Scared Shitless Over Attempted Identity Theft

Is it sacred ordinary to have some stranger attempting to take out a $300,000 mortgage against my home and me wanting revenge? To make a long story short, I am one upset woman tonight. About four months ago I had one incident of attempted fraud on a credit card I didn't ask to be sent to me and had never personally activated. After straightening that out, I ran an Equifax credit report and everything seemed in order and frugal me didn't buy the service and put in a fraud alert. Around the same time I started getting financial statements and letters from banks to a name I did not know. I have returned each one as person not living here. Today's panic is a full-on mortgage application from an escrow officer at a reputable company in this woman's name. I could see through the glassene what it was and immediately opened it. My youngest son said I needed to make a police report immediately and my son-in-law accompanied me; he knows everybody at the local police department. It took a hellaciously long time to get an officer to take the report, but it's been done. Another friend in the mortgage business is finding out first thing in the morning if my deed has been tampered with in any way. It actually lies within my trust.

I hope this is a fluke and it will be straightened out by the end of the day, but I've been forwarned this can be a long, expensive and scary process if what appears to be happening is really happening. The police have given me a list of things I must do in the morning and I pass them on to you. Apparently identity theft has become a total crisis. Some people simply duplicate credit cards--others attempt something big like this. I keep hearing about all this, but I will now take the necessary steps to protect myself in the future--and I urge you to do the same. Change the locks on the mailbox. Go to the post office and report the problem. Subscribe to a credit protection company like Equifax and put on a fraud alert. Run your credit report monthly. Shred everything. The sad part to me is that I try always to see the Christ in people and give "bad people" the benefit of the doubt. But--

I may look like a mild-mannered old lady, but when it comes to my identity, my future, or anybody trying to do harm to me or mine, watch out. I remember the first year I was married, someone attempted to steal our car parked right outside our bedroom window in San Luis Obispo. I woke up and alerted my husband and he was "shy" about doing anything. Crazy me ran out the door screaming at the top of my lungs at the SOB, and he hopped out and ran. (Would not do that today!) During the Watts riots when my kids were babies, I was an avowed pacificist. I stood in the line at the gun shop with my babies in tow and bought the ammunition for the gun my husband had stashed away. I have also taken on companies that have provided me service and thought they would rip me off--and I have always ultimately won. As part of a committee I've reported priest abuse at a time when that wasn't done and though the process was hellacious, we won. (Except they put him in a parish with a school. Sheesh.)

Don't mess with Frannie. I am always surprised when this level of anger and fear bubbles up in me. I feel like Woody Allen in Love and Death riding on his horse through Russia and people were dropping dead right and left from the fierceness of his anger. But maybe you will read this and take the necessary steps to protect yourself before anything gets out of hand. Maybe there is a spiritual component to all this shit that I just haven't seen yet.

Comments

[Boyd]

Your a Leo, Fran, of COURSE you are going to be fiercely protective. It's your nature. I know. It's mine too.

[krissie]

you go Fran!!!I'm like you ...I'm the one who not scared to take the bull by the horns....dh is the 'shy' one here too!

[Steve Bogner]

Keep at 'em Fran!

In the last month I've identified two bogus charges on my Amex card. Amex is very good about these things, but it sure does irritate me.

[Roz Cawley]

"But maybe you will read this and take the necessary steps to protect yourself before anything gets out of hand. Maybe there is a spiritual component to all this shit that I just haven't seen yet."

Fran, reading your comments about receiving letters to a name that you did not know has certainly alerted me - this happens with a couple of names that have letters regularly addressed to them at my home address - I had never thought that this could be linked to identity theft, but I am surely thinking about it now. I'll be well on the lookout for the next mail that arrives for the "strangers" at this address - and will take action on it pronto. Thank you SO much for telling your story and alerting me to this. Damn, what a world.

[susanne]

Fran, I'm sorry you are being faced with this now... I know identity theft is as much a problem here as it is in the States. Maybe i live in la-la land thinking that because my income is below poverty level no one would target me.... but that's not really true is it. It could happen to any one of us and what a horrible thing to happen. Stay strong!

[Kathryn]

An incident happened to me in 2002. I noticed a charge for an internet job ad on my credit card. I immediately called the company to contest it, had the account cancelled, and was told to file a police report. I did, and the situation was handled. But it's made me leery.

In cases where one is violated, whether it be physically, emotionally, or financially, I suggest that it's easy to overthink what is a "spiritual" response. There's nothing un-spiritual, I believe, in expressing outrage over a violation of the community rules by which we live; it's how we all manage to co-exist in peace. People who disregard this covenant need to be stopped, or chaos ensues. And if you want to think nasty thoughts in your anger, I think that's all right too, to a point (perseverating on the negative turns unhealthy). It's what you decide to do, how you decide to act, that matters.

[Elaine]

Wow. This sounds like a horrendous mess. I hope it resolves quickly.