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Thought I'd check in with Greg Mankiw to see what he has to say about yesterday's meltdown...
Isn't "May you live in interesting times" supposed to be a Chinese curse?
Or is that an urban legend?
(I was going to say "old wives' tale but thought better of it.)
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It's not clear:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times
I'm going to find out how interesting it will be as one of Countrywide's 2 million stolen motrgage records. I would never obtain a mortgage through them, but it didn't stop my choice from selling it to them. Then again, they are now owned by Bank of America, which bought out the bank I had been using.
All I can hope for is that lost data is so common that there are not enough crooks in the world to use it all. Then again, this data includes SSNs and not just credit card numbers. I can't cancel my SSN.
In our warning letter, Countrywide offered a free two-year credit monitoring service, which emails monitoring alerts to me. Of course, the service (consumerinfo.com) has a business relationship with Countrywide and has been investigated by the FBI for their illegal practices. The cure might be worse that the disease.
Oh, and most annoying was that on the second page of the Countrywide letter was a list of seven "Precautionary Measures you may want to take", like "Report lost or stolen credit cards, checks, or identification immediately." Never mind that their theft has been going on for two years and they didn't know about it. They tell me to do things that won't help when they screw up their internal security measures.
steveh,
you can simply assume that your cc info and your ssn and everything else has already been stolen. the russians and chinese hackers are so sophisticated now that they don't merely sell each other data they steal; they sell portfolios of already placed backdoors, trojan horses, and other vulnerabilites, where these vulnerabilities automatically downoad/update/refresh their datacase of identity info. and they value and trade these portfolios the way a hedge fund manager would. retailers, govts agencies, insurance cos, hospitals, schools are all compromised.
i worked in information assurance for the last few years, and it's only gotten worse.
oh brother
Ed was grousing about Countrywide the other day, saying the last place he ever wanted our mortgage to be was Countrywide, and now....our mortgage is at Countrywide
I had no idea what he was talking about
great
speaking of info being stolen, etc, we've now had two episodes of credit card theft
these things went on forever
in one case whoever stole the number appeared to be a high-roller somewhere in Europe; he bought $500 shoes in Italy and lots of train ticks
also shipped stuff to Hawaii from Nigeria, or was it the other way around
I was thinking: oh good. I'm going to enjoy discussing why it wasn't me who bought yellowcake from Nigeria (or, alternatively, shipped yellowcake TO Nigeria) on my MasterCard.
The other guy bought $15,000-worth of internet banner ads.
That was the one that took YEARS to clear up.
My husband got the Countrywide letter too, but not me which is interesting since my name and SSN are on the mortgage as well.
When I tried to sign up with their alert service, it wouldn't let me since my husband had already used the access code to protect his credit.
The Countrywide fellow I called in an effort to gain access to the protection assured me that the thieves list of stolen numbers didn't include me, or I would have gotten a letter. Hmmm
I don't feel reassured, so I called the credit reporting agency and had my accounts put under a fraud alert for 90 days.
Hmmm is right. I don't believe it.
I was the one sent the letter and my wife and I both applied for the mortgage. I've read that this is a common problem. They must have agreed to pay for only one name per mortgage.
What the fellow at customer service told me (after a rather long wait for him to find out) was that the thief didn't have access to the complete files (which would have contained my information), and that the computer report (list) the thief was able to obtain (with the security clearance he had) wouldn't have contained the secondary persons info for the mortgage.
This explanation seemed plausible, that the mortgage info is stored with the primary persons ID, and perhaps there isn't a need to get to worried. (famous last words)
My husband flys RC airplanes with a manager from the banking side at Countrywide and my husband was able to find out the following:
The thief is in (or about to go to) prison and so is the person he was selling the info to. The FBI swooped in and picked them both up. The person purchasing the info was doing so for a "list" of prospects to sell mortgage products to.
Several years ago, Bank of America put my ssn on a another person's mortgage in Texas. I still have a fraud alert and am unable to open a new cc without personally calling and verifying my identity. Not that I need any new credit cards ;-)
Meanwhile I am apparently involved in a permanent relationship with Rodale books because I haven't paid for annual exercise and diet calendar books I didn't order but did receive.
This has been going on for years.
I finally tried to call them, but couldn't find a contact number. Then I wrote a letter, but that had no effect. Calls kept coming. I wrote another letter citing the first letter, just because I figured: Why not?
Calls are still coming.
I think my next move will be actually to pick up the phone and see if talking to these folks has an effect.
I've been avoiding that because I can't quite get my story straight. I'm trying to figure out whether I should tell them what happened to the last book they sent (I barely remember the first one or two). There's an editor at Rodale who I know professionally; when the book came, I assumed it was from her. I didn't want it so I donated it to the library.
Which means....what?
I don't know.
I didn't order the book, I did receive it, and I did open it. Then I gave it away.
I'm pretty sure I should tell them I never ordered any books from you and am not going to pay for any books from you; please stop calling me.
I am torn.
train ticks = train tickets
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