Identity Theft

As many of you have noticed, it seems recently that everyone and their brother are beginning to offer identity protection. Many of us feel it is just one more way for corporate America to strip us of our hard earned paychecks. The vast majority of us have not incurred an incident which would require us to purchase such protection. However, it is a growing problem. Every day thieves are becoming more cunning. More and more people are feeling the sting of such an assault on their personal information and pocketbooks. If you haven't been through it before, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. If you have been through it, you understand the anger which stems from the intrusion into your personal business. You also understand the ongoing frustration of what it takes to rectify the situation and your personal credit history. It is never an easy fix. I am one of those people who have had their identity stolen and am still dealing with the issue even years later. This is my story.

In 2004 I received a message on my answering machine from Best Buy. They were calling me to thank me for my purchase. I found this odd because I did not have a charge card with Best Buy. I contacted them and told them I had not made the purchase. They asked me to visit their store where I was greeted by Best Buy management and the Olathe police department. While I was at the store they cancelled the credit card, and pulled all video surveillance which was turned over to the police department. At that time I also filed a police report. To this day I owe much gratitude to Best Buy, as that one phone call kept an already bad situation from getting completely out of hand.

The phone call from Best Buy triggered me to contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and to pull live credit reports from the credit bureaus. The credit reports showed me that within a period of two days there had been several charge cards opened in my name. I was now unknowingly responsible for three other charge cards including Home Depot, Office Depot, and Nebraska Furniture Mart. Once I received the reports, I immediately called the credit bureaus and notified them that my identity had been stolen. Doing so prevented new credit cards from being opened in my name. Unfortunately, it hadn't prevented the identity thief from spending money in these other stores.

I contacted all the above retailers. The damage report was as follows. I now owed Home Depot $10,000, Nebraska Furniture Mart $10,000, and Office Depot $1,500. The bill from Best Buy was another $8,000. I placed a hold or cancelled all the newly established credit cards. I explained to the merchants the predicament I was in and provided them with the police report number from Olathe so they knew I had a credible issue. I also had to file police reports in Kansas City, KS, Kansas City, Missouri, Shawnee, KS, Overland Park Kansas, Olathe, Ks, and Leawood, KS. This was because items had been purchased with the cards in multiple store locations. Ultimately, all the retailers did erase my debt. It took 6 months, however, for me to convince them that I was not responsible for the charges. Some of the stores were easier to work with than others. The police reports were helpful, but it was long arduous process to clear my name.

Next the question became just how was my identity stolen. It was the Overland Park Police Department's detective skills that tied the whole story together. It turns out that several people, over a very short period of time, had filed police reports in the same cities around the same time. Through interviews with these people it became apparent that all off those involved had made recent changes in their insurance policies with Allstate. Their paperwork had been dumped in a garbage bin at the local strip mall where the office was located. Someone apparently had taken this discarded information and put it to their own personal use, at our expense. The theft ring made its way to the newspapers and the television news, but to this date, the perpetrators have not yet been brought to justice.

So, it seems that I went through a lot of hassle, and came out ultimately unscathed, you're thinking. Identity theft is no big deal, you say? If this is what you're thinking, I beg to differ. Consider the fact that the thieves still have all my personal information. You can't change your social security number. They can use it anytime they wish, at their whim. Even after many years now no one knows who the thieves are. I am still at risk. After extensive research, however, I have found some protection.

Since six months after the incident, I have been using a service called LifeLock. LifeLock is a company which offers an identity theft protection system. This system asks the credit bureaus to set free fraud alerts on your behalf, and it continues doing so every 90 days. It removes you from lists of pre-approved credit cards and insurance offers, and sends you free credit reports on a yearly basis. If your identity is stolen you're offered up to $1 million in assistance to clear your name and credit history. It costs me a mere $10 a month, and I have not had one issue since LifeLock was put into effect. The peace of mind Lifelock offers me is more than worth the $10 a month. I sleep well knowing my family will be protected against any future incidences of identity theft.

Thank you for reading my story.

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