Identity theft...

Roubaix Rider

Be careful out there...

Having been the victim of identifty theft twice in the past year (debit and credit cards) I should have expected a third time. After all, stuff comes in threes. What I wasn't expecting is that the theft would be my Bike Radar identity! :shock:

Somehow, at the end of last year (why do these things happen at Christmas - people bored with time on their hands...?), a third party managed to log in as me, subsequently managed to change my password and email address, and was able to have some forum fun at my expense. Fortunately they soon got bored and I found out before it got too out of hand, and the Bike Radar Webmaster has reset all the account details. Even so, Roubaix Rider kept quiet in case Mr / Mrs Hacker popped again. Evidently they're bored now, so I'm back on-line and to my good old quiet self!

I understand an attack was launched on another forum's members list; one trusts that mine is an isolated incident and that no-one else has been a victim (to be honest, I frequent Bike Radar so seldomly these days that I'd be none the wiser if everyone had been a victim).

Nevertheless, keep 'em peeled and regularly change passwords etc.

softlad

how do we know you're the real 'roubaix rider'...??

Roubaix Rider

softlad wrote:

how do we know you're the real 'roubaix rider'...??

I don't even know if I'm me nowadays!!

chuckcork

Mate, having found out a few weeks ago that some barsteward had, after I left a previous address, taken out a loan and a credit card in my name at that address to the tune of slightly more than £20,000, can I say you have nothing to worry about by comparison?

Now trying to get the paperwork out of the credit companies so I can make a complaint to the police and get them off my case....hijacking a forum is small fry!

Roubaix Rider

chuckcork wrote:

Mate, having found out a few weeks ago that some barsteward had, after I left a previous address, taken out a loan and a credit card in my name at that address to the tune of slightly more than £20,000, can I say you have nothing to worry about by comparison?

Now trying to get the paperwork out of the credit companies so I can make a complaint to the police and get them off my case....hijacking a forum is small fry!

The post was more a case of making others aware that the forum identities may be at risk, however...

If it's any consolation, my two previous identity thefts left bills circa £10,000. Fortunately the banks (eventually) sorted out the finances. But not without my financial rating being destroyed in the process. And it's the cancellation of accounts, resetting of new ones, restablishing direct debits, employer's salary payments, tax etc. that is the real pain in the arse. It's like you're having to create yourself all over again from scratch. My sympathies and best wishes to you though.

chuckcork

Roubaix Rider wrote:

If it's any consolation, my two previous identity thefts left bills circa £10,000. Fortunately the banks (eventually) sorted out the finances. But not without my financial rating being destroyed in the process. And it's the cancellation of accounts, resetting of new ones, restablishing direct debits, employer's salary payments, tax etc. that is the real pain in the ars*. It's like you're having to create yourself all over again from scratch. My sympathies and best wishes to you though.

Nothing has actually happened to my accounts (fortunately) so I won't have to go to the extents that you sound like you have. I only found out about it when refused credit in setting up a phone account for home!

Pretty shocking to open the envelope from Equifax and find sizeable debts against your name, ironically one of them was for the credit card providing half of a major bank. You would think the creation of a credit card account using a customers name, but not at a customers address would ring alarm bells, but I guess the ignoring of safe practices is what has got the nbanking industry into its current sorry state.