cookzee Duckster is giving a pretty silly worst case scenario but I think that you are hopelessly naive to think that a quick call to the 1800 number of the issuing bank is all it will take to deal with some clown getting a card in your name. I know people who have had this credit cards taken out in their names fraudulently. They all were able to resolve things without real financial problems but it was a big headache and a waste of a lot of their time.
Yeah, I assumed you’d know I wasn’t asking about the fireplace. 
I am interested, and a link would be appreciated,
Thanks
Yeah, but any good thief will change the address. Don’t want to alert you.
Then I won’t get a bill and won’t have to bother calling the CC company.
I might find out about it some day. But it’s still not my problem or my money. If they lose enough money doing that, maybe they’ll reconsider their business model.
The problem is the dumpster divers in my neighborhood seem to only be interested in aluminum cans. So nothing has happened yet. One can always hope.
Can you say, from m-w;
Peace,
mangeorge
“Obstinate.”
I like the sound of that.
Here are the links in another thread.
Go to the final post.
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It is not just credit cards. Identity thieves like to leverage things into bigger schemes.
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The CC companies think it’s your problem until proven otherwise. It sometimes takes a lot of work (and is occasionally impossible) to do so.
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The CC companies are not perfect. In fact, far from it. Stuff that shouldn’t go onto your credit report gets added all the time.
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The merchant’s frequently still try to collect from you. They’ll claim it really was you and you are just trying to get out of paying the bill. You can get into a “It Never Ends” nightmare.
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Reporting a lot a fraud associated with your credit report downgrades your credit rating. Makes credit harder/more expensive to get.
In short: This is incredibly naive thinking.
Bingo. I’ve had my identity stolen once, a little over a decade ago, and it wasn’t just a credit score that was at risk; whomever had stolen my identity was using it to rent (and subsequently steal) video game systems from video rental shops. The shops did the logical thing and reported me as a thief, and I got to deal with the county sheriff department for a while to get things cleared up. If it hadn’t been for a store clerk who confidently asserted that I wasn’t the guy who’d rented a game console, despite having the same identifying information, I’d probably have gone to jail. (Nightmare scenario: I’m a video game collector, and have a half dozen models of a given system sitting around that happens to be the same system stolen by a guy who’s using my identity. How do I explain that to a guy who’s just come in on a search warrant?)
Yeah, I’ve got great credit. Always have. And I still nearly got screwed.
One of the ways you might find out about it is when you get served with the statement of claim in civil court from the credit card company. Then it becomes your problem.
Suppose I know a person’s complete name and address. How do I get his/her SSN? Is it in the library? On the Internet?
Only if they steal an application that I’ve filled out with my SSN. (Maybe they’re raiding mailboxes.) I’m talking about unsolicited forms with no info on them.
Please explain exactly how they got your SSN.
Why not shred? Are shredders high power users?
Are we all talking about the same thing here? The OP was about whether a crook could use those applications you get in the mail to commit credit card fraud. And whether you should destroy them. The OP also mentioned the problem that the application would need a correct Social Security number.
Somehow this has morphed into identity theft, which I think would take a bit more than an application that came in the mail.
My position is that I don’t think a person can obtain a credit card that way. They would need something more than that.
I may be wrong about that but I don’t care. If it’s so easy to do the system is broken. Not my job to fix it.
Also, as I despise the moneylenders with their usurious rates, I feel no obligation to do anything to protect them from fraud.
Student Driver, I am sorry that you had trouble 10 years ago. But some of your post isn’t clear. When you say that the thief had the same identifying info as you, do you mean a driver’s license? That would be way beyond the scope of the OP.
And why would you be worried about a search warrant? There are these things called serial numbers. The merchants involved would have to supply them to the police. No match, no arrest. Lots of people own games systems like that, right? Can’t go arresting them all. Our jails in California are so crowded we have 82 minute jail terms. The police are expected to use their heads.
As for ending up in court—I kind of doubt it. They would send me some kind of a demand letter and I would respond that I don’t have an account with them. I’m sorry (not really) but it looks like they got scammed. However, if they thought I could be of help to them in any way, please feel free to contact me. I really would like to find out what people who commit credit card fraud spend the money on.
I would love to go to court, though. My argument would be on the line that the CC company sent a card to an address I don’t live at, and now that it has $8000 charged on it, plus $12000 late fees, they think I should pay for it? My defense is that they are all a bunch of dumb asses. And while we are at it, let’s see the application.
There is this common theme in the movies and TV where someone is accused of something and he goes, “Oh my god, they will never believe that I didn’t do it.” This is the Low Self Esteem plot device. Then the accused becomes a detective and sets out to catch the real crook/killer. Right.
it’s the other way around. They have to prove you did it.
As for getting your SSN, that can’t be too hard. It would have to be someone with access to this info. It’s everywhere.
Medicare uses the SSN as an ID number, so any medical offices, pharmacies which handle Medicare D, hospitals and clinics would have that number.
I’m sure that postal workers would be able to obtain it easily.
My brother was in the Army 30 years ago and his SSN was stamped on his dog tags. I wonder if they still do that. Hope not.
Any place that you’ve ever applied for credit, like a furniture store.
Schools. Any place you ever worked. The IRS. They all have access. Could probably list much more if I put my mind to it.
Do these people dumpster dive? That is the question.
Because they don’t ask you to?
I went thru my mail and found an application from Bank of America. They ask for a SSN.
Most of the pages that came with the application have very tiny type. Using a magnfying lens, nowhere could I find any advice to shred,
It would seem to me that if it were important there would be a message:
WARNING—should this document fall into the wrong hands you could encounter severe damage to your credit rating. Please dispose of this in a secure manner. Shredding and used cat litter recommended.
So I should be at the beck and call of B of A?
I don’t think so.
I shall shred to my heart’s content.
One warning;
Do not challenge this board to discover your SSN. I speak from experience.
Cookeze, we might agree to stipulate to the position that credit card companies are evil, or at least that it is not the individual’s responsibility to assist them in holding and collecting on valid and profitable debt.
However, your position further holds an incorrect assumption, and an opinion with which I disagree.
The incorrect assumption is “They would send [you] some kind of a demand letter.” The demand letter is more likely to go to the address on the application, not the one to which the application was sent. The company could easily get a judgement against you without your knowledge. The first you know of the card might be seeing the nasty entry on your credit report. Or the bench warrant.
The opinion with which I disagree is “it’s still not my problem or my money.”
The companies don’t just eat the losses due to fraud; they raises the fees to consumers and to businesses. If you patronize establishments that accept credit cards, you are paying higher prices to offset the fees paid to the CCC, which pay for the losses to fraud.
While I agree that the CCCs are irresponsible, I don’t see why you should risk paying the price for that irresponsibility.
Two adages come to mind:
Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.
Pick your battles.
They’ll get your correct address after the damage is done.
I suspect ol’ cookeze might be having us on. 
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