Does anyone know where I can get a free credit report? I went on line and all the “free” ones seem to cost money. I thought you could get a free copy once a year.
The reason is I got a call yesterday from somene claiming to be from Citibank telling me my credit card was overdue and requesting $157.00 past due payment. Trouble is, I don’t HAVE a Citibank account. this woman was very insistent, she seemed to know all my information and even told me what my last three payments were…but I don’t HAVE a Citibank account. It was surreal. So I wondered if someone had stolen my ID. It doesn’t explain why I haven’t gotten a statement but the whole thing was weird.
I don’t know if it was a scam or if I’ve been robbed of ID. HAs anyone heard of anything like that?
I’ve found this site useful in the past regarding ID theft. It might answer that question, but more importantly, it will give you suggestions on what to do if you were the victim of ID theft.
Did she have your SSN? Did she tell you your billing address, and was it your actual mailing address? If so, hard to understand why you didn’t get a bill. Although I don’t think they would call until things were 60 or 90 days overdue. Did she say how far overdue? Did you cancel the account? Did she say she would initiate an investigation? If she didn’t show any concern for the fact that you said you don’t actually have this account, it could have been a scam. Call back Citibank customer service and ask them about it.
You are only entitled to a free credit report if you have been denied credit based on a credit report. Otherwise I think it’s still not too expensive to order your own, somewhere in the range of $5-25. (I haven’t checked those online guys so I don’t know how they can advertise free but then charge you for it.)
Well this is the deal. My boyfriend answered the phone and didn’t know that I didn’t have a Citibank account. He ended up giving her a check over the phone which I have cancelled but the whole thing scares the crap out of me. He didn’t check the address but she knew my name and social. If it were identity theft, how would they get my correct phone number. Wouldn’t they use a bogus number too?
I thought about that but I am not delinquent in any of my payments with any of my cards and none of them match the three payments that she left. It was all weird…
Your boyfriend managed to give all the account infomation a scammer would need, in the form of a “Check by phone”. The routing number on a check gives your account, and the check number a scammer should use, so as to not arouse suspision. Does your boyfriend really have your social security number memorized? Are you sure it wasn’t a “Huh, um yeah, that sounds right” kind of response?
This probably should go without saying, but unless you and your boyfriend have a joint account (and probably not even then) he should NOT ever, EVER give out ANY of your personal information to anyone, especially over the phone. Get your credit report from the three major credit reporting companies and immediately intiate a dispute for any accounts that you don’t recognize.
Citibank actually is something of a parent company for a lot of other credit card issuers and loan issuers; it’s entirely possible that you have a card that was issued by a bank under a different name but ultimately it is a Citibank account. I’ve had lots of problems with Citibank, so I personally would advise against continuing business with a Citibank company. Just my view there…
Oh, BTW, unless you can conclusively verify that your BF in fact talked to a genuine employee of a real honest-to-God legitimate financial institution, you probably want to close the checking account he paid with and get a new one with a different routing #.
If you don’t, some scammer could just forge a check with this information and wipe out the account… or hit it with automatic clearing house (ACH) drafts.
Okay, just to update all the fabulously helpful SD’ers who offered their wisdom yesterday when I was freakin’ out, I found out the - Straight Dope on what happened. I pulled my credit report and found no acccounts owned by citibank and no accounts that were delinquent. What I did discover after a lot of sleuthing is that the account in question is in the name of my kind (but financially irresponsible) ex-husband.
I LMAO just thinking about it - BF paid X’s overdue Visa. Is that funny or what? Maybe it’s just my sick sense of humor.