havepeace

I've been reading through the various threads re: 1099-C and understand the basics (I think). Have had some success disputing things off my reports, but there are a few sticky line items I haven't been able to get rid of. Every single one of my negatives is due to drop off within a year- if I'm unsuccessful in disputing those off, should I expect a flurry of 1099-C forms? Would I have received them already for balances written off 6+ years ago? I'd always understood that the biggest risk for allowing balances to age off as opposed to disputing them off is that they remain on the "full review" report (or whatever it's called) for life. No? *I should add that I'll probably try some more disputes, but at this point, discouraged.

Sorry- I now realize that was as clear as mud! What I meant in that first comment was that because my card is now reporting as closed, I'm ASSUMING a new tradeline will appear with the new number. But I double-checked today and the new line has yet to appear.

Would definitely turn it in. It's just the right thing to do, and given that I suffer a guilty complex about things I haven't even done, can't imagine living that bag of money! And though it would've been generous of the guy to pay out a bigger reward...he didn't have to give the sisters anything. Not to be all pollyanna about it, but trully believe that doing the right things is its own reward. Having said all that, how the hell does a person lose a bag full of cash in the first place?!

Thank you! Just to clarify for everyone, a new TL hasn't (yet) appeared- my reports are now indicating that the account is paid/closed, lost/stolen. I guess we'll have to wait and see how the new account number reports...

Really??? Well, that's a relief then...maybe this is just a temporary dip. Thanks, you two!

As some of you may recall, recently my Orchard card was compromised and whomever did it went on an esoteric online shopping spree and sent random stuff to my house, which is just...weird. Have to say that Orchard, along with all of the vendors involved, have been extremely helpful; most of the merchandise (books, candy) they told me to keep, some I was able to return with minimum shipping costs, but all charges were reversed, to my great relief. (Side note, whatever you think of Disney, they have the most chipper, upbeat, professional customer service reps on the planet! Every time I spoke with them, I envisioned little animated squirrels, bunnies and butterflies, blinking helpfully...) Obviously I cancelled the card as soon as the theft was discovered, and Orchard issued a new one. What I hadn't anticipated is that the new card is now a new tradeline on my reports and the old card is reporting as "paid" and "lost or stolen." I've lost a couple years' history and my fako scores have taken a 20-point hit. Has anyone else had this experience? I'm grateful that this is the worst of a bad situation (so far) but am frustrated that something over which I had no control has now reversed some of the good I've been working toward for the past several years. Criminals suck!!! (Should also mention that my anti-spyware blocked an attack from a trojan recently which is described as a "bank-data collector" in so many words, so wondering if that's how my info was collected when all this began...fyi...)

I've had the card since August and just this week received my first increase of $200 (didn't request it). My utilization is pretty high too- I don't use it every month but when I do it's usually for plane tickets, hotels and other big ticket charges. I'm embarassed to actually hand it to a clerk so it's basically my online shopping card

Thanks for the info- was debating cancelling CS anyway as it never seems to update.

With all the recent tales of Hooters chopping limits willy-nilly, imagine my surprise to find that they just raised my limit from $700 to $900. Not much of an increase, but given I didn't request it...kind of interesting. I'm wondering if it's because, for the first time since carrying the card, I carried a balance AND withdrew a cash advance. The cash advance fee was ridiculously expensive for a $40 withdrawal (had little choice - came up juuuust short of that $3500 tax debt I'd posted about a few months back) but I'm just wondering if that triggered the CLI. Curious.

I also failed to mention that I haven't car-jacked anyone this week, because that's not the point of the post. The point of the post is that someone was using my credit card to make unauthorized purchases, and I'm dealing with the fallout, which, by the way, to date, does not guarantee that I'll be refunded every dollar. Obviously I have no interest in keeping a bunch of useless crap I didn't order in the first place, and would return it if I could. It's just a little insulting that you would assume otherwise, for no apparent reason. Hope it never happens to you.

Excuse me, but I contacted each and every merchant as soon as I discovered the fraud, and each and every merchant told me to "keep" the merchandise. Any other opinions about my fault in this scenario?

Wow, Cherry- that's pretty sloppy. I only wish my culprit would do something so stupid...would absolutely love to find this person.

Vintage- I would say we're probably about 3 hours from that town, give or take. I'm calling that a weird coincidence (but loving your investigative skills!). As for the purchases, the stores wouldn't disclose anything to me, but I do know that the Disney movies have shipped, so can provide an update when they arrive. With the other two- all I know is that the PeanutLab thing was some sort of game/toy, but the guy couldn't tell me what, and that with the stevemaddon.com purchase- that's a high-end shoe/accessory store, but when they tried to place the order with my card, a fraud 'flag' prevented it from going through. Which, again, if the police would just call them to find out what the flag was...!!! GAH! I'm also expecting a book (or maybe even two) to arrive from the book of the month club memberships...very curious to see what they ordered... One last thing I'm loath to admit...I spent an hour on the phone last night with my wi-fi provider and it turns out that our network wasn't as secure as I'd thought. We remedied that, but that may be how this all happened...upset with myself, lesson learned.

*UPDATE* My first package arrived. The personalized M&Ms were pink and yellow, with a nonsensical "SFDSFD" printed on them. There was also a candy dispenser with "Class of 2010" printed on it. My husband found the package accidentally when he was leaving the house at 12:30, so we don't know exactly when it was delivered. Anyone else weirded out by the "personalization"? They obviously just hit some random keys. So I brought the canister into the office and was planning to leave it on the front desk and write a funny note, letting coworkers know that it had come from my serial killer stalker, but my boss insisted that I give it to him as "evidence" - even though the police could care less - and he also urged me to talk to our local newspaper...I work in Marketing so we have press contacts...and I think I'm actually going to do that. Having read others' stories about identity theft, and offering leads to police which they just didn't bother to pursue...leads which could've prevented further damage...well, if the paper thinks it's a story, I'm willing to tell it. Stay tuned...

Thanks for all the encouragement I'm just being complainey. I'll stop.