I’ve been hacked!...

[kraegar]

Grabbing your info from your wireless network is extremely unlikely. What are the odds someone's sitting outside your place, recording your traffic, at the exact time you placed an order on a website not using SSL (https)?

Better odds are that someone you purchased from was broken into - either their website was compromised, or they were just plain dumb (through records in the trash, etc)... or that even your bank, or a bank who's ATM you used was compromised. (A local bank to my area was recently compromised, lots of people who used their ATMs now have some interesting credit issues).

Basically, anyone trying to do this kind of thing isn't looking to get one guy's info to the point they'll sit in a car & crack wep/wpa keys. The go for targets that net them hundreds or more accounts at a time. And those are the ones that are more difficult to protect yourself from.

Things you can do:

Always use sites with good, current & valid SSL certs (look for the lock icon, actually look at the cert & make sure it matches who you think you're buying from).
Use a up to date, fairly secure web browser:
Use Firefox.
Use the NoScript Addon.
Use the Adblock & Filterset.G addons.

Use good anti-virus (I use avast, it's free)
Use a good anti-spyware program (I use spybot search & destroy)
Get an account at FreeCreditReport.com or a similar site (several options, but they have pirates in their ads, so they're cooler)

If someone was getting loans in your name, they had more then a credit card #.

Best of luck in straightening it all out!

- Tony

[rootar]

Originally Posted by kraegar

If someone was getting loans in your name, they had more then a credit card

the deal with mine is there info didnt match the credit check and the bank called the cops on them, this happens alot to alot of people, i dont mind paying 50 cents a day to know that nobody can screw me over with my credit or steal my identity. the freecredit report does alot more than just monitor your cedit score and who is looking at, it even shows your outstanding loans, payments.