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Have you gotten your Scotch-Tape MasterCard?

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So you got your mail today and there were 3 credit card applications, 2 pre-approved home equity applications, and a letter from a mortgage company who claims they have a 1% mortgage with no qualifying. What do you do with this mail?

If you are like most people you threw all that excitement straight in the trash, maybe you ripped it in half. Well if you are like most people you should read about this story and get yourself a shredder.

Rob Cockerham, mimicked the steps an ID theif could take and got a credit card. He took an application that had been ripped up, taped it back together, changed the address, and used a cell phone number. Mailed the application in to Chase MasterCard. You think he got a credit card from Chase? Yes he did.

The story is almost to amazing. While I’d like to think this didn’t really happen and it is just a web story designed to make a point, there are a lot of supporting links on this. Believe it or not, get yourself a shredder.

Cockerham’s own site, “The Torn-Up Credit Card Application”

The Red Tape Chronicles from MSNBC, video from MSNBC discussing the torn up credit card application.

Chase suggests that cosumers tear up applications before throwing them in the trash so theives can’t assume… Oh that is just to funny, Chase we follow your instructions, and you send them the card.

Buy a shredder online here

You also need to register yourself at OptOutPrescreen. The offers you are getting are called pre-screened credit offers where the creditor asks the credit bureaus to scan their files for people who meet certain criteria. You can opt to not receive thiese offers. Visit www.optoutprescreen or call 1-888-5OPT-OUT. It takes a couple of weeks to stop receiving the offers but think about how nice it would be to not get the

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Credit, How To, Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Have you gotten your Scotch-Tape MasterCard?”

  1. [...] All of this “junk” mail is one the leading cause of identity theft.  Thief’s can simply take one of these pre-approved applications and send it in with their address on it and presto they have a brand new credit card in your name.  Check out this previous post on the Scotch Tape Card. [...]

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