The recorded messages on our answering machine asked me to call back. They started yesterday. It would be the beginning of discovering just how ugly a large financial institution can be when it gets on your tail, even in the case of a false identity.
When I responded to the first call, the person at the other end identified the institution as Card Services and would I please provide my account number, the agent requested. What account number, I said, I don’t even know who you are or why you are calling me. Washington Mutual, was the response. Could I have your social security number?
That’s when the red flags went up and the alarm bells started ringing. Never – ever – disclose your social security number to a person or institution you don’t know. Especially when the call is from an undisclosed location and the person is making cryptic inquiries without revealing any clarifying data.
The voice had a foreign accent, and its persistence in trying to obtain my social security number justified suspicions that this might be a sophisticated multinational identity theft ring trying to break into my credit records.
I spoke with at least half a dozen agents who have been pestering me over the last two days, each one wanting my social security number. (Washington Mutual is a failed bank that was acquired by JPMorgan Chase.) Only wanted to help me, I was told, but will need your social security number, they said. Nuts! I thought. You ain’t getting that number.
It turns out that JPMorgan Chase is looking for a man with my first and last name, but with a different middle initial. That person has a completely different address. His residence of record is in California.
JPMorgan Chase, with all the resources of a $2.1 trillion organization at its disposal, has erroneously assigned my New Jersey telephone number to this guy
The epiphany seems to have come this afternoon, when another agent called me. He was – of all those who previously phoned– the one rational human being. This time HE answered MY inquiries, divulging clarifying information on his screen (except social security data!) of the person being tracked.
The agent possessed a soft, friendly, African-American sounding voice, like that of a pleasant southerner – a person who, unlike some of his other rude colleagues, does know how to put two and two together and come to the right conclusion.
I told the man that I had twice spoken to the fraud department of JPMorgan Chase and that the matter would be fixed (they said), but the hounding calls were still coming in. Forget it, the voice of reason reassured me. Just ignore any more calls. They should stop by tomorrow. We will see. Keep you posted.
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