Identity Theft

Identity Theft blog post by Iris Carden

In the past couple of weeks a couple of major Australian organisations have had data breaches with customer data taken.

Lots of people have had to go and get new drivers’ licences (new numbers), and pay extra attention to how our personal data is secured.

At the same time, I was the subject of the world’s dumbest attempt at identity theft.

This person used my name, my email address, and a credit card number which I think, but am not sure, might be the old one my bank cancelled when there was a suspicious charge to it some time ago. They ordered something online, using my information, but with an overseas delivery address.

Because they used my email address, the order confirmation came to my email address, to me, not to the person impersonating me.

I emailed the seller back to tell them this was not my order, that my identity had clearly been stolen, an email the company apparently ignored.

A couple of days later, I received an email saying unfortunately my order had been cancelled, because there was an issue with the credit card used for payment. (Of course there was an issue. My bank doesn’t mess around with suspicious transactions.) I again emailed the seller and told them I had not ordered anything from them and this was a case of identity theft.

Yesterday, I received an email from the seller saying there had been a request to reset the password on my account, and a link to create the new password.

Now I don’t know whether I should attempt to email the seller again, or just use the link to reset the password then close down the account.

Because I have the order confirmation email, I have the physical address of the person who tried to steal my identity, and a very childish part of me is considering sending them a glitter bomb. The adult part of my brain, however tells me that is a pointless waste of money I could otherwise spend books.

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