| Leukemia Survivor Takes on Bank of America, Citibank, Chase, and CRAs ...
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Five years ago, Eric Drew was on his death bed with leukemia when his identity was stolen by a worker at the hospital where he was being treated. Drew survived cancer, but has taken on another battle; he has filed suit against some of America's largest banks and credit reporting agencies in a case of identity theft. The defendants in the lawsuit include Citibank, Bank of America, Chase, Transunion, Equifax, and Experian. His federal suit was filed in San Francisco, December, 2006 and is now moving forward after the defendants' unsuccessful motions to dismiss. In Drew's case, the defendants issued credit in his name to a fraudulent address in the state of Washington, where he was hospitalized and undergoing treatment, but wasn't a resident.
EMBARQ Warns Customers: Don't Get Hooked by Phishing Scam
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EMBARQ (NYSE: EQ) is warning customers not to fall prey to a scam that could result in identity theft or loss of financial assets. The scam is called "phishing," and most often comes in the form of an email or phone call from a legitimate-looking/sounding source seeking personal information. "The victim receives an email or phone call that appears to have come from a legitimate company asking them to provide information such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, account passwords, social security number, and date of birth so they can allegedly update their records," said Dallas Hayden, manager of Investigations and Law Enforcement Support at EMBARQ. "In reality, the message is from a scammer who is trying to steal the victim's identity," said Hayden.
Thwart thieves by freezing credit
When it comes to keeping a thief from obtaining credit in your name, consumers have a tough weapon in the form of a so-called security freeze. When you freeze your credit report, you thwart would-be thieves by preventing creditors from checking your credit history. Few lenders will lend you – or a thief – money without first checking your credit report. Texans got added muscle in September, when a new law took effect that allows consumers to freeze their credit report without first having to have a police report. Previously, Texans couldn't freeze their credit reports unless they were victims of identity theft. .
Use free reports to monitor, clean up your credit
CREDIT REPORTS show the good, the bad and the ugly in your financial life. They also provide the basis for calculating your credit score, which among other things is used to determine what interest rate you pay on a loan or whether you even get a loan in the first place. That's why it's so important for consumers to obtain a free credit report once a year from each of the country's three major credit reporting bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Passage of a federal law in 2003 made this possible. Going over your credit report helps you find out not only if there are mistakes that could lower your credit score, but also whether you are an identity-theft victim. Sandra Chapin, program director at the San Mateo-based Consumer Federation of California, ordered her credit reports a few weeks ago.
Escaped convict found in Oregon after 12 years
SALEM, Ore. -- For more than a decade, Lyndal Dale Ritterbush led a comfortable life in Salem as a rental property manager. He'd done so, in part, by stealing the identity of his brother-in-law, police said. But that theft eventually caused his story to unravel. Now, he's due to be returned to Utah, where he escaped from prison in 1985 after his second sentence for sexually abusing children. Ritterbush was known in Salem as Robert "Bob" Collins Rhoden, according to a story published in the Salem Statesman Journal. The paper said it and the Salt Lake Tribune had shared information about Ritterbush's time in Oregon and his capture. The real Robert Rhoden and his wife live in Nebraska, said Sheriff Jeff Franklin of rural Clay County.
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