Someone took out a $15k loan in my husband’s name , can they do the same with other family members now?
My husband recently found out someone opened an account in his name and somehow got approved for a $15k loan before we even knew anything was wrong. We only found out after letters started showing up and his credit suddenly dropped. The whole thing has been a nightmare dealing with banks, fraud departments, freezes, reports, and trying to prove he wasn’t the one who opened it.
I have no clue on how they got this much personal information. Full name, address history, phone number, probably old leaked information too. Identity theft barely even looks like “hacking” anymore. People can piece together enough information from exposed data to cause serious damage. I’m worried about myself and other people close to us too if someone had enough information to do this to him, I keep thinking how exposed the rest of us are too. It’s scary realizing how much personal information is probably sitting online without people even knowing it.
Besides the usual advice like freezing credit and changing passwords, what else are people actually doing to reduce the chances of this happening again? We genuinely cannot afford to go through something like this a second time.