5 Identity Theft Types of Pain
5 identity theft types of pain. Yes, identity theft is a pain. Before a family member's recent experience, my thinking was "pain in the neck." It's a nuisance, for sure. However as experienced by this family member recently and by me as the power of attorney holder, it's more than just a nuisance. It can induce shame, violation, hypervigilance, and eventually isolation. Pain Type 1: Shame The family member fell victim to a spoofing scam. The bad guys called her pretending to be AT&T. They convinced her to share the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) code which allowed them to steal her phone number through a SIM swap. Although they were unsuccessful with her multiple times at first, it only took one convincing moment that they were really from AT&T and trying to help for her to cave in to their pressure. Three days later, they called me too. The AT&T logo appeared on my screen. I answered it, thinking it was AT&T calling about her phone. Fortunately when I heard the man with the Eastern European accent ask for her, I was hesitant. But not suspicious. Just wondering why AT&T was calling my number (surely they know this number belongs to me?) and asking instead for her. The reason was that my phone number was on a few of her accounts as the MFA device. So her stolen number wouldn't work for those accounts. They needed mine, and were calling to attempt the same ruse that had worked with her. The call lasted all of 26 seconds before he abruptly hung up. Only then I thought, "Hey, wait a minute. I don't think that was AT&T." I felt like an idiot at that point. I even called the number back and it played an AT&T greeting. Fortunately I had not given them any information. Since that time, I have read that a cybercriminal ring bribed AT&T employees which allowed them to impersonate AT&T to conduct their operations. Being a victim is nothing to be ashamed of. Professional criminals are skilled. Yet many victims feel shame at being duped. Pain Type 2: Violation Three days prior to that call, I received multiple email alerts that changes were being made on her USAA profile. It was a Saturday night. I called her to confirm she had not spoken with USAA. She had not. "Hmm," I thought, "We will have to call about this when they're open." I wasn't alarmed. Two days later, a holiday, email alerts began coming from her bank account. The password and mailing address were changed. I knew she had not done this. I certainly had not done this. Who is doing this? Someone is breaking into the bank account and changing information? How did they even know where she had a bank account? How did they get the username and password? Is this connected to USAA? When someone is in your bank account changing personal information, it feels violating. Despite the bank's assurances via hours of calls and visits…