These People Thought it Wouldn't Happen to them too...

These are real identity theft stories submitted after they initially contacted us through this website. After talking to several victims and discussing their cases, we decided to add this page to demonstrate how identity theft is a serious crime and how it can affect the victim years after the crime occurred.

The first case involves a typical incident of credit card fraud...

In April of 2003 a man had purchased a new television at a big chain electronics store. After coming home, he realized he misplaced his wallet. When he retraced his steps, he discovered he lost it after purchasing the television, and assumed he either left his wallet at the counter or dropped it in the store on the way out. Regardless, he was able to retreive the wallet at the store the next day, but was missing two credit cards.

He immediately cancelled those cards, but someone had already purchased over $9000 of merchandise between the two cards. Fortunately for this victim, he notified the credit bureaus immediately after cancelling the cards and realizing there were erroneous charges. He told us the process to clean up the theft took several weeks and numerous phone calls and letters to the creditors.

The next case is an example of mail fraud...

In 2005 a woman noticed she was not receiving all her mail. Most notably her utility bills. Shortly after comming to this realization she began receiving collection notices from the utility companies. This is when she realized something was wrong, and she started to contact all creditors, business, and the post office to make sure they still had her correct address.

She found that her mail was forwarded to another address and the thieves opened a cell phone account in her name, hadn't paid the bill, and she apparantly owed the phone company over $600 dollars! She told us it took several MONTHS to clean up the problem. She spent hours on the phone and spent "a lot of money" attempting to get her life back together.

Recently a man contacted us stating how he had pre-approved credit card applications stolen from his mailbox. The thieves apparantly stole the forms, filled them out, and had the cards delivered to another address. The thieves obtained the victim's social security number from other statements they stole in the mailbox.

The victim, not knowing these offers were even in his mailbox, eventually had 3 new cards opened in his name and began to receive collection notices months after the cards were opened. The criminals racked up $12,200 in debts and the victim's credit rating went from the low 700's to the 500's he told us.

Our victim spent hours and hours straightening out the problem, and in talking to him, I could tell his frustration with the process was growing. He was very negative and claimed he received little help and understanding from the creditors. He said the credit bureaus were very helpful, but the creditors only wanted their money and offered little support. He spent 6 months cleaning up the problem and says he lost count how many days off of work, but he believes it was around 7.

Currently he is trying to get a mortgage but the lenders told him his credit is too low for a decent interest rate. At this point he is aggressively trying to get his credit score higher, but thinks it could take several more months before its at a point where a lender will give him a loan with decent rates.

Check fraud...

We were contacted a few months ago from a woman stating she was a victim of check fraud. She assumed the victim stole her personal information and checks from her garbage. She lives in a high-rise building with a trash chute that leads to a dumpster accessible from inside the building. She then stated because of that she believed it was a person in her own building.

She pays her bills online and noticed that she had insufficient funds in her account. Apparantly the thieves were using her checkbook to write fake checks to buy items they otherwise couldnt afford. Fortunatly for this victim, she was able to recoup some of her lost money because she noticed the theft early. If you report a debit card or check fraud issue to your bank within 60 days, they will likely reimburse your money.

These are just a few of the many people who have contacted us with their identity theft stories. After talking to these people and experiencing it myself I cannot stress how important it is to check your credit report and get an identity theft recovery service. You stand a good chance of cleaning up your life whether you use a service or not, but you will never get your time back and many of the victims have deep resentment for the thieves because of the time they wasted cleaning up the problem. For more information on identity theft, check out our pages on identity theft prevention and protection 101.

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