Just when you think you’ve reached a day where you can breathe, relax, not cry in frustration…*WHAM*…you get a letter from a collection agency in the mail and the feelings wash over you, again. Feelings of being violated-and mad as hell at the criminal and the companies who extended credit without conducting proper due-diligence-allowing this obvious theft to yet again infiltrate and scar YOUR credit.
There are few words that can sum-up the feeling that overcomes you when you yourself have been a “good community citizen”, paying your bills on-time, being keen of your credit, and all of that, only to find yourself landed on a collection’s agency’s radar-that’s a place you don’t want to be-and certainly a place I have worked hard not to be included, but alas there I was, again thanks to being a victim of identity theft.
After I opened the collection agency envelope I had the fun and immediate task of calling the collection agency-where I had the ultimate pleasure of dealing with a rude abrasive insensitive lady-customer service representative all to add insult to injury. Here I am a victim of identity theft, and she is arguing with me about whether that is true or not-fortunately I’ve moved past the point where a lump develops in my throat and I want to cry (“want” or actually have an emotional breakdown with the stranger at the other end) at the very thought of this happening to me. After moving past this “I am a victim hurdle” with the CSR, I call the company on whose behalf they were collecting.
Imagine my surprise when I spoke to this company and soon discovered not one account was in collection-try two…I had just heard of this one first. But, wait…it gets better-the criminal (turns out the same one already identified in previous fraudulent activity against me) had attempted to open ten credit cards. (You’ll find many of these companies are “sister companies”-so when you call to discuss one, you end up finding out about additional activity).
Here I thought I was aware of all of the fraudulent charges and inquiries up to this point-these latest inquiries and accounts had not even been reflected on my credit report. We had already taken the criminal to court, she had already been charged, been sentenced, etc. But, as is the case with identity theft, you often don’t discover all of the charges up front. No, these were additional "surprises". I was surprised.
So I got to get out my printer paper, warm up the printer, and send multiple faxes, multiple certified letters, and make multiple trips to the post office, make multiple calls to the companies and credit bureaus, all while using money from my pocket to clean this latest round of theft up. And, we’ve already been to court. Had to explain my situation, again and again. Order my credit reports, again. Send documentation out, again. Attempt to clean-up, clean-up, clean-up.
With identity theft, you never know all of the damages up front. It’s not as if these criminals have a threshold-“We’ll just hurt this victim’s credit by contacting 10 companies-then that’s it!”
No-one, five, 100-basically whatever company will extend credit to these criminals they are there for the taking.
And, you are stuck cleaning-up the never-ending residual mess.
How You Find Out
How you find out that you are a victim of identity theft varies for everyone. Regardless, once you find out, the damage has been done-done to the point where, well, you find out about it. Meaning, a collection call from a credit card company you do not have an account with, a bill in the mail requesting payment on purchases you didn’t make, trying to get a loan on what you think is your solid credit and being denied, and even in some extreme cases, being arrested for a crime you didn’t commit.
For me, it was a voicemail left on my phone. At first I thought that call was fraudulent-sure, I thought, I’ll call you back to “talk about my account”. I actually dismissed the first voicemail. Thankfully, they were persistent. It was a call from the fraud department of a major credit card company. Before calling them back, I checked the number to make sure it was legitimate-and it was. The first thought that entered my mind was someone had stolen my credit card number and decided to dine on my dime. Oh, how I only wish that was the extent of my damage. No, for me it was much worse. Someone, this fraud department told me, had applied for credit using my name, DOB, and SSN. They found the application suspicious and flagged it. Yet it didn’t stop this particular credit card company from issuing the perpetrator a card. So, they told me they would deactivate the card. Gee, thanks I thought. Amazing that a credit card application would be flagged, their fraud department would call me multiple times to notify me-I’m searching here for the good reason as to why the credit card still got the green light to still be sent out...
After I got off of the call, I didn’t know what in the hell to do next. Do I call the police? Do I check my credit report? Do I sit for days and ponder how some lunatic got my information and hope that I'll figure it out? I opted for the second to check the damage out first. So, I ventured online to check the three main credit reports-Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Even typing these words today makes we cringe, as they would reflect the damage done in my good name.
I was only able to access one of the reports. Why you ask? Well, before these entities will just let you access your report, you need to answer four “security questions”. I couldn’t answer the questions. Why couldn’t I access these four personal questions? Because come to find out, the criminal who stole my identity had infiltrated it to the point that their fraudulent information was overriding and updating my “real” information. So, when I failed to access two of these reports my only option was to mail in a request. This wasn’t the timely solution I was looking for at 8pm on a February evening.
So, one. I managed to access one of the reports. I scrolled down the credit report, and it still brings a lump in my throat to see how…well let’s say what a “mess” it was. My name was changed, different addresses appeared, places I’ve never heard of, much less worked at appeared in my employment history. Then I scrolled, I scrolled down and saw the rest of the damage. Inquiry after inquiry made to company after company.
I cannot describe the feeling that went through me. You work hard in life, you’d like to think of yourself as a contributing member of society, you pay your bills on time, you wake up to the alarm sound every morning, drive into work, work hard until the weekend, and take pride in yourself and how you handle your finances, while building a foundation and preparing for your future, and so simply some criminal steals your information and screws that all up-and is allowed to so easily. Disturbed. I am deeply disturbed at not only what the criminal has managed to do, but so many companies allow them to do it.
No one cares like you do about protecting your identity.
After viewing what I could on this one credit report, I contacted my local police department and filed a police report immediately.
Little did I know on this February evening that I’d be dealing with the ramifications of this still today.
More on that later.
Shredding
While I believe you can shred all of the documents you want from here to Timbuktu and still be vulnerable to identity theft, shredding is a good start in ensuring the protection of your identity. Years ago, I purchased a little shredder that fit on top of a trash can, and it would help in shredding my documents. After becoming a victim of identity theft, I invested in a much larger, full-machine shredder-I’m not messing around!
This past weekend, I spent the bulk of the weekend shredding and shredding and shredding. I tend to keep everything, thinking I may need it in the future-not yet have I needed to access my cable bill from seven years ago. So, I decided to still kept my tax information and a couple years back of bills, but shredded the rest. It felt good to purge all of that information with all of my information.
Now to keep it up!
akajanedoe and the nine-digit meaning
"akajanedoe" stems from being a victim of identity theft. The meaning behind it is simple. As I was experiencing being a victim of this crime, I felt like I lost my identity (which is probably why this crime is called..."identity theft"...touché).
I had to continuously prove I was who I said I was to unravel the mess that was created by the criminal.
Identity theft struck me. It struck me hard. Sure, I had heard of identity theft before, but really had no idea of its ramifications until I became a victim. Someone screwing with your one and only social security number will get your attention.
There is so much I want to say about identity theft, about what I experienced...what you could experience. So I created a blog.
I think people dismiss the notion of identity theft happening to them because they think the only way you become a victim is by falling prey to a fraudulent e-mail, or if someone calls and you give them your personal information-but think about all of the organizations you trust to hold your information. From your educational institution to a job application. Don't tell me you've never filled out those nine digits on a form before. All it takes is someone (let's call them a criminal) to get their hands on your personal information and coupled with today's "convenient" technology it is the perfect formula for identity theft.