Featured Articles

I Was Investigated for Check Fraud

Posted by Contributor in Featured Articles on July 6th, 2009 | one response

I’m one of those people who constantly loses things — car keys, cell phones, sunglasses. You name it, I’ve lost it. But when I was 22 years old, I finally lost something that I couldn’t recover by digging through the couch cushions.

I lost my identity.

Here’s how it happened:

Like a typical 22-year-old, I frequently enjoyed having a few drinks out on the town. One night, after a few too many, my boyfriend and I decided to walk to our next party destination.

Being inebriated, I decided to stop about halfway there and take a brief rest in a grassy area on the side of the road.

That was the last time I saw my wallet.

The next day, I did the responsible thing and canceled my credit cards. When no mysterious charges appeared in my bank statements, I assumed that the only thing I had lost was the time and effort expended in replacing my cards and identification.

I was wrong.

A few months after I lost my wallet, I got a letter from the Reno district attorney’s office. I was being investigated for check fraud!

The DA’s office wouldn’t give me many details, but here are the three basic facts I was able to uncover:

1. The person who found my wallet went to the Department of Motor Vehicles and got a driver’s license in my name, but with her own photo and signature.
2. Armed with a seemingly valid, state-issued ID, the crook then opened a checking account in my name.
3. Using her new ID and checkbook, she then proceeded to write hot checks for hundreds of dollars each at local grocery stores, quickly adding up to thousands of dollars in a very short period of time.

Once the district attorney’s office caught wind of the scam, they summoned me for questioning and required me to take a lengthy handwriting test. Ironically, my handwriting had so deteriorated by that point, after so many years of working on computers, that I barely recognized it myself! My right hand was throbbing by the time I got done.

After that, I never heard from the district attorney again.

Looking back, I realize that it was incredibly stupid to just let the matter drop. I should have followed up with the DA’s office to make sure my name was cleared and see whether the criminal was ever caught.

What can I say? I was young and reckless, and it was easier to ignore the problem and hope it went away. I was incredibly lucky that it did.

These days, I check my credit report regularly and am relieved to see that the incident doesn’t seem to have affected my financial future. And now that I’m a mom and a homeowner, I don’t spend a lot of time these days intoxicated and wandering the streets.

But if I did, I guarantee I’d keep a much closer eye on my wallet this time.

Adrienne Doss is better known as the woman behind SEO Woman Internet Marketing. She’s not a superhero, but she plays one on Twitter.

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