2012 hasn't been a good year for me so far.
1. Early in the year, the Nigerians hijacked my
yahoo account.
2. In the Summer, I was knocked down by a car in
Ballard.
3. In the Fall, my eyes started to fail.
4. And now before the year ends, someone has
stolen my identity.
A month ago I got some strange emails and mail from Chase Morgan about opening an account with them. I contacted their fraud division and told them that was not me and don't open an account in my name. At Florence's urging, I signed up for CreditSecure, a monitoring program from American Express, to monitor my credit reports. Sure enough, a few days ago, credit card accounts were opened with Chase Morgan(CM) and Capital One(Cap1) in my name. Alerted by CreditSecure, I contacted CM and Cap1 and got the accounts canceled and my credit report has a hold on any activity without a call to me.
Some fraudster got my social security number and collected enough information to fill out credit card applications. Then with false documentation, they opened the accounts at CM and Cap1. Probably the documents were no better than what college students use to buy alcohol. Both Cm and Cap1 checked my credit report so that I wouldn't cheat them. But their own criteria for identification documents was at fault. Maybe I'm in front of it now, but I'm sure my credit rating will take a hit. And reporting the whole mess from Taiwan hasn't been easy. But that probably helped convince CM and Cap1 that I didn't open the accounts in the US, as I've been in Taiwan since October.
Reporting this to the authorities is just a waste of time. Law enforcement in the US is more concerned with harassing pot smokers and evicting the Occupy Movementm rather than enforcing gun laws or prosecuting identity fraud.
From Randy Neuman's "Faust":
"It's a great big dirty world, if they say it's not, they're lying ..."
Mike,how awful to have your identity stolen! It's every person's nightmare. Larry and I both know of other people who have lived in our area with the same names. So far we haven't had any experiences like yours. Your story is a good reminder to us to always monitor our accounts.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that this year hasn't been better for you. Here's hoping that next year is a happier and more healthful one.
Merry Christmas!