I’ve lived in my apartment for about 5 months. I had recieved credit card offers in the past that were perfectly normal but about a week ago I got a pre-approved offer from a company that was opened. The flap was clean as if the envelope had never been sealed. The envelope was ment to be opened by the side, so I thought it was very strange the flap wasn’t sealed, but just attributed it to the unusual amount of moisture in the atmosphere. Then, yesterday, a second pre-approved offer arrived, also open in the same clean way. My roommate handed it straight to me from the mailbox, so they are not being opened by my roommates. I recieved other envelopes at the same time and it was only the pre-approved credit card ones that were opened.
This makes me nervous, I don’t know if someone can open a credit card in my name just by the information contained in a pre-approved offer. Am I being paranoid or is this something I should be concerned over?
I wouldn’t sweat it, as long as it doesn’t look like someone tore open the envelopes or steamed them open (tough to do without leaving fairly obvious traces).
It’s not unusual for mass-mailed stuff to arrive unsealed. It just means that the mass-mailing facility had a glitch with one of their envelope-stuffing machines, and a bunch of letters never got closed properly. I see this kind of thing pretty regularly with bulk mail - appeals from charities, credit-card offers, even utility bills.
Probably isn’t a big deal, but i sort of remember that there is a way with the credit bureaus to make it so a card can’t be opened in your name without something from you, I sort of forget the details, but it does seem like that might not be a bad idea anyway for all of us.
Just for protection, you could put a possible identity theft warning onto your credit reports, which is what I believe furlibusea is referring to. Those warnings stay in place for six months. Doing so should also trigger each credit agency to send you a copy of your credit report so that you can make sure that no one has opened anything in your name.
If you do this, you will have to provide proof of your identity in order to open any new credit accounts, typically in the form of copies of your driver’s license and social security card or something similar. (It varies depending on who you’re tring to open the account with.) This is a small price to pay to keep tabs on your credit, though, IMO.