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I have been dealing with someone trying to use my credentials to apply for debit cards etc. I have already put a credit freeze on my account but that does not seem to do anything when a person orders a debit card under my name. Recently someone ordered a Bluebird debit card on my name. I have never even heard of Bluebird.

How can I prevent this from happening? I have no intention to apply for any new credit card, loans, debit cards or take any sort of loans?

Do I need some sort of identity protection services? Any recommendations? Do they work and how?

Mary Doe
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Bluebird is an American Express-branded prepaid debit card from First Century Bank, and it is not much different from any other Visa/MasterCard prepaid card that anyone can buy at just about any store these days. Depending on the issuer of the prepaid card, there's no guarantee they do much in the way of identity verification when someone registers a new card with them. That's the attraction to using prepaid cards - the ability to hide who you really are. It sounds as though somebody has enough of your info to register a prepaid card, which is a far cry from applying for credit using your name. The Bluebird card is only good if the person has money available to spend on it.

As for identity theft/protection services, you should check around with some of the better-known and trusted companies and ask if their programs protect you against situations like this before enrolling. If they don't then you're wasting your money trying to prevent this particular situation in the future, although it's always a good idea to have some kind of proactive identity protection service in today's world. With all the data breaches we hear about on a regular basis, it is almost inevitable that your info at some point could end up in the wrong hands.

FrontRangeGuy
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