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I had a friend that was a victim of ID theft and she is still fighting it.

You may have picked up a Root Kit. The only free detector, that I know of to detect and remove such it is called "Blacklight " from F-Secure.
First I would run any antispyware if you have any. If not I highly recommend Ad Aware from Lavasoft and Spybot. Get both of them they are FREE. Also get the one from Microsoft if you have not gotten it as of yet.
I would go online and run a Trend Micro anti-viral, and download Blacklight from F-Secure. ( I will provide the neccessary links below.)
Rootkits are sneaky and will evade antiviral systems and can hide... but you may have picked up a trojan or a worm is why I reccommend the above checks...first.... do as you choose though none of these will cost you anything to try.

Do you have a firewall?? Do you update your antiviral regurarly?

DO NOT RUN MORE THAN ONE ANTIVIRAL AT A TIME!!!! They will cause issues and conflicts. There is no trouble or problem running more than one antispyware.. The reason to run more than one is that so many persons are developing the spyware that not one proggie can get them all.

You can try Spy Sweeper for free for 30 days to evaluate it, before deciding to purchase it, I think it is. or buy it if you choose. Kim Komando Highly recommends it. I have tried it and it works GREAT!
BE SURE TO CHECK FOR UPDATES ON ALL OF THESE FREQUENTLY!!!!

SPYBOT -SEARCH AND DESTROY http://www.tucows.com/preview/310138

ADAWARE FROM LAVASOFT: http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html

BLACKLIGHT is available here: http://www.f-secure.com/blacklight/more.shtml

You will find numerous free antivirals online checks for Free and Free firewalls as well here AVG anti viral and Zone Alarm Firewall are the best out there at least in many opiions and are FREE for home use or they have versions you can purchase IF YOU so choose.
Scroll down for TrendMicro Housecall or use others IF you so choose:
http://www.freebyte.com/antivirus/#scanners
The check they perform is only good while you are online. I use it to verify my system is safe.
Hopefully someone will come out with a decent and reliable rootkit detector sometime soon.
Best of Luck and I hope tthat the this is nipped in the bud and that the person gets prosecuted to the maximum plus 20 years.( not gonna happen I know but is nice to dream it!!)

Thanks, Sam.
That is very generous of you to type in all that info for me. I first heard of this Root Kit when I was reading the Sony CD site. So much more info than I want to know, but we have to know to protect ourselves.

I've got the sheriff's dept. in that state calling me back... I called the wrong county first, but they gave me the name of the person at the address I already had. I hope this going to be resolved quickly!

I'll keep y'all posted on how it pans out...

Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

carolinagirl wrote:Thanks, Sam.
That is very generous of you to type in all that info for me. I first heard of this Root Kit when I was reading the Sony CD site. So much more info than I want to know, but we have to know to protect ourselves.

I've got the sheriff's dept. in that state calling me back... I called the wrong county first, but they gave me the name of the person at the address I already had. I hope this going to be resolved quickly!

I'll keep y'all posted on how it pans out...

Well it is better late than pregnant so to speak and it is hard to recover (if not impossible) once the info is out...one thing people do is sell the info. I do not know what credit cards were involved but at least two compaanies have lost data on well over MILLION customers.That does not mean it was stolen that means they lost it....The companies were suppose to contact the affected customers......
Also, generally your credit card is safer online than say purchasing in a restaurant where you give the card to someone you don't known and they go off to take care of the bill.

However Sy can no doubt verify this that Identity theft has recently become more of a money maker than illegal drugs....so no doubt more unscrupulous people are out there branching out into the business so to speak. Alot of smaller law enforcement agencies do not have the manpower or resources to combat such type crime. Your state investigation bureau may have a dedicated department to contact as well.
So along with the local authorities I would contact them as well.

I wish you all the best and also something I am not sure of you may want to look into is contacting the FBI if the person involved is out of state. I am not sure, but I THINK they have a division set up to work Identity Theft.

I will do a look up for you and see what else I can find for you.
I hope the info is of some help and use to you, and that you do not suffer any further problems.

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

I got a sheriff in a Western state working on it...

He says he may be calling in the FBI tomorrow...

We have a name, address, phone number... This is exciting!

carolinagirl wrote:

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

I got a sheriff in a Western state working on it...

He says he may be calling in the FBI tomorrow...

We have a name, address, phone number... This is exciting!

Wait - you have a name and address and you're not letting Sam cap this schmuck a few times. Jeez, some friend you are.

mings wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

I got a sheriff in a Western state working on it...

He says he may be calling in the FBI tomorrow...

We have a name, address, phone number... This is exciting!

Wait - you have a name and address and you're not letting Sam cap this schmuck a few times. Jeez, some friend you are.

CG, I just hope that it does not get to "exciting" for for you. And that this is the only person involved. They cannot be very smart if they used their real name and address to do that to you. I dunno if these links were posted earlier or not but they might be of use or of interest to you: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/idthft_ncpw.htm
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
They have useful information, suggestions/recommendations, and other links.

Mings, Actually, I think I would stake the sucker out over a fireant bed and save the price of the bullets, besides bullets would be to quick and easy for such a lowlife.....or perhaps a few days and nights staked out alone with skeeters and other "interesting critters".....

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

I got a sheriff in a Western state working on it...

He says he may be calling in the FBI tomorrow...

We have a name, address, phone number... This is exciting!

Wait - you have a name and address and you're not letting Sam cap this schmuck a few times. Jeez, some friend you are.

CG, I just hope that it does not get to "exciting" for for you. And that this is the only person involved. They cannot be very smart if they used their real name and address to do that to you. I dunno if these links were posted earlier or not but they might be of use or of interest to you: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/idthft_ncpw.htm
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
They have useful information, suggestions/recommendations, and other links.

Mings, Actually, I think I would stake the sucker out over a fireant bed and save the price of the bullets, besides bullets would be to quick and easy for such a lowlife.....or perhaps a few days and nights staked out alone with skeeters and other "interesting critters".....

Wow. you've got a sinister side to you that I never noticed before. Cool.

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:

Sam wrote:

mings wrote:Get a gun (or Sam) and just go find the f******r.

I could/would do that if the price is right..... MUHAHHAHAHAAHHAAAHAHAHAHA

I got a sheriff in a Western state working on it...

He says he may be calling in the FBI tomorrow...

We have a name, address, phone number... This is exciting!

Wait - you have a name and address and you're not letting Sam cap this schmuck a few times. Jeez, some friend you are.

CG, I just hope that it does not get to "exciting" for for you. And that this is the only person involved. They cannot be very smart if they used their real name and address to do that to you. I dunno if these links were posted earlier or not but they might be of use or of interest to you: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheft.htm
http://www.usps.com/postalinspectors/idthft_ncpw.htm
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
They have useful information, suggestions/recommendations, and other links.

Mings, Actually, I think I would stake the sucker out over a fireant bed and save the price of the bullets, besides bullets would be to quick and easy for such a lowlife.....or perhaps a few days and nights staked out alone with skeeters and other "interesting critters".....

Thanks, Sam, I hope it stays "good" exciting, like tracking down a hacker, but not bizarrely "all my money is gone" exciting. They didn't use their real name; they used my name to order stuff off the internet, after changing the address on my credit card to their address. I got their name after calling a sheriff in a nearby county in their state, who tracked down the address and told me who lived there. They also created an email addy in my name on Yahoo. I've notified Yahoo.

I'm afraid to explain too much about it, because I don't know who is reading Buffett News or where they got my info! I'll let y'all know after it all pans out. The local sheriff was going to get a statement today and call me back. He said he is going to have to involve the FBI! (That's the exciting part again.)

Last month I got a call from my bank informing me that I was overdrawn. They then told me that I had a bunch of charges from a merchant in Mexico. As I haven't been to Mexico in several years and I've never used my primary account debit card for travel I knew it wasn't legit. I have disputed the charges and in about two more weeks they will be gone.

As near as we can tell the method that they are using is something along the following:

A number generator that is programmed to create 16 digit numbers starting with 4 or 5 (Visa, Mastercard). Then they have another program try to get a soft (verify the number basically) approval for each number. Any number that gets an approval is flagged and they create a card with that number. Then they run as much and as quickly as they can on that number.

The scary part is how there isn't a defense against this scam other then watching your statements VERY closely.

carolinagirl wrote:It's happening to me! I just got a call from a credit card I own saying that it had been used to make an atypical purchase, for $1,000 on the Internet!

They changed the address and phone number and created a Yahoo account in my name.

I feel like one of those commercials on TV with someone else's voice, using my identity... I've made a local police report, and have requested my credit report. I'm calling all my other cards to alert them or change the numbers. This card was in my wallet, not missing.

Any other advice? Has this happened to you?

Check out this site for help http://www.clarkhoward.com

12vmanRick wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:It's happening to me! I just got a call from a credit card I own saying that it had been used to make an atypical purchase, for $1,000 on the Internet!

They changed the address and phone number and created a Yahoo account in my name.

I feel like one of those commercials on TV with someone else's voice, using my identity... I've made a local police report, and have requested my credit report. I'm calling all my other cards to alert them or change the numbers. This card was in my wallet, not missing.

Any other advice? Has this happened to you?

Check out this site for help http://www.clarkhoward.com

Thanks Lost Manatee and Rick for more input... I listen to Clark Howard occasionally regularly... If I can tear myself away from Buffett News I'm gonna do more work and research on this.

If anyone is interested, this has gotten more interesting... I think, anyway. I got a call last night from the sheriff who is working on the case. He spoke to the young woman at the address... She accepted a job from an email, to repackage items sent to her and send them to another address in EUROPE!!!

The $1,000 digital camera ordered in my name was the first one (if she's telling the truth) she got (she did receive it), and she is supposed to be getting hundreds a week, according to her job description. The sheriff is going to talk to his state police agency, and I'm gonna approach the GBI... This is going to be big! I'm thinking of calling Dateline NBC and seeing if they are interested in this before it goes any further. They can be in the investigation from the start.

I think they infected my computer, and I did order Internet stuff with that card in October. Everyone be VERY careful!

Sam wrote:They cannot be very smart if they used their real name and address to do that to you.

While some are truly ingenious, I've found that many of these criminals are not always the smartest of the bunch.

When I had one credit card stolen, they ordered a large screen television... to be delivered to their home.

When my sister's checkbook was stolen, they ordered $80 worth of pizza... delivered. What got me about this one is that they didn't even tip the driver with their stolen money. Yeah, that's one way to get a delivery driver to remember that @$$hole in apartment XXX.

sy wrote:

sy wrote: I had that almost happen about a year ago, fortunately the credit card company did not process the purchase and suspended the card until they got a hold of me. I made all of the calls and appropriate forms, and fortunately, was able to avoid any true damage.

I forgot to add that they got my credit card number off a receipt at a gas station where I threw it in the garbage. Up until about five months ago, that gas station did not XXXXX out the credit card number, and it was in plain view. Some places still do this.

federal law requires all but the last 4 digits to be XXX'd out....

carolinagirl wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

carolinagirl wrote:It's happening to me! I just got a call from a credit card I own saying that it had been used to make an atypical purchase, for $1,000 on the Internet!

They changed the address and phone number and created a Yahoo account in my name.

I feel like one of those commercials on TV with someone else's voice, using my identity... I've made a local police report, and have requested my credit report. I'm calling all my other cards to alert them or change the numbers. This card was in my wallet, not missing.

Any other advice? Has this happened to you?

Check out this site for help http://www.clarkhoward.com

Thanks Lost Manatee and Rick for more input... I listen to Clark Howard occasionally regularly... If I can tear myself away from Buffett News I'm gonna do more work and research on this.

If anyone is interested, this has gotten more interesting... I think, anyway. I got a call last night from the sheriff who is working on the case. He spoke to the young woman at the address... She accepted a job from an email, to repackage items sent to her and send them to another address in EUROPE!!!

The $1,000 digital camera ordered in my name was the first one (if she's telling the truth) she got (she did receive it), and she is supposed to be getting hundreds a week, according to her job description. The sheriff is going to talk to his state police agency, and I'm gonna approach the GBI... This is going to be big! I'm thinking of calling Dateline NBC and seeing if they are interested in this before it goes any further. They can be in the investigation from the start.

I think they infected my computer, and I did order Internet stuff with that card in October. Everyone be VERY careful!

Wow! This girl is either lying or pretty stupid....how could you even think that might be a legit job???? I have been on the "merchant" end of credit card fraud many times. Most of the people I caught were not too smart about using the card. Some were even "regulars" of the store. Like I didn't notice they were now using a different name. One person even signed his REAL name on the stolen card receipt, which was further comfirmed when he looked directly at my cameras for a while. Your situation sounds a lot more high tech than some of my Darwin Award candidates! Hopefully they get to the bottom of this fast!