Today while my dad was attending a sports event, I received a call from his cell phone, according to caller ID. When I picked up, it was this guy who identified himself too quickly for me to catch quite who he was, saying "I know this sounds really weird, but" he wanted to know whose phone he was calling from, because it had been left, and he could maybe look up my dad's ticket to the game and return the phone. He asked my home number, in case he had to call me again, our address in case he had to mail the phone, and if my dad was with anyone at the game (I said no). I wasn't sure about the whole thing, but I figured if this guy already had my dad's cell phone, that additional information couldn't hurt.

My dad didn't find the phone at the lost and found, and we've tried calling it repeatedly; it rings and no one picks up.

It turns out that my dad had the social security number of everyone in our family stored on his phone, which is one of those all-in-one gadget phones, and which has no password or access control whatsoever. What a brainy idea. The numbers were only identified by first name, though. So now some crook out there has all our social security numbers and full names and our address. Lovely.

Has this ever happened to you guys? And is there anything I should do to prepare for the imminent identity theft?

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

>>2 says: fraud alert on your credit card, ASAP

you read too many british government's identify theft propaganda leaflets ....

Sucks dude, but seriously, if someone starts asking you weird questions like that, hang up. What's the worst that could happen?

>>5 he could lose his phone if a genuinely nice guy had found it?

>>6
Looks like I misread >>1. Thanks for pointing that out, and I withdraw my suggestion.

>>6
If the guy was genuinely nice, then >>1 wouldn't lose his phone.

>>1
i feel so sorry for you. has the thief done anything with his new ids?

Nevermind, the person who had the phone called back. Despite the suspiciousness, it's actually someone with one of the sports teams and they're going to mail the phone. Sorry for jumping to conclusions. I hope you guys were entertained anyway.

lol

Yeah, I probably would have called and done the same as the guy >>1 mentioned.

>>10
You threw the phone onto the field? wwww

>>1
Have the phone company track the phone.

>>14
Before it became a moot point, I figured the crook had just thrown the phone in a dumpster and left it on, after copying the identity-related information. I guess tracing the phone's location could still help find it though.

you're dad's fucking stupid for having social security numbers on his cell phone. honestly. if anything, you should demand that he removes yours

>>17
signed