"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...


It's a dismal one. About three weeks ago, I started having trouble with
my DSL connection and called BellSouth tech support. In the process of
trouble shooting, we disabled the firewall, Norton AV, AdAware, etc.
while trying different drivers. Apparently, at some point during all
this, a data miner loaded and got enough information for thieves to
access my old VISA account. They changed the name and address and
ordered a bunch of stuff. They also attempted to establish a credit
account with Dell and order some computers. Both of these attempts were
stopped by the companies' fraud detection procedures. I then had to go
through the process of filing a police report, putting my name on fraud
watch with the credit agencies, closing my bank accounts, etc., etc.


You probably have received a graduate level education in identity theft
already, but you might want to check out http://www.idtheftcenter.org and
the more general info for a consumer info radio show at www.clarkhoward.com.
One point Clark makes is after you have had some sort of identity theft
incident, always keep a copy of the police report with you when in public.
Otherwise you may have a difficult time proving that your ID is not the
fraudulent ID. It's not uncommon for the genuine person to be arrested or
detained while attempting to use their credit card, if the thief has stirred
up enough trouble.

I sympathize with you about the computer problem. I had a Windows problem
and had to switch to another HD. In getting the system back up, I forgot or
actually thought I had already updated Windows for security patches, I let
my system run for over a week using a very vulnerable Windows and IE
version. When I realized what had happened and started fixing that problem,
my system was already infested with all sorts of trojan horse programs.
Thankfully I used an encrypted password manager and have since changed all
passwords again. I'm just waiting for my bill statements to arrive.

--
Scott