Backwards.

I have to laugh when I see the checklist that someone must maneuver through once they discover that they are a victim of identity theft. It is no less than 8,000 steps and feels like you are reading antiquated tax law from the 1930s. The overwhelming steps and processes that must be taken if you have any ounce of respect for your name and livelihood legitimately rival the Artamène ou le Grand Cyrus.

“You are going to have to contact the 400 people that were involved in how your identity was stolen. Gee, sorry about your luck you victim of identity theft. Yeah, we know you wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for us-but fortunately, we don’t have to do anything on our end-yeah, this is pretty much the point where we look to you to clean-up this disaster. Have fun with that. After all, it only ruins your life, not ours. Oh, and to go about cleaning-up this debacle you are going to have to complete literally 15 steps per company-then maybe if we are satisfied then we’ll flag the account as identity theft. Now we know that the only requirement we had when this account was opened was that there was a pulse (but actually we will sign up a dead person-seriously we will), but we are going to make you do a little (LOT) more, you identity theft victim. Yes, we don’t believe you’ve been victimized enough.”

Look at any “resource” that you turn to help in the matter. You need a PhD in consumer law and protection to navigate through the system yet “they” expect every Tom, Dick, and Harry to handle with ease. I would no kidding proudly accept an honorary doctorate from any university that would decide to bestow one to me after I’ve managed to navigate my way through this sandstorm.

Why is this approach OK? Why aren’t we demanding and holding the companies and organizations for which do not protect our personal information or do not conduct proper due diligence from the onset accountable. That is what should be demanded and that is what little ol' me is demanding. Join me. Make these entities hold some accountability for this crime, not the victims.

Where Criminals Lurk

Think you are not susceptible to becoming an identity theft victim. Think again.

Have you….

Filed a tax return.

Purchased a car.

Bought a house.

Enrolled in school.

Participated in a health care plan.

Went to the doctor.

Applied for a job.

Worked.

Signed up for utilities.

Obtained a credit card.

Opened a checking and/or savings account.

If you have done any of those, I hate to break it to you, but you are a sitting duck for becoming a victim of identity theft.

Think of all the people working at any of these entities who have access to your personal information. Pretty much a whole hell of a lot of people.

What are all of these organizations doing to protect that information that they hold? It’s a question that needs to be asked more. But, no matter the protection, there are lots of people that have access to your information, including criminal minds.

Your “personal” information is accessible by so many people. Let’s face it-your personal information is not that private. Allowing most anyone to steal your information, and do whatever suites his or her fancy. From opening credit in your name, filing fraudulent taxes, getting medical treatment, the list goes on.

And who ends up having to clean up the destruction that is created by identity theft?

Not the company where the information was stolen.

Not the criminal.

Not the company that extended credit to a criminal.

It all comes back to you to clean up. The victim.

Until the entities that hold our personal information are held accountable, criminals face consequences for committing this crime, and it takes more than a pulse to open up credit this crime will only continue to wreak havoc for its victims.

Where did they get it.

I find my mind often wandering. Wandering to the ultimate question of where my social security number and personal information was compromised. Knowing this would answer many questions for me. It would point to where (and how) the breach occurred and the opportunity to hold those responsible.

Unfortunately, even though the criminal in my identity theft case pled guilty and was sentenced for this crime, they didn’t have to tell where they obtained MY information. And as a result, no one is held responsible for jeopardizing my information-or yours.

Something doesn’t seem right about that to me.

WANTED: Would like to buy milk without providing my entire life story

I miss the days…not of getting your milk delivered by the milk man (although I guess I might miss that too), but I miss running into the store on my way home and getting milk (or any product for that matter) without being asked if I have their rewards card. I’m sick of having to have a “rewards” card for each.and.every.flipping.thing.I.want.to.buy. If you wish to make a store purchase and aren’t asked this question, please let me know, stores without this mandate are a dying breed.

If I respond, “No, I don’t have (or want) your rewards card”, the clerk quickly replies “Well, it’s so easy to sign-up…”. Then if you oblige, they proceed to ask you your birthdate, address, phone number, etc.-all details that are none of the store’s business…and post identity theft victim makes my skin crawl.

I just want to buy a product. The store of course just wants to know your buying habits. Since when is it anyone’s business to know what products you buy. Well, the stores know it’s not theirs, so they circumvent it by providing you a discount on goods. And I use the term “discount” lightly. One store comes to mind where I was told I had earned enough points to go to aisle four and pick-up a pack of pretzels. Well la-di-flippin'-da. If this wasn't the highlight of my day, week, month, year! Wait 'til we share the good fortune with our friends and family. Apparently a handful of pretzels is what the going rate is to have my buying habits monitored and to be solicited-and this is all “stuff” I welcomed-hell, I even signed-up for it!

Pre-Identity Theft Victim Experience From Hell (the official name) I would sometimes find myself submitting this personal information, and would in-turn get another small laminated card that I would advertise for the store on my key chain. And, in exchange for all of my personal information and their ability to monitor my buying habits, I would in turn get their definition of a discount.

In looking at the “discounts” I’ve been given over the years-I’d say we, the consumer, are definitely on the losing side. There are hardly any discounts that don’t require me to buy something within a certain time frame (or lose my rewards), or encourage me to buy something I might not otherwise purchase, or come in the form of pretzels.

It is truly amazing how many of us, myself at one time included, who bought into this racket. I no longer sign-up for these reward cards-which comes with the caveat of having to explain in an extemporaneous monologue on why you don't want one of these razzle dazzle cards. With the reactions I get in return, you would think I was turning down a free Buick. They just don’t get why I wouldn’t want their card. And, I don’t get how they don’t understand that I don’t want them monitoring my personal life.

And guess what-I’ve managed to survive and don’t notice any additional spending as a result of not participating. It feels good to have that many less stores, entities and the like not monitoring me. It’s just not worth it-especially to the consumer.

As good as you may feel “saving a buck”, it is much more valuable to me that these companies NOT get the green light to monitor me. How the stores benefit far outweighs any benefit you will ever enjoy-even salty pretzels.

Sidenote. This goes for asking for and subsequently entering my zip code, phone number, address and the like into your computer at checkout-no you can’t have that either.

Surprise.

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.