Identity Theft

You know the hilarious Citi Bank identity theft commercials? They're great, I get a kick out of them every time I see them.

It's not a laughing matter when it happens to you though. It's real and it's not fun.

Yep, someone running around in Chicago is running around with my name, address and SSN having all sorts of fun. They have managed to rack up around $6,000 in credit card balances along with a Sprint bill for 5 phones for $400. I just found out all of this last night and was on the phone for 3 hours canceling cards, filing a police report and trying to figure out how to prevent it from happening again. I don't know that it will stop. From here on out, I'll have to be super anal about watching credit reports, sifting through mail and I'll probably have to pay for some sort of agency to watch my accounts for suspicious activity.

It's fine, I'm over being worried about it...it just sucks. Why do people take advantage of innocent bystanders?

You know what really gets me? Four years ago when I was a sophomore in college I found $400 in cash and $500 checks that was not mine. I called the number on the checks and investigated it. While I didn't have to tell them about the cash I found near their checks, I did. It was their money and it was the honest thing to do. I gave it back.

No less than a month later my debit card was stolen and $1500 worth of charges were spent in ONE night. After doing a good deed, I guess that's what you get--nada! Karma's messed up.

Now 5 years later, it's happened again...only on a more serious level. Point here is, friends, it will take a while [maybe even a few years] for me to clear up this mess, so do what you can now to prevent it from happening to you.

Here are a few sites that have helped me...read up!
http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/
http://www.privacyrights.org/identity.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html