I Believe Identity Theft Is Too Easy

I get calls from telemarketers all the time. Usually around dinner time because they know

that’s when I’m at home. Would you like to to subscribe to this? Are you happy with your

telephone service provider? It gets to the point that I need caller ID so I know if I should

answer the phone or not. I sometimes get eight calls from telemarketers in a day, and from all

corners of the country. I eventually stopped answering them but there was one number that kept

calling me over the course of a couple weeks and it called at all times of the day as well. I was

getting tired of it, and one day I answered it to hear someone telling me they were from a

collection agency and they were wondering when I was gonna start paying on an outrageously

high cable bill. Someone stole my identity.

I’m still me of course, but I may not be to any company or creditor. Someone out there

has used my name and personal information to get a credit card and is using said card to buy

things and subscribe to things. Then he isn’t paying them off. And this in turn is destroying my

credit.

I talked to the cable company I owed the money to and got them to put my file in an

investigation of identity theft. I also got them to give me all the information they could about the

account since it was mine. I gave the police the information I was given and they gave me the

next few steps I had to go through while they found out who was living at the address the cable

was billed to. I had to request my credit reports from all three of the creditors, Equifax, Experian,

and TransUnion. This was no easy task. I call their numbers and have to deal with the automated

systems which I must say is more annoying than having to talk to someone who sounds like

they’re reading their english from a book. I get letters later telling me that I have to mail the letter

they sent me to a cartain address along with a two proofs of ID, each required to have my social

security number and current address. I didn’t have these since I’m a college student so my address

is always changing. I ended up having to renew my license.

The police call back telling me they know who the guy is that stole my identity. He’s also

well known by the police there for his many offenses against the law. I’ve never heard of this

person before and I have no idea how he got my information. The police say that there isn’t

anything they can do until they get my credit reports so they can know which bank he got the

credit card from. So I have to wait a couple weeks for this mailing process to work while some

guy could be doing who knows what with a credit card in my name. I finally got them and faxed

a copy of them to the police and they say they’ll look over them and figure it out. Credit reports

are not easy to read by the way. Sure they have the names of the companies and the dates that

they had to run your credit but alot of them have abbreviated names and acronyms which make it

a little difficult to remember if these were companies that I talked to or not.

As of now that’s as far as I’ve gotten through my identity theft ordeal but there is still

much that I’ll have to do. I just have to wait for the police to do their job and tie this guy to the

credit card. Then I’ll have to go through the whole court process if they do catch him. And in the

end regardless of the outcome I’m going to have to get a new social security number after all the

trouble I went through to memorize this one.

I believe it is too easy to steal someone’s identity. This guy, who I’ve never heard of

before, was able to get my social security number. I’m not sure how, but he did. And he used it to

get a credit card in my name. He didn’t need anything else. No picture identification. He just gave

them my social security number and they gave him a credit card so he could go on a shopping

spree leaving me to clean up the mess. That’s all you need to ruin someone’s identity. With that

you can get a credit card in their name and if you’re a smooth talker you can get their bank

account information. Apparently it’s not hard at all, you just have to want to do it.

This whole experience has been one of the biggest annoyances I’ve ever had to deal with,

and if the police can catch him then it’s only going to become a bigger headache. I just hope they

can catch him so I can meet this guy and find out how he did it. I don’t care why. I just want to

know how. Then I’ll hopefully get the chance to dent his face with my fist. I feel like after all this

I might be okay with dealing with an assault charge. Maybe.