r2i forum

We recently sent some visitor visa supporting docs (tax returns, bank statements etc) via fedex to parents. We packaged them in fedex box and mailed them but they received them in a fedex envelope. It is not clear why the box was opened. Some one (fedex?customs?) did move the docs from the box to the envelope and possibly could have made photocopies. It is a bit scary that some one possibly has access to all this info and can easily use it for identity theft..

Any inputs on how to protect ourselves in this situation. Already called the bank to put in an extra password for phone banking. Subscribed to BofA credit monitoring service. Is there anything better than that? Anything else that we can do?

Thanks in advance,

ready
Mightily pissed with fedex, chose fedex ($100) over usps ($35) for security and now this happens.

It was probably customs. Nothing you or FedEx can do about it. Look into lifelock.

You will be surprised on how easy it is to steal your info. Only reason you are safe is just that there are 310 million to steal and not enough thieves.

ready123;360379Mightily pissed with fedex, chose fedex ($100) over usps ($35) for security and now this happens.

Probably not fedex's error.
Being a box, custome may have opened it to check contents. After that Fedex would have put docs in an envelope as box may not have been usable.
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The hardest part in skating is the ice.

I recently lost my external hard drive which has every personal information.

I put credit freeze with 3 credit bureaus. based on my research I found this is the safest option. this service is charged based on state.
no one including urself can open any new financial account when the freeze is in place. if at all if you want to make your report accessible, you can temporarily lift the freeze with some charge or you can even permanently lift the freeze.

if not credit freeze, you can call 3 credit bureaus and ask them to activate fraud alerts. but this is only for 90 days i think and this is not that effective as per the research.

and monitor your credit reports after few days to see if anyone misused.

if you see any abnormality in your report, then ur the victim of identity theft and it's different procedure to handle.

I also gave police report and informed all banks to change checking and/or account numbers and issue new checks, credit cards, etc.,

I am not contributing to OP here. But I am trying to help people not get burned in future...

Instead of FedEx/USPS or any kind of paper mail, think about emailing PDFs. Also, password protect them before emailing. Of course I am assuming that the folks back in India have access to a computer and a basic knowledge to get these documents printed.

Instead of blindly backing up files to Hard Drives, think about password protecting the Hard Disk. Of course the assumption here is that you will not loose/forget your Hard Disk password.

2 Cents.

n/j/k