I want to talk a minute about what it is like to be a victim of identity fraud. It happened to me before all the new laws. It started with a move. I'd ordered some checks from current, a check publishing company - and I'd forgot all about them.
We moved, so I ordered new checks and never thought twice about those current checks out there. I suppose they were delivered to the old address, even though I HAD filled out the change of address forms. Or perhaps they were taken from the post office itself or by the mail carrier. I don't know, but someone got them.
The bitch waited a year to start using them. I know it was a black woman that was short and small, because I was told so by one of the police departments that actually did an investigation. The caught her on tape in Alabama, no one seemed to check any ID, and ever check had a different made up social security number or driver's license number, on it. Believe me, most of the police departments could have cared less. The Dalton police dept. was the only one that gave it any time.
I actually was the biggest suspect. I had no idea hint from them that I was a suspect when they asked me to come in. I went in, and only after I'd been there for a while and was asked to give writing samples did I realize that the damn cops indeed think I'd done that. I'd halfway expected this, since I don't trust the intelligence of an average cop as far as I could throw one. I mean, the detectives might be ok, but really? 25,000 a year doesn't attract the best AND brightest, eh? They wanted to give me a lie detector test. With my penchant for messing things up, I freaked. It was more out of fear than guilt. I took about 30 minutes and told them I'd do it, but they didn't give me one.
So I had taken all my work records, letters from coworkers, ect. No way I could have been in Michigan writing checks. I had no idea the Current checks were even involved until I was handed a plastic evidence baggie with the check design I remembered picking out.
Actually, I am not even sure if I ever mailed that form off. I remember getting it ready, even writing a check for the order, but I don't recall sending it off, and no I don't balance my checkbook. Luckily the Internet happened so I can now pay everything on line and I haven't written a damn check since this happened, not that anyone would take one from me anyway thanks to this person.
So, what did she buy? I'm told she was very good. I'm told it looked like someone who knew exactly what they were doing. They would go to sears...hit the sears stores for 185 here and 195 there, all over the store. No manager's approval needed for checks under 200.00. She bought kids clothes, size medium clothes, and videos. At the time I had no kids and have never been able to get one boob in a size medium.
I was told they suspected a ring from Alabama. Could the person that got my checks have sold them? What are the chances my checks would have been randomly delivered to someone? Could someone have went through MY TRASH and found this and decided to profit? I actually highly suspect the later....that someone went through my trash, found the order form, and ordered those checks that or they were taken out of my mailbox. Checks certainly look like checks when they come. Could my neigbors have had something to do with it? Yes, I'd look there first. They had the opportunity and lived a questionable lifestyle....not because they were two gay men living together, but because neither seemed to work and the smell of liquor and pot often drifted from their side of the triplex.
In any event...all those checks everywhere...and my credit got ruined. I had police reports...I sent them to equifax, everyone involved, transunion...and it just never stopped. I'd get out of one database and boom I'd get right back in it. I can't tell you how much money I spent going to talk to police, who really didn't solve anything because there wasn't enough spent in any one district to make it worth their time, paying for copies of police reports, sending them off, time spent on hold on long distance with equifax, certified mail..and to this day it is not cleared up.
I had never had a problem getting loans before this, but since this time it has been pretty much hell in a handbasket. I won't say that all my problems were caused by this, but they were certainly the precipitating factor in my financial woes. High interest loans were all that were available to me. I'm still to this day paying more interest than I should be to this day. Whenever I file for a loan or even to get a cell phone, invariable bad checks show up on my report. I've given up fighting it, I've learned that if I waste my time getting reports and calling on the phone, it will last all of 2 months before everything gets screwed up again. The tech in me tells me its some database replication flaw that just eats identity theft victims alive.
So I tell everyone: only order checks from your bank and tell them to keep them there at the bank. THEN you go pick up the checks. You don't send checks through the mail...and when you are done with a book - you burn it. Don't leave as much as a canceled check or a blank deposit slip laying around. For GOD'S sake, don't use checks lightly for small purchases to the point you can't track them all. Checks have been the worst thing that ever happened to me.....I trust transmission over the Internet anyday over a check....but I don't trust the databases...any of them.
Interestingly, only 2-3 months earlier, my friend Shawn was also a victim of the same thing. We had several things in common: we knew the same people, he frequently stayed at my house (but not overnight) and we both used the same bank. It really messed him up too.
