Quote #1-They were caught, BUT, what were the consequences? See Quote #2.

That's the problem. The victim gets put through a living ****, and, the criminal either gets off with a slap on the wrist or not even investigated. Well, why should the credit companies bother anyways????? They're getting 10-30% interest off their honest customers and making killer profits.

Not only do we need a Consumer Bill of Rights, we also need a Criminal Bill of Wrongs. For ****'s sake!! These people need to be prosecuted and locked up for 5-20 years. Maybe then ID theft wouldn't be the fastest growing crime in the Freaking World.

Eesssh. Thank you for sharing that. One more reason for me to be ultra-paranoid when buying stuff online.

My husband and I have been going through a huge bought with identity theft leaving us almost 27k in cc debt which we never had previously.

What we've found out so far is that the card numbers were probably stolen or sold and a card was manufactured. It surprises me the amount of time that was put into this. We only had that card for emergencies because we pay cash for everything (how we've stayed out of debt for many years!) - it was sitting in our desk drawer yet somehow was used for 6 months on purchases around town. The address on the account was changed, so we didn't receive the statements and the address was an abandoned building.

We've filed police reports and fraud reports and are about to be sued by Bank of America because we haven't paid this debt...They said that we could get out of it by paying 18k instead of 27, sounds ok but it will wipe out a lot of our immediate savings. We've recently retained a lawyer who advised us to forward all calls to him and not to pay a dime as it will be kin to admitting the debt is ours. I sincerely hope this doesn't end up going to court...

We also had a bought with our debit card a few years ago when some kids in New Mexico bought a PS2 with our account...we closed the account and eventually the account was credited with the amount of purchase after a lengthy investigation.

Be careful out there this holiday season, friends. There are far too many untrustworthy people out there.

Wow, Zef. Do not pay a penny on that B of A thing. B of A can be a bully at times. That is why they have a bad reputation with consumers. Depending on where you live, you can put a free credit freeze on your credit. That means nobody can open an account or even check your credit without your prior knowledge. You should pull free credit reports on yourselves. Since you have police reports, they will be free.

If anyone is going to shop online, please check if your credit card company does the "virtual" numbers thing. Discover Card does.

I agree with prepaid credit cards - lots of good stories and reasons to use them.

T.