A Quick Scare

Through an interesting set of co incidents I had brief scare that I was a victim of identity theft.

I’ve always tried to be fairly conscious of my personal information, but you might recall that not too long ago my wallet was “lost” and I never got anything back. The only thing that was ever returned was my driver’s license, which showed up in the mail about two months later. Kind of odd.

Over the last week I was in California. Most of it was business, but since I had to be there on Tuesday I flew in on Friday and went snowboarding with one of my co-workers.
We headed up to Dodge Ridge near the Tahoe area and got some nice fresh powder in due to the storms rolling in off the Pacific.

About 2 days ago while still in California I get a call from someone at Tejas De Brazil on my cell phone. They wanted to let me know that I had left my credit card up there, but that they had locked it up in their safe.

I immediately called them back and spoke to the manager. They asked if I was Mr. “Smith” and of course I said I was. They said they had my credit card. I explained to them that I was in California and that was not possible. Again, they confirmed that I was Mr. “Smith.” And had I ever dined there before. I explained that I had, but it had been years and I was in California and there was no way that was me. It bothered me that they called me on my cell phone and so I asked how they got the number. They told me that the person left that number when making the reservations – for a party of NINE! This place goes for about $50 a plate, so figure the bill was somewhere around $500 not including any alcohol.

I politely asked for the name on the credit card. Surprisingly enough it was almost identical to my legal name. The only real difference being that the first name on the card was close to my middle name (which I go by), and the middle initial was the same as my legal first name. You can imagine that with a name like “Smith” that it could easily be a coincidence if you excluded the fact that they called ME on my cell phone.

Now I am thinking that someone is trying to pull a fast one. I get as much information as I could and call up “Rip-U Bank,” which is the bank on the card that Tejas De Brazil had. Coincidentally my credit card is always with a “Rip-U Bank.” At first I got a little bent out of shape because they wanted MY account information. I asked what would happen if I didn’t have an account with “Rip-U?” Did that mean that they wouldn’t explore the possibility of identity theft? No no no…of course not! Then the security guy asks how long I’ve had my cell phone and I explained it was at least seven years old.

Now the guy hypothesizes that someone with a nearly identical name as mine just happened to transpose a couple of numbers for his cell phone and that they accidentally called me. I asked if he was serious or kidding and that I’d have better odds of hitting the lotto. He did not find me very amusing, but I wasn’t laughing, either.

After being assured a call back I took his name and manager’s name. They indicated they would note it on my account and return my call.

The next day, no call. Imagine that, eh? I called them today and got a different guy on the phone. This guy was very helpful. He called the merchant while I was on hold and got all of the account information for the card that was the restaurant. He looked up that account and then cross-referenced it to mine. NOTHING matched. That’s good! It just means that we have nearly identical names.

So the big mystery is how they called me on my cell phone. The “Rip-U” bank guy figured this one out after talking to Tejas for a while. Well, as it turns out if you ever go to Tejas De Brazil and make a reservation they stick your number into a database. When the guy left his credit card they looked up MY name instead of his and called me. That made much more sense.

It was a bit of a frightening experience, but all is well in the end. “Rip-U” bank even put a security hold on my credit cards until we straightened this out. The only thing that really irks me is that the first guy just didn’t seem to take this very seriously.