OK, apparantly the members of Mensa who are working at AOL have decided to charge me $23.90 last week for a monthly service - this is funny considering I [b]haven't had an account in over a year and a half[/b].  I can't seem to find their tech support number either, and I'm really in the mood to give somebody some stern verbal abuse.

Can anybody help me out here?  Any AOL members out there who have the Tech Support number (which I'm sure you use all too often) that I may borrow?  Much obliged.

Since you made me laugh my ass off with the portrayal of life at the Adolf Hitler Day Care...

1-800-827-6364

And if you can't get through there...

800-346-3704 (customer support)
888-346-3704 (tech support/Windows)

Yeah...yeah I got through.

Apparantly, somebody has been opening up those 'free' accounts or what have you, using my FULL NAME, ADDRESS and CREDIT/DEBIT CARD NUMBER!  This has happened 3 times, since June of this year, and I'm just now being billed for those few months ago.  I've called them and told them to close the accounts, but other than calling my bank and getting a new card number, I'm really not sure what else to do...so that option will have to be taken.

The only way I can think of for someone to know my card number AND my billing address would be to somehow
1.) Intercept an online order I have placed within the past few months.  This would seem rare considering I use IE 5.x with a 128-bit encryption cypher for every secure connection I do for online orders.
2.) Somebody I have ordered from, be it a business or an individual (who I can't think off of the top of my head I would ever deal with my credit card info.) has taken it into their own accord to freely use my information to heed to their own selfish needs.
3.) Somebody got into my computer via my LAN and got some CC information.  However, I keep my hard-drive password protected, and I don't have ANY pertinent critical data, such as this, that could possibly be hacked and use against me.

I wish I was a better computer hacker.  If I can't whip somebody's ass in person, I sure would like to do it over a modem.

That bites!

Option #1 - While your browser is capable of 128-bit, if the site uses 40-bit, then that's what you connect at.  However, I'd bet money it isn't option #1...come to think of it, RSA (the most used encryption) put up $100,000 to the first one that cracks their code.

Option #2 - I'd say this is the most likely.  It's happened to me and it wasn't even an internet purchase...just some guy at a store I bought something at, then the clerk went back later and made a copy of my number.

Option #3 - not impossible and on the rise.  However anti-virus software combined with firewall software is likely to catch any such goings-ons.

4) You are the subject of a "pay it back" scheme where 2 people do something bad to you and they each find 2 other people to do bad things, etc.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Identity theft

Crooks opened up 5 credit cards in my name 2 months ago, and I still haven't gotten it all straightened out.

Good luck

... actually, I got cut off by Mensa. They say that I'm "over qualified" for their organization!

Cancel the card(s) that were used.  Do it fast.  And verify that there haven't been any other fraudulent charges.

That explains a lot!