I got home last night to find my mailbox full of new Macy's and Bloomingdale's credit cards. None of these credit cards had been activated and they all had stickers on them indicating that I had to call from a home phone in order to use them. I was concerned because none of these letters was mailed to my address but had been forwarded by the post office.
I did call from my home phone, but to cancel these cards rather than activate them. When I finally got through to a person, she informed me that the credit cards were opened and maxed out ON THE SAME DAY. I asked her how the cards could have been used if I had never activated them and the criminal who opened them hadn't even known my address. The woman replied that Macy's does not verify address, phone number or identity in any way. If they have a social security number, they will open a line of credit and run it to the max on the same day.
All in all, Macy's allowed the criminal who obtained my social security number to open:
- 2 lines of credit at Macy's
- 2 lines of credit at Bloomingdale's
- Max out all lines of credit (over $10,000).
This was all done with the following information:
- social security number - real
- name - real
- address - fake
- drivers licsence - fake
- phone number - fake
They made no attempt to verify the address or phone number and they made no attempt to verify that they could locate the person that they were extending over $10,000 of credit.
I'm done shopping at Macy's or Bloomingdale's. I am, however, considering shorting their stock. If they are this desperate to make sales they must be taking a beating in the current economic downturn.
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