We made our way through the remaining cars towards my Sunbird. I noticed a police car beside a van which was parked a few spots away from my Sunbird. As we made our way to my car I noticed my rear window had been smashed and shards littered the back seat.

With dismay I realized that I had left my wallet under the driver side seat for safekeeping. I opened the door frantically and poked around searching for my wallet.

I reported the loss to the police who sympathized with my predicament. They took down the details and gave me a reference number for the insurance company. The van had been similarly vandalized and all its contents removed. I didn’t ask .. I had problems of my own. I was shattered.

I made a mental note of what I had in my wallet .. social security card, library card, drivers license, health card and a few bucks. My CD player and the CD’s I had in the car were also removed. Wrenched would be a better description. Funny. It never occurred to me that I was now a statistic and a victim of one of the most insidious and gut-wrenching crimes in this day and age.

I advised the various government departments of the vandalization and was required to complete forms reporting the loss and applying for replacements. The insurance company told me to have the car repaired and itemize all the stolen items. They sent me a check for the losses and the car was as good as new.

Then the fun started. My dad who incidentally has the same name got turned down for an Amex card. His credit rating was pristine. Always paid up. Hardly ever carried balances forward.

He applied for a copy of his credit record from Equifax and was horrified to find a number of purchases from various out of province stores on his record. He went ballistic.

He called every company and threatened them with legal action if the offending item was not removed within seven days. He also filed a complaint against Equifax with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

He asked me to go to a lawyer and sign an affidavit detailing what had happened. This was sent to all the credit agencies with a note that any application for credit cards or any credit whatsoever must be confirmed in writing by the lawyer.

Within one week my father’s credit record was restored to what it was before the break-in. The government agency directed Equifax to ensure that my dad’s record contained not even as much as a hint of the offending entries.

Unfortunately I was not so fortunate. The fraud committed using my personal information took almost three years to expunge from my record.

Although the break-in occurred in Ontario the purchases were made in Alberta within two weeks. Organised .. perhaps. What is beyond belief is that companies were so eager to extend credit to an individual who almost certainly had to use my driving license as well as my social security card. I cannot believe that there is another individual who has my exact facial features.

My employer went beyond what was required of them to assist me rehabilitate my record. They wrote a letter to Equifax and to all the stores involved indicating that it would have been impossible for me to have made any of the purchases since I was at work during the crime spree. They attached to each letter copies of the automated signing-in/signing-out procedure which showed clearly my badge number on entry and exit.

Today I do not carry a credit card nor do I carry any form of identification except for my driving license. It was a devastating experience which I would not wish on anybody. I was so concerned about pickpockets at the concert I failed to appreciate that a car presents no challenge whatever to someone with criminal intentions. The affidavit and explanatory letter are still on file with the credit agencies and will remain there for the foreseeable future.

The day before Christmas in 2002, I was making last minute purchases in a department store. One of the purchases was a really cute necklace I knew my mom would love and with the double coupon I was about to use the necklace, wrapping and all would end up costing under 20 dollars. I was flying out early the next morning to join my family up north and with carols playing in the department store and my hand on the final present I needed to buy I was really getting into the Christmas spirit. At about 7pm I decided I had browsed enough and moved to the register to make my purchase. Little did I know that this single, under 20 dollar purchase would set off a chain of events that would leave me without money for several days and no way to get to my family on Christmas. I handed the lady my debit card and the fun began.

Total bill $17.50. Denied. Try again please. Denied and Call Cardholder Bank. I called the bank – Christmas Eve at 7:15pm – closed. Now what. The woman was still holding onto my card and someone from security walked up. A conversation ensued about whether or not this was my card! I ended up walking out of the store without my card; my only means of getting cash and thinking that if $17.50 was denied then where was my $4,000 paycheck from the day before and my $2,500 Christmas bonus!? I couldn’t even write a check. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just go home tomorrow and be with my family and they’ll lend me money until I can talk to the bank.
Christmas day arrived and I just wanted to get to the airport. I couldn’t call the bank until the day after Christmas so I headed for the airport early. Thankfully the lines were short and as I approached the counter the lady told me that they weren’t printing tickets, that all boarding passes were being printed from the center kiosks. I plugged in my confirmation number and the machine asked for the card with which I had purchased the ticket – you guessed it – the same card that I had to leave at the department store! I went to the counter and there was nothing they could do. Their counter machines were updating and there would be no printing for hours. I went home. No Christmas tree, no presents, no festive food, no company, no flight to see family, no phone calls from friends, no money – I had $10 in cash and I figured I’d better hang on to it.

The next day was the 26th, a very very memorable day. I called the bank and they said both my checking and savings were overdrawn but that the bank had no flags on my accounts. I decided to go into the bank and have a look at these empty accounts that should have had more than $10,000 between them. They showed that “I”, “myself” had purchased large amounts of home electrical power in Oklahoma, that “I” had put a cash down payment on a car(!) and “I” had bought a lot of clothes – in “person” no less.

Once the trail of purchases unraveled, it was a more than $10,000 shopping spree that someone who was actually signing my name and producing “ID” was enjoying!

How did it happen? Thanks to some detective work on my part and on the part of the fraud division at the bank we were able to piece together the story. When I paid my phone bill to a major carrier in October and November I happened, because of the area of the country I called from, get processed by the same customer service person from Oklahoma who took my information and got a fake ID made with my information and their picture on it! They cleaned out my bank account, I ended up with two items placed on my credit rating and they even bought a car!

The fallout took almost 2 years to straighten out. I had to prove my identity to my own bank more than once! Returning the car and reversing the loan that was made in my name was the hardest thing to do – the loan and car companies actually didn’t care about me or my credit so they just wanted to repossess the car and let it put a black mark on my credit! I got a new bank account, a new debit card which I didn’t want to use for about 2 months(!), a hard time buying a car after that, and it was expensive to get a lawyer to get all that stuff off my credit and a “remarked” credit rating which means my lawyer wrote a letter on my behalf detailing what happened. The bank tried to get me an airline ticket to replace the round trip I lost at Christmas but that was probably wishful thinking. The airline was gracious though and gave me the miles instead of a replacement ticket. So I lost Christmas, about $2,000 and some time and shed a few tears – mostly out of sadness at my ruined Christmas and frustration at having to do things like prove who I was to my own bank! All in all a pretty traumatic but fascinating experience – we found out that someone from a branch of my bank in Oklahoma actually helped the person who stole my ID and money! I guess it pays for criminals to know each other.

Advice? Stay calm. Your bank will put the money back in a matter of hours until the dispute is resolved (if they don’t back you switch banks NOW!)If you’re a woman don’t cry and if a man don’t yell – neither is productive. Practically speaking, don’t give account information over the phone – ever. That’s it, my best advice. Only buy from or do business with companies that have secure websites. My situation was a freak chain of events but it was set off by me being too friendly and trusting on the phone when a customer service person asked too many questions (to fill in information blanks so he could start the fraud chain) I should have hung up. Work with the bank and let them do their job. I was probably in the way trying to get some of my own answers. Finally the best piece of advice: don’t hook your bank accounts together as in attaching your savings to your checking. I would have at least had some money left in savings if I didn’t have the automatic overdraft turned on.

Point of fact, smaller towns holding trade shows are very aware of their tourists. This pizza shop had to have been raking in money that weekend, all from temporary visitors.

The pizza was good. It was just what I needed after a long weekend. The heartburn came when I was driving home, and my credit card was declined when I was fueling the car. I called the card provider, and was told that I exceeded my card limit. This was silly, I was about two-thousand dollars from my credit limit, by my own calculations. I asked about the charges that brought me over limit. The customer service representative gave me a litany of charges involving athletic shoes, designer clothes, video games, music, all things I can’t afford, particularly in those quantities. Also, all were purchased that morning, all in the area local to my trade show.

I explained this to the representative, but was told that the charges would need to go through a dispute process, and that I would receive a letter in the mail within 30 days updating or explaining an outcome.

30 days pass, I get my letter. I’m told that the card was presented at each shop, and that with the evidence provided, the inquiry would be closed. Ridiculous. Two-thousand dollars worth of fraudulent charges, and there’s no evidence that it wasn’t me? I contacted law enforcement. I called the credit card company, initiating a new dispute.

Working with law enforcement, they came to the conclusion that whomever did this got my credit card number, CVV security code, expiration date, and billing zip code. The culprit apparently made a fraudulent card, using the information from my card on it. Thinking back, looking at receipts, I saw that the only person who had direct access to my card was the pizza delivery boy, who jotted down notes as he was imprinting the card.

For my own edification, I called the pizza place, pretending to be a friend of the pizza delivery boy (his name was on the receipt, thank you for that.) The manager on duty told me he was fired for theft, and that I shouldn’t call again. I informed the police of the pizza boy’s name, and the fact that he took a lot of my information down. They said they’d look into it.

Long story short, they came to realize that he had stolen quite a bit of information from quite a few customers. He and a friend had an operation set up where they made fraudulent cards using customer data. They’d use these cards on little shopping sprees until the cards were declined. Luckily, law enforcement caught the both of them.

Six months of police investigation later, I had the information necessary to provide my credit card company. By that time, I had been sent to collections over the two-thousand, late payments, overdraft fees, and other assorted fees amounting to almost another two-thousand. The card company took just under ninety days to resolve the issue.

A year after the initial problem, it was finally fixed. However, the damage to my credit was enormous. I had a number of 90-day-late marks, collections, a charge-off, a few of my other credit cards suffered heightened APRs (that’s money I’ll never see back, my card companies have advised,) I even had a line of credit closed due to this. Another year of fighting with credit reporting bureaus, I’ve still not gotten all the traces of this nightmare off my credit. I couldn’t buy a new car if I wanted. New credit cards are not an option. I was even declined a job offer, due to the negative marks on my consumer report.

My life has been damaged by this minimum wage pizza boy. I’ve lost a great handful of money that I know I’ll never see back. My reputation has been harmed. Pizza Boy’s prosecution didn’t end our relationship. His shopping spree will be irrevocably part of my life for some time to come.

I automatically panicked because in my purse was my wallet with my bank cards, credit cards, pictures and not to mention my keys to my house and car. That night began a nightmare that lasted over a week. When I got home I immediately got on the phone to report my bank card stolen. It was a Friday night and I was hoping that a block was going to be put on my card. Since I had online banking, I logged in my bank account to see if anyone had used my card. Within a few hours charges were being made on my bank card. See it was one of those ATM cards that had a Visa logo on it. My card was being used at multiple gas stations for different amounts of money. I was thinking “how much gas is this person going to buy with my card”. See, if it was a credit card it may have been different, but this was my actual hard earned money that I was seeing being spent. I got a few hours of sleep that night and when I woke up I went back online to see how much more damage was made to my bank account. I seen that they had went to a drugstore and even out to eat. I was getting mad because I had reported my card stolen and it was still being used. I was also mad at the fact that someone was using my card and obviously they were not being asked for their ID.

The spending rampage went on all weekend until Monday when the banks were open for business. I was so surprised that my call reporting my card stolen did not stop my card from being used. By that Monday morning, they had spent almost $2,000 out of my bank account. I tried calling the places they used my card asking to view the video surveillance tapes, but nobody was helpful. They told me that only the police were going to be able to view their cameras.

It was now Tuesday or Wednesday and I went to my bank to file a report that I was not the one using the card. They made me sign an affidavit stating that I did not make the charges on my account so my money would be refunded. Luckily the bank has some sort of insurance protection for this type of situation. It took about two weeks for my money to be refunded bank into my account.

The thieves did not stop there. They had my check book and decided to order pizza from a couple different pizza parlors. To this day, my name is still in a check systems database and I am unable to write a check at certain stores because I refuse to pay for the thieves pizza. Luckily about a week and a half after my purse was stolen, the thieves tried to use my checks at a check cashing store. They tried to forge my name and cash a check for $400. I was contacted by the police and was asked if I wanted to press charges. Of course, I said yes.

Now I received my money back that the thieves spent, but I did not have access to my money for over 2 weeks. Being a single mom at that time, this put a big damper on my life. I now know to never leave my purse in my car. If I don’t want to carry it, I simply leave it at home.

My first encounter with identity theft came when I was deployed to Iraq the first time and could literally do nothing about it. Fortunately, my loving wife handled the situation perfectly. My bank debit/credit card number was stolen by someone in Japan, of all places.

I called my wife on a regular basis when I was deployed the first time. She told me that someone had purchased two hundred dollars worth of electronics in Japan. I laughed at her and said that it has nothing to do with us. But, it did. It had everything to do with us because the two hundred dollars was charged to our joint checking account.

We were very fortunate in the entire course of events because our bank back home was operated by people that we knew very well and our personal banker, that mainly managed our account, knew us better than the other bankers. She actually called my wife on the telephone to inquire about the purchase. Needless to say my wife had no idea what she was talking about and asked for clarification.

“There is a pending charge of $214.98; it came from Tokyo, Japan at an electronics store. I assume that you didn’t go to Japan over the weekend, and I know your husband is in Iraq. Is it possible that his plane landed in Tokyo and he purchased something there?”

My wife took a second to ponder these statements and the question posed to her…. “No, when he got to Kuwait he said that he went from Maine, to Germany, and on to Kuwait. It would not be possible for him to have purchased anything.”

“Ok, this is what we are going to do then. We will deny the charge for claim of identity theft because neither of you were in Japan to make this purchase. Then we (being the bank) will void your current debit/credit card and issue you a new one. Please Mrs. Cox let your husband know as well the seriousness of identity theft as well as the ease of which thieves can steal your identity. Do not allow anyone to ask for your credit card information over the phone or the internet and just be aware of the reality of it.”

The banker continued to warn of the possible ways identity thieves can acquire the information and also to express her heartfelt sorrow that this has happened, claiming a feeling of responsibility. This feeling of responsibility was of course misguided, but I appreciated the fact that she, and the bank she represents, felt the way they did and were so helpful and preventative of further damage.

After hearing the story told to me, by my wife, over the phone in Iraq; a terrible weight of helplessness and increased unease settled over me. I realized shortly thereafter that the cause had to have been from ordering pizza over the phone and paying for it with our debit/credit card. Every other time we used the card it was in a store with one of those little machines that scan the card.

From that day to this day we have always paid for things like pizza orders and such with cash. It is the only way to ensure identity safety in a world of growing identity theft.

Take every precaution, research everything you can. Knowledge is power in the prevention of identity theft, and if you are unfortunate and this happens to you know what to do. Reacting quickly will stop a lot of negative things from coming of it. Wesley Cox.

I read all the holiday wishes and then open the last envelope. I think it’s probably junk mail. Surprise, it’s a collection notice. It tells me I owe over $1,000 for defaulting on cell phone payments. I knew there had to be some mistake because my cell phone with this cell carrier is a prepaid phone. My previous cell phone service was with another company for over ten years. I called the collection agency expecting that maybe the charges were for the person that had my cell number before me but the surprises kept coming.

The customer service representative read off the four cell numbers for the account. They belong to my aunt and her family. To make matters worse the account was opened in 1997. I lived with my aunt while in college. The only reason I know about the fraud charge is because the account went into default in 2007. I asked why it didn’t show up on my credit report and was told that it was on my report now. The cell company had to find a collection agency licensed in my state before they placed it on my credit file. I check my credit file every year but this charge was placed after I checked my credit. Luckily, I purchased Suze Orman’s Identity Theft Kit earlier in the year.

I called my identity theft service and they walked me through the steps I needed to take to clear the fraudulent charge from my credit file. First thing I had to do was file a criminal report against my aunt. Once I did that and had a copy of the report, I needed to send a copy to the collection agency and the three credit bureaus. I also needed to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). I called my parents to tell them what happened and what I had to do. Thankfully, they were very supportive. My mother said her sister had to deal with the consequences of her choice and it would all work out ok. So I moved forward.

I go online to find out how to file an identity theft report. Since the crime occurred in a state different from where I am currently living I needed to find out how to file a report in the state where the crime happened. I couldn’t find the information I needed so I filed the criminal report locally and the local authorities said they would forward the information to the right authorities in the state where the crime happened. On New Year’s Eve I received a copy of the criminal report. I faxed a copy to the collection agency and mailed copies to all three credit bureaus so they could place a fraud alert on my credit file. This would allow me to check my credit for free twice a year for the next few years. I also get called before anything is opened in my name. I also filed a report online with the FTC. Then I got ready to ring in the New Year.

A month later the fraudulent charge was removed from my credit file. Before this my aunt contacted the cell phone carrier to let them know that the charge belonged to her. I will be checking my credit soon and hopefully this situation is over for me. My aunt and I have no hard feelings and now members of my family know my credit is off limits to them.

We were in Las Vegas for my sister-in-law’s wedding. We were staying at the Mandalay Bay, not too upscale, but not one of the lesser casino hotels. My wife’s 89 year old grandmother made it out to Vegas for the wedding (personally, I think it was more for the slots, but that’s another story), but she was finding it hard to get around. So my wife and I decided to rent her a wheelchair so she could get around by herself.

Well, my sister-in-law got married, I won some and lost some money in Vegas and we headed back to California after a few days of play. We weren’t back 1 day when I got a call from my bank asking me about a purchase I’d just made at the Home Depot in St. Louis, Missouri for $6,000 worth of gift cards. They said that my card was used, with my name and the ID of the person was my name, also. I almost had a heart attack. I told them that no, I wasn’t in St. Louis and hadn’t purchased the gift cards. I checked my wallet to make sure my ID and debit card were still in there and they were. My heart went into my throat and I knew immediately that my identity had been stolen.

I was immediately transferred to the fraud department in the bank, but a nine month saga of getting my money returned and my identity corrected began. I started thinking about where I might have used my card and had someone take too long to look at it, or write down the numbers. Had I ordered something over the Internet on a non-secure site? No, no and no. Then it hit me. When I rented the wheelchair for my wife’s grandmother, I had to leave both my debit card AND my ID for deposit. Wow…trying to help Grandma M. cost me my identity.

There are so many forms that have to be filled out in order to prove that you didn’t make the purchase. In addition, I called the Mandalay Bay where I had rented the wheelchair and they had fired an employee (who was not to be named, but was under criminal investigation) for misconduct. I could not get any other information about him.

I had to file a police report in Missouri so that the Home Depot would deactivate the gift cards and make them useless. Which I did. I had to file with Federal Trade Commission. I had to put a fraud alert on my credit reports. I had to close my bank account and reopen another account. I had to get a new drivers license, since they had used a drivers license with my name and my id number on it. It was such a pain in the rear-end.

Unfortunately, my bank did not immediately replace the funds into my account, although the Home Depot did not ever activate the gift cards. So, in addition to having no access to my money, I had to change my direct deposit at work and I couldn’t get to that money. I also didn’t have ATM/Debit cards for my new bank account, so I couldn’t access money after banking hours. It took 9 months, yes, I said 9 months to have the money returned to my account.

The 9 months of non-access to these funds took a toll on me, my family, our finances AND our credit scores. Although everyone involved, the credit reporting agencies, my bank, etc., knew about the identity theft, understood that I was the victim, and assisted in replacing cards, they were not empathetic about checks that did not clear because they were processed to the old account. They did not care that my car payment was late because my direct deposit was messed up and didn’t go into my new account until 4 weeks after the initial change of account. I incurred additional bank charges for overdraft on my old account for recurring or annual fees to companies that I did not notify in time about my identity theft. When I tried to buy groceries at the grocery story, I had my check denied a couple of times because of previous bounced checks that had happened due to the identity theft.

Needless to say, I am now very careful about leaving my debit card anywhere but with me. I am also still working to repair the damage done to my credit score after 4 years. And, since issues with your credit report can remain on your report for up to 10 years, it will be a while before this ugly mess is actually behind me.

In addition to my regular purchases of groceries, gas, music, and shoes, this month’s extra-large bill had four charges totaling close to $550 to Hotwire during one wild week in February.

Since I wasn’t familiar with and had never used Hotwire, I thought this was very odd, and I immediately called their 1-800 number; strangely enough, when asked to input account information such as my confidential password and my birth date, I was repeatedly rejected by the system. When I eventually reached  a live operator, I was informed that my birthday was, in fact, in April, rather than its real date in September, and the situation became more and more disconcerting. I immediately filed a claim with Hotwire, which entailed vast amounts of paperwork, and also called my bank and the local police. The police came to my house and got into an argument with my neighbor, but were never able to uncover anything further

As a best guess, my mail was either stolen, allowing the criminals to find my credit card number and information, or a vendor kept the credit card number and used it on a site that requires little verification. Either way, it added up to a scary headache for me.

In addition to a new credit card and the costs of an identity theft monitoring service for a year (paid for by me), I became a little more leery of my neighbors, passerby, and people I do business with. I know identity theft happens all the time to all sorts of people, but it really hits home when it happens to you. It makes you consider the value of a document shredder and importance of extra caution with receipts and financial information. Fortunately, I review my credit card statements carefully each month, so I caught the issue before it got more out of control.

After a year had passed without incident, I nervously canceled the credit monitoring service (it was comforting to have, but the cost added up quickly), but continue to be a little more careful and suspicious than before. No one was ever caught or charged for this incident, and I never heard from Hotwire again. And I still don’t look forward to the credit card bill arriving each month.

Now, I can sort of relate.

About four years ago I was buying a couple of videos on a website. Of course, I had to put in all of my debit card information, personal info, and billing info as well. I remember very clearly having a bit of a mental lapse that day and repeatedly goofing up my zip code. After I finally got it on the fourth try, I finished the transaction and moved on to check my email.

There, in my junk mail, was an email from my bank. Of course I opened it. The email said that they’d noticed some questionable activity on my account and wanted me to verify some information. Every aspect of this email felt legit. The logos, the font, everything. I thought to myself, “Wow. I was goofing up that transaction just a few moments ago. These guys are really on the ball! Kudos!” So, I gave them the info they wanted…including my pin number.

A couple of days later, I was at the grocery store trying to buy a few essentials when my debit card was declined. Confused, I went home and looked at my account online. An ATM withdrawal for 354.60 had been made the previous day. Not only had I not made such a withdrawal, I don’t even know how to get 60 cents out of an ATM!

Okay, I’m not a guy who makes enough money to let 354 bucks just disappear, so I went to my bank. When I told them what was going on she looked up my account and said that the transaction had taken place in Romania! My bank was very cool and even covered my loss for me and told me that I had been “fished.” Apparently, scammers will send out random emails to thousands of people just hoping someone will bite. Because of the timing of my goofed up transaction, I bit and bit hard!

Now I obviously know that I never give out my pin number online. Period. I had to cancel my account, start a new one, and contact all of my bills that had been drawing from that account to get switched over. It was a nuisance to say the least. I know that I got off lucky, but with a little more common sense, I’ve never had to deal with it again.

Just like I thought. When you get fished, it’s a fine world one minute and mass of confusion and chaos the next. Look carefully before you bite!

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.