Adventures in Identity Theft!

I generally go to my financial institution’s website once a week or so to make sure everything’s lining up with our own records, that nothing out of the ordinary is going on, etc. Until this week, everything was fine.

Then on Wednesday, I noticed three mystery charges. They were for $19.99 each, and each had “BLIZZARD-ENT*ELECU, 800-592-5499, CA” in the description field. “Blizzard Entertainment,” I thought. “That’s the World of Warcraft company.” After a little Google sleuthing, it seems that I was the victim of identity theft. Some pimple-faced teenager (or some 40-year-old comic store employee living in his mom’s basement) who couldn’t afford the $20/month decided that my money would be well-spent on a WoW account. And it seems that I wasn’t the only person that this exact thing had happened to recently.

I immediately called my bank, canceled my debit card, and had them send me a new one with a new number, so next time the loser’s account cycles, it’ll get canceled. Called Blizzard, but they weren’t too much help (but they were cordial). Tomorrow, I’ll be filing a dispute with the bank to get my $60 back.

All things told, this was little more than an annoyance, but it was a HUGE annoyance. I’m quite vigilant when it comes to my personal information on the Internet. Unfortunately, that was taken out of my hands recently, as I received a letter from the Ohio Department of Taxation, stating that my name and SSN were among those contained on a stolen computer (this story was all over the news). That’s the only way I can think of that this fool could’ve gotten the information needed to make charges to my card. Fortunately, the letter offers a free year of “identity protection” from a company called Debix.

I think I’ll take them up on that.