Should I be worrying about identity theft right now or am I being paranoid?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I got a call today from someone purporting to be calling for a collection agency about an outstanding debt to Fido. I’ve never had an account with Fido, and the conversation was basically me explaining that I’m not the person they’re looking for.

I didn’t think much about it during the call, because I have a very common name, and it’s a listed number.

The very instant I hung up, however, I realized that, since the caller ID was blocked, I have no way of knowing that the caller was calling from who where they said they were calling from, and, more importantly, that I’d just given out personal information to someone without knowing who they were, and I might have been a gullible idiot for volunteering information with no resistance at all.

In order to put my mind at rest, I called Fido and found at least that they do use a collection agency with the same name as I was given. I got the collection agency’s number and have been trying to get some confirmation that someone actually called me from there, but so far they have been totally unhelpful.

I hope that I’m being paranoid here – the information that I gave out was my full name, current address, and date of birth. They didn’t ask for my social insurance number, mother’s maiden name, or anything beyond that.

How worried should I be? Should I continue to sit here on hold and getting bounced around from person to person at this collection agency until I’m positive that they really called me? I made the mistake of starting the conversation by saying that I’m not the Larry who has any motivation to give them money, but rather a Larry who want them take a few minutes out of their day to help me.

Should I wait a while and call back simply identifying myself as Larry X, calling about an outstanding debt to Fido, and fish until they confirm that they are trying to contact such a person about such a debt, and then explain myself?

Or am I getting anxious about something that’s probably nothing, here?

2

If Bob Smith owes money to XYZ collections, XYZ will call every Bob Smith in the phone book to find the right one. Also, the Robert Smythes, etc. etc. etc.

3

The only private information you really gave out was your date of birth - everything else sounds like its public domain. I think how companies are supposed to do it is tell you your information, and ask you if that is correct. I know I’ve talked with Revenue Canada way more times in the last year than anyone would ever want to, and they never gave me the impression that it was someone fishing for my id, and RevCan wants A LOT of personal info over the phone.

Speaking of id theft, etc, my mom had her debit card spoofed a couple of weeks ago here in Calgary for a couple of hundred dollars - I might be more worried about that than giving my birthdate over the phone. Hide your PIN when typing it in (I cover with both hands now, plus bending over the machine), and never let your card out of your sight. My mom still doesn’t know how her bank account was compromised, but it was.

4

I don’t think you have anything to worry about. As far as why the collection agency is being reticent about communicating with you, debt collectors are very restricted in the information it can release to third parties. Once you’ve said that you’re not the person they’re looking for, there’s pretty much nothing they can say to you.

5

Larry , My SIL is an OPP Staff Sgt. working specifically on identity theft and the proceeds thereof and some of the stories he tells me are fantastic. All within the confines of confidentiality, of course.

The more sophisticated of these scam artists can do amazing damage with very little information.

This may be nothing more than a screw-up by a legitimate collection agency and probably is. However, I’m sure my SIL’s advice would be to notify your local authorities and get somethig on the record. If it turns out to be nothing, you’re out a phone call. If not, you’re ass is covered.

Think of it as chicken soup. Can’t hurt, might help.

Good Luck :wink:

6

Why not get a copy of your credit report and see if any accounts have been opened in your name? If you think your information has been compromised, you can put a flag on your report and they’ll contact you if anyone tries to open an account in your name.

7

Thanks, folks. Turns out I was being paranoid. (As is sometimes wise. Heh.)

Nobody ever called me back from there, but I called back again this morning being careful to be ambiguous enough that they would assume I was the deadbeat they were looking for, and managed to confirm that someone did call me from there yesterday, and that the end result of that call was just a notation in that file not to bother with the Larry so-and-so that picks up my telephone, because he’s not the dude.

Lotsa fun trying to walk the line between explaining why I wanted a little reassurance and sounding like a total paranoid:

“Of course we’re legit, sir, you can look us up on the internet.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that you’re legit, I just wanted to make sure it was actually you calling me. After all, I could *67 my phone and cold call some random person out of the phone book about an imaginary debt to fish for personal information, and just say I was calling from ‘CBG Collections.’ Anyone could.”

I just know from his point of view it was as idiotic as anything in the “Stupid things you’ve heard from customers” thread, though.

Ah well. I feel better.