I just got a bill for a Wayfair credit card that was issued by Citi bank that I did not apply for. I never even shopped on that website.
I tried contacting both Citi bank and Wayfair, but since I don’t have the full account number, I couldn’t get past Citi’s automated phone menu.
Wayfair’s phone system was a fucking nightmare getting transferred to various departments, but eventually transferred me to a foreign call center where they insisted that they needed my social security number and birth date to file a report, but I’m not giving them that.
The best thing is that the scammer managed to get a higher credit limit than I was able to get on my own card.
I would, but mine’s on an upswing right now.
Locking credit doesn’t prevent it from changing, it just makes it so no one can get your report until you unlock it. This should be the default behavior, but it would prevent these companies from making as much money.
Oh! Thanks!
Yeah locking it just means nobody can open new lines of credit on the social security number. Then you can use multi factor authentication on the different bureau sites. You’ll need to lock it on all three… Which sucks.
It’s annoying, it’s stupid that we have to do this. But you gotta look out for yourself.
Most places I’ve seen this referenced it is called a “credit freeze”, but good advice nonetheless.
Why can’t a scammer who can get your credit report, also unlock your credit?
There is a randomly generated password you get when you freeze it. DONT LOSE IT!! Its a bitch to recover if you do. One of them gives you a list of like 25 different ones you can use (you just type one of the 25 from the list)
Fascinating. After tens of thousands of years, the financial system discovers passwords.
“I got to 800. Time to lock it in, go on a spending spree, and not pay anything back!”