, it would be a clean get a away.
[/QUOTE]

I'd burn it. Yes, I'm a pyro. And I have almost no self controll, best get rid of temptation.

I can totally get what you are saying. I lose stuff all the time, so now (or that past three weeks) (This is a little off topic.) I've been really paronide and to top it off my friend almost got killed and is in the hospital right now. Her parents don't think they can pay for her and her brother's injuries! So, they're going to sue the person who did it to them. i'm not telling who, or what happened! I although I was there, but thankful am not the cause, I was the one who saved them from being killed! But now all three of us are not well. I'm paronied and sprind my ancle and wriste, both of them have many many injuries which will not be stated here.

(Back on track) I lost money like that before, but the person who found it was a security gaurd, and he saw my ID and handed it back to me. I'm so happy, I had over $800 in there, I was going to buy somthings then put some of whats left in the bank.