This is important.

Ok, maybe I won't need to take a blogging hiatus after all; I'm feeling kinda talky/needy. In fact, the more I think about it the more I want to talk about what's going on with this identity theft scare - and not just for myself, but to share what I'm finding out with anyone who reads my blog.

Identity theft is a scary thing, and rightfully so: it can ruin lives not only with financial losses and credit scores damaged beyond repair, but with actual crimes committed under stolen aliases. Identity theft victims have as much to fear from sudden warrants for their arrest for crimes they didn't commit as they do from having their bank accounts emptied and new, astonishing collections bills handed to them for accounts in their names they never knew existed.

What makes it all worse is that despite everything that you can do to protect yourself now, a good majority of victims face such extreme loss because they don't act in time, even if they know about the theft; they hope it will just go away if they change a few online passwords and get new credit and debit cards.

It's not that simple.

I think (crossing fingers and toes) that I may have been very lucky. Either what happened with my scare really was nothing more than a couple of computer or clerical errors, or I caught this in time and with my acting so quickly I can very possibly stop it before I'm ruined. I have a printout of who to contact about what and have been making phone calls. Today, I saw the inside of our local police station for the first time in the nearlyfifteen years I've lived in this county. I have a fraud alert on each of the three major credit reporting agencies - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion - as well as the new ability to lock and unlock access that information as I see fit. I have set up an account access password for the utiliy account that this whole mess began with, and set up a reverse-security check for my student loan account (wherein I ask a security question of the bank representative I'm speaking to to ensure they really are who they claim to be). I signed up for ID theft protection on the credit card that seemed to have been targetted, but maybe wasn't after all.

I keep holding on to the fact that there are so many nulling-factors in this - so many things that makes it seem like just a case of an accidental clerical error on one account and maybe just a case of mistaken alert on the other. I want to believe that's all it is, but I'm not taking any chances. I am too in-tune with the nasty reality of the world to just let it go at that; the person who seems an innocent and helpful bystander could be the culprit being very clever indeed. The seemingly mistaken alert could have been a real one which, due to my quick action in correcting my address, has been overridden, the previously changed address no longer on file. What seems to have only just started between April 2 and May 2 could have started long ago, and I may actually have quite a mess to clean up when I finally order my credit report a month from now.

I want to hope, and I am breathing easier with each phone call that turns up nothing out of the ordinary and ends instead with new, extra security measures in place. But until some time has passed - a year maybe - wherein nothing out of place is found, I'll have that little niggling worry poking at my brain at odd moments. I will wake up in the middle of the night when funds are tight, wondering if my credit card will be rejected should I need it to pay a bill or for food (it hasn't gotten to that point, yet, but with Matt getting not quite half of his normal work-pay with his disability checks, I wonder sometimes how long that will be the case).

As this unfolds, I'm learning.



Please, please, pay attention to this advice, right now:

If you don't have one already, get a P.O. box for your mail. Then get a paper shredder. Then save those paper shreds under lock and key until winter or camping time comes along, and use them as fire-starters to keep warm or roast marshmallows.

If I seem a little paranoid, believe me I'm not. Do you own research on identity theft and you'll be right there with me. In reality, no security measure is too much. If you don't have a solid internet security package for your computer (I suggest McAfee), get one. The cost of the software and license for a year is nothing compared to what you could end up losing if your idenity is compromised. Remember that money is only part of the threat. Even getting a new job could be a painful fiasco with ID theft, even once the ordeal is over and you're just picking up the pieces.

Do not wait to protect yourself, and don't think that passwords and human decency alone will save you. This is important. For those of you with families, the importance just multiplied ten-fold; it's not just your security and stability at risk now - it's theirs too.

Don't wait. Call your creditors and whatever other accounts you have - phone, utilities, even paypal - and find out what extra security measures can be set up to ensure that not just anyone can call up or log on and make changes to gain access to your personal information. Get a post office box for your mail delivery, and if you're aggravated by not being able to recieve packages at a post office box, pony up the extra money and get a box at UPS - you can get package deliveries there. Shred your important documents, but don't leave it at that, because crazy as it surely sounds, some people really are persistent enough to piece strips of paper together. Burn them. Change your various passwords regularly.

Finally, be paranoid. If you think someone in line behind you was sneeking a thorough peek at your credit card as you paid, contact your bank that day or the next and get a new card. It may turn out that the person behind you was a good person who simply looked suspicious, or it could turn out they're ordering a brand new sound system with your card number as you sit and wonder about it.

Remember: no security step is too big or small. It all helps, and with as crafty and tech-savvy as so many people are now, you can't be safe enough.

While there is a large amount of information on the internet about indentity theft, the best resource I've found so far for dealing with it is 101 Identity Theft. The Federal Trade Commission has quite a bit of extensive and important information about it as well, but the 101 site is the best organized I've seen for actual victims as far as the steps victims need to take in dealing with it.

Do yourself - and your family - a favor and check out both of those websites now. You'll be shocked at what you discover about how common and easy it is to steal an identity, and the horrors it leaves for the victims of the theft.


Now pass the word along.