Vanessa, Massachusetts
On Thursday, July 31, Vanessa from Brockton, MA signed up for the TrustedID® service to help her proactively protect her identity. That following Monday, she received a call from Discover card, who in response to the fraud flag that TrustedID placed on her credit report, called to verify her request for a new credit card in her name. She had not requested a new Discover Card.
“Thank god I signed up for TrustedID when I did,” said Vanessa. “You never know when this crime is going to happen to you and, as you will see in my case, it can happen anytime. Thank you so much TrustedID for watching my back!”
Vanessa, by becoming a member of TrustedID, prevented herself from becoming a victim of new account fraud — had she not subscribed to the service, she would not have known about this instance of fraud for many weeks or months, and by that time the identity thief might have purchased several thousand dollars worth of goods in her name. Vanessa immediately called Discover’s customer service to follow up and the Discover agent verified her information by asking if she lived at a particular address in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Indeed she had, but this was her address from six years ago. The agent then asked if she knew someone by the name of X Smith. Vanessa did — X Smith was a residential manager in Upper Marlboro that she'd dealt with to apply for an apartment. It seemed that X Smith had tried to sign up for a Discover card using Vanessa's prior address and SSN, which she still had in her files from over five years ago. “When they told me that a person from my past was trying to steal my identity, I was scared and relieved at the same time,” said Vanessa. “Scared because I realized there are so many ways an identity thief can strike at you. Relieved because I was protected by TrustedID.”
Vanessa added, “The TrustedID service worked so well for me that I’ve recommended it to one of my co-workers who had just had her wallet stolen. Within a day, they’d already run up $700 on her credit card. If she’d been protected by TrustedID, I’m sure that wouldn’t have happened to her.”
