Identity Pwnd
Which do you think is worse- having your identity stolen and knowing when and where your information was compromised, or having your identity stolen and not having any clue where they got your information? My situation is the latter.
Long story short, I received ‘proactive’ notification from my bank that they were replacing both of my account Visa debit cards due to potential compromise. Shortly after that I received some mail from Sprint confirming the changes I had made to my account settings. Only problem is that I don’t have an account with Sprint. So, I contacted Sprint and found out that someone had, in fact, opened an account with my name, address, and social security number. They had already proactively shut it down though when they saw how quickly it was being used to make an inordinate amount of international calls.
It’s not that I am incredulous that it happened. I have my name and personal information scattered in various degrees of sensitivity all across the Internet. If I am incredulous about anything it is that this is the first time my identity has been compromised after all these years. I guess I should follow my own advice better and take better steps to protect my identity.
Bottom line- kudos to my bank and to Sprint for acting proactively. In both cases they actually recognized and responded to the compromise or potential compromise before I noticed anything and really before any significant damage was done. So, crisis averted…I think. Sort of waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. I am sort of resigned to never really knowing how or why my information was compromised.