GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It was a normal Wednesday morning for James Young, until he looked at his email and realized something wasn’t right. Someone was trying to steal his identity.
“I have six or seven emails from Bank of America stating anywhere from you know, 'your application for an online account has been received' to 'it's been approved' to 'verifying information,'” Young recalled to FOX 17.
Young says he was going to delete the emails and just forget about it, but something told him to call Bank of America.
“They sent me over to their fraud department and the woman I spoke to on the line, you know, checked some of the information and the little bit that I gave her was kind of frightening, because then she came back and started telling me information about myself,” James said that’s when he realized it was real.
He was told someone successfully set up an account in his name and it had gotten approved. Luckily, no transactions had gone through and they were able to shut down the account.
Now, James is trying to be proactive by freezing his accounts and monitoring his credit reports.
While the situation is frustrating, he’s trying to stay positive. “It's not really gonna do me any good to be mad and throw a fit because, like, there isn't a face to who did this, you know, and I probably will never know who did this.”
To avoid identity theft, The Better Business Bureau recommends that you:
- Do not share personal information
- Shred important documents
- Be suspicious of unsolicited emails, texts and calls
- Change passwords frequently and make them strong
