Ask Slashdot: What Should You Do If Someone's Trying To Steal Your Identity

Long-time Slashdot reader shanen "just got the darnedest phone call..."The caller knew my name and the name of a bank that I've done business with, and obviously my phone number, but beyond that I have no idea what was going on... There is no problem with my account. She was quite clear about that, but she had no clear reason for calling. As I got more and more suspicious, she asked me to wait and she eventually transferred the call to a man, who claimed to be a manager at the bank, but the entire thing stinks to high heaven. All I could think of was to suggest that I call him back, but he was apparently unable to provide a phone number that I could independently verify. Why not give me the bank's phone number that I could check on the Internet' One would think that I could then transfer to his extension. After almost nine minutes I just hung up, and now I realize that I have the caller's phone number, but that isn't definitive evidence of anything. A scammer might know that blocking the phone number would have made things more suspicious... So what should I have done' Do you have any similar experiences to share' Or have I missed warnings about some new scam that's going around' Now I realize that they could start from names and phone numbers and just guess for the largest banks. Maybe I got suspicious too quickly, before she could start asking for the personal information she was really after' The original submission also includes this question: "If it's an identity theft in progress, then I want to stop it and fast, but how can I tell what's going on'" So leave your own thoughts in the comments. What should you do if you think someone is trying to steal your identity'Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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