That's why everyone is going to security keys
https://www.yubico.com/products/yubikey-5-overview/

... they took over my account and changed all the info, and the telephone number was something like 999-7776. Sounds like they have a whole series of fake numbers.

What's weird is the first time, the hacker bought socks (!) from Amazon, and this time the hacker bought a telescope from Walmart. I mean, those are weird things to buy.

-- Mal

do they mail it to you? Do you go to a store? What?

The link that was provided seems to be for businesses. What about individuals?

Thanks for telling about this. I didn't know much about it. Certainly didn't think it was for me.

I think I'm going to get one.

It is tough to stay ahead of these people who spend all their time trying to defraud people. But two-step security makes it much more difficult as they have to control your phone or email account simultaneously (the access code provided on the account is also only good for a specified amount of time - usually 10 minutes or less). Your credit card company also provides notifications where you can receive an email or text message for transaction amounts specified by the user. The usual practice of these thieves is to sneak through a very small charge or purchase to check on your account diligence. If this happens on your account, it is only a matter of time before larger charges or purchases appear (change the password and get a new card immediately).

Make sure you use security software on all your devices (phones, laptops, desktops, tablets). We had somebody or group download a keylogger on our laptop where they were able to see or download images of accounts, passwords and CC information. It was a nightmare to get it straighten out as we were accessing a bunch of accounts to do home improvement projects. We had to get all new credit cards and changed the accounts, passwords and added two-step security to every account.

The hackers would find that they were starting to get all kinds of medical bill payment notices. Like, a lot of them.

They would also find that they could get nothing with that information.

Because no one will give me anything. Not a credit card, not a loan, not a gift card, not even a coupon. And, I can prove that I am me.

They would realize that they had made a mistake.