I did something incomprehensibly stupid...

[stroker]

I needed to have my taxes reviewed and my new cpa demanded a copy of my daughter's Social Security card. I asked my ex-wife two months ago to lay hands on it but she finally said she couldn't find it. I went online to find out how to order a replacement and didn't realize I was NOT on the official government site. I went through the process to autofill the necessary government form and paid the $50 (again, incredibly stupid) but the point is that I gave not just my SS# but also my kid's SS# to a website.

So now what do I do to stop our identities being stolen?

[datachicane]

Hmm- it's a scam insofar as they charge for things that you can otherwise do for free (I'm looking at you, freecreditreports.com), but depending on the specific website it doesn't necessarily mean that they're in the business of selling SSNs on the dark web or anything. Your local DOJ probably has a unit specifically for consumer fraud issues like this (here in Oregon, it's DCBS), I'd run the specific website past them for any insight they may have.

[nrc]

Wow, that sucks.

The obvious answer is that you need to sign up for credit monitoring and identity protection as soon as possible. I wish I could offer some advice on which one is best for your case. I've been using Credit Karma because it's free and I don't consider myself "high risk" but I wouldn't recommend them anyway because they were recently bought by Intuit and their model seems to be becoming spamming for financial services.

In your case you want something with not just strong alerting capability, but some kind of protection and clean-up services. You can read the reviews as well as I can but I would stay away from services that are owned by credit card or credit rating companies. You want something that monitors all three major credit rating services and is interested in you as a customer of their service, not a source for data that they can resell.

Hopefully someone here has direct experience with one of these and can provide some feedback.

As an aside I would add that one thing that has really helped us in all aspects of our finances has been moving away from reliance on credit toward operating on cash whenever possible. Aside from the obvious financial benefits, when credit transactions are a rare occurrence anything that touches your credit stands out like a sore thumb.

Also, not sure whether you have any kind of phishing protection on your system. None of them are perfect so it may not have helped but it's worth looking into.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

[nrc]

Hmm- it's a scam insofar as they charge for things that you can otherwise do for free (I'm looking at you, freecreditreports.com), but depending on the specific website it doesn't necessarily mean that they're in the business of selling SSNs on the dark web or anything. Your local DOJ probably has a unit specifically for consumer fraud issues like this (here in Oregon, it's DCBS), I'd run the specific website past them for any insight they may have.

For 99% percent of people with a clean credit report I would agree with you 100% on this. Most people don't need anything more than some kind of free credit monitoring so they can see if something suspicious pops up on their report. Just beware of how those "free" services are being paid for. Are you the customer or the product?

But if you feed not only social security numbers, but also other personal identifying information into a site specifically designed to harvest that information from unsuspecting victims I'd say that you're at high risk of some kind of identity theft. In that case I feel like a small, temporary, investment in some kind of insurance from a reputable provider to protect from a worst case credit disaster is probably worthwhile.

[TravelGal]

There must be something in the water. When I got my new computer, I was having trouble downloading AOL Gold. Yes, yes, I know. AOL. :shakehead::shakehead: I've had it since version 3 so changing is harder than keeping. (NB, I have 17 email addresses that I check multiple times a day including Gmail so I'm not too much of a troglodyte.) In any case, as I tried to download a popup appeared to start a chat. I did. I was fairly swiftly letting these crooks into my new computer. Fortunately, I save almost NO passwords, preferring to type them in every time, but I felt like a first class dummy. So far, I seem to have had no ill effects but I'm in the process of changing every password on every single site I use. Talk about a chore.

[datachicane]

For 99% percent of people with a clean credit report I would agree with you 100% on this. Most people don't need anything more than some kind of free credit monitoring so they can see if something suspicious pops up on their report. Just beware of how those "free" services are being paid for. Are you the customer or the product?

But if you feed not only social security numbers, but also other personal identifying information into a site specifically designed to harvest that information from unsuspecting victims I'd say that you're at high risk of some kind of identity theft. In that case I feel like a small, temporary, investment in some kind of insurance from a reputable provider to protect from a worst case credit disaster is probably worthwhile.

I'm not talking about freecreditreports.com as an alternative to a proper identity theft monitoring service. I'm talking about freecreditreport.com and their ilk profiting from offering services to customers that are available free and without strings or come-ons from the proper entities, just as ssn-file.com or whoever stroker got hung up with are charging for a service that the SSA provides for free.

An identity theft protection service may well be in your future, although your DOJ may help you determine the level of risk represented by the specific outfit you gave your info to.

[stroker]

Can anyone suggest a company who could help me with credit monitoring? I'm assuming something like "Lifelock"...?

[gjc2]

Yes, yes, I know. AOL. :shakehead::shakehead: I've had it since version 3 so changing is harder than keeping.

I keep my AOL account for the same reason.

[nrc]

Can anyone suggest a company who could help me with credit monitoring? I'm assuming something like "Lifelock"...?

I wish I had more to offer. Here are a couple of comparisons that may help. Lifelock seems a bit pricey but they do have a large company (Symantec) behind them so they would seem like a safe bet.

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-identity-theft-protection/

https://money.com/best-identity-theft-protection/

[pfc_m_drake]

There's a few things that I would do if I were you:

1) Call one of the three Credit Bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and get a rep on the phone. Tell them that you have not yet been the victim of Identity Theft, but that your Social Security card was stolen and you want to place a Fraud Alert (https://www.equifax.com/personal/help/fraud-alert-credit-scores/) on your credit. They will ask you for a phone number to place alongside the Fraud Alert. If someone tries to open an account with your SS, then the institution which is opening the account is required to call that number to verify your identity.

The Fraud Alert is good for a year, but you can renew it after that by calling back. You may wish to do the same thing with your daughter's social security number but you'll need to coordinate with your ex-wife. Also the one bureau that you call will allegedly coordinate with the other two bureaus on the fraud alert but feel free to call all three individually because it doesn't hurt.

I would actually check my credit report with annual credit report FIRST to make sure nothing has been compromised prior to making the call for the Fraud Alert.

2) Log onto the IRS website and set up an account with them. You'll want to take out a PIN number so that nobody can file your taxes for you using your social security number. You'll need to renew the PIN every year and the IRS uses two-factor authentication now so again a cell phone would be handy here. You'll need to give the pin to your accountant so that he can file your taxes for you. The PIN is entered with your actual tax return.

3) Obviously get a new SS card for your daughter from the legit site

4) As far as ID monitoring services, I actually have 3. One I got for free (courtesy of the government data breech a few years ago). We have ID Shield through my employer, and I purchase Norton LifeLock on my own. Of the three, I find LifeLock to be the 'best'.
Though they can only do so much.

My only advice would be that it sucks, but time is of the essence. They have your information (and were obviously trying to scam you to get it...so they ARE intent on using it. But you can head them off if you're proactive NOW.

I feel for you. It sucks. Good luck.

[pfc_m_drake]

Additionaly, since you paid them $50, they also have whatever Credit Card/Debit Card number that you gave them for that $50 payment, so you need to call your financial institution and get a new card number issued straight away. At the same time, check for fraudulent charges there.