How fucking stupid/scary is this.
 

A friend of mine I've known for years has had continual problems with a man who stole his identity years ago. Every now and again he would have charges levied against him that were actually the other guy running around.. He jumped through all the legal and federal hoops to prove that he was no the other guy. For a year or so there's been nothing, but recently, more charges were brought up against him because of this other fellow.. I am going to now quote him (my buddy Kirb), about what's happened in the situation since. It should really be interesting to everyone (and yet more proof that identify theft DOES happen).


Be afraid. Stupidity abounds in the world.

I believe it. Doesn't suprise me at all.

oh boy

I dunno, I find it pretty scary/

Of course it's scary - but some people are just insanely stupid.

Cool! That means that when I was 15 trying to get into a bar as a 28 year old mexican named Inigo Montoya... he would have believed me!

ah...another fine statement about our justice system...

I find it scary too. I recently received a rather large medical bill in my name with my address on it, but the ss# and b-day do not match mine. When I called the clinic to tell them it wasn't me and that I'd never even been to that clinic, they said it sounds like a case of identity theft. But in order to prove that it isn't me I have to send them copies of all of my personal information, such as driver's license and ss card. That makes me more than a little uncomfortable, and I'm still trying to figure out a way to prove it's not me without having to provide copies of my life!

Go to a notary etc.. If you like, I can ask my friend advice on what he did to clear himself. He actually was taken to jail over it they were so convinced it was him.. (albiet briefly). I'll let you know.

People are fucking stupid some times. I lived over seas for approx 3 years. When I came back to the states I needed new insuarnce fro my car. So I go through the paper work and later that afternoon the insurance agent calls me up and says there is a problem.

I ask him what the problem is and he tells me that I stated that I had no traffic violations in the last 5 years or what ever. Which is true I have never even had so much as a parking ticket. Anyway I'm like yea I don't and he goes on to tell me that I got 3 speeding tickets in Ohio in 1995. I started laughing and he asked what was so funny about that and I told him that would be sort of hard to do considering I was on another continent at the time of the tickets. So he double checks and calls back all apologetic and shit. Here is what was stupid though. I have a rather common American name and in his background search that is all he used before he went ape shit on me. Didn't bother to check address info, social security number or any of that shit. He was only going by the name.

So I told him thanks for his time but I will be taking my policey to a more detail oriented agent. So the last laugh was on him.

Nice one. I would have done the same.

Many years ago, the Georgia Department of Revenue made a keystroke error and suddenly I was a farmer in south GA. I was receiving bills for taxes that I obviously didn't own and I sent them proof that I'd paid mine.

When checking my credit reports, I found out there was a lien against me for the money. I tried dealing with the courts where the lien was placed, nothing. I got 2 of the 3 credit bureaus to remove it - after all, it WASN'T my SS#! I can't even remember which moron bureau wouldn't remove it.

I finally told the courts that I'd pay it - just to get it off my records. They put me in touch with the GA Dept of Rev. They said I couldn't pay because that wasn't my SS#. Duh - ya think??!

Tried to buy my house, and the mortgage company said there was a lien. Yes, I know - I sent them all the info and said if THEY could figure out how I could pay it, I would. They couldn't but still required me to write a check to the closing attorney at closing and HE was going to get it paid. 6 months later, got a check from him - HE couldn't get it paid off either,

I've been trying for almost FIVE YEARS to get a GA. tax ID for my company. They won't give it to me. Why? Because the SS# on the application isn't mine. :mad: I faxed them a copy of my SS card. They said it wasn't big enough. Faxed them a VERY large copy, hehehe. That was 2 years ago. My application for a tax ID is still "pending".

I feel sorry for anyone to steals my identity - they're in for more problems then they'll know what to do with, lol! :thumbsup

Way scary :warning

Shit that stinks. Sorry to hear about it Peaches! Stupidity DOES about though, doesn't it?

Fuck that sucks...

I got some advice from my friend.. this is what he says:


Frankly, there's no cookie-cutter approach. I've had four different
accusations, and with one I just had to shout "it's not me!" over the
phone and basically play hell with them; with this last one I've had to
spend hours on the phone and at the P.O. shipping documents to the
magistrate.

If you want a one sentence summary: Ask the person accusing you "what
can I do to convince you?", then do it. Then in a second sentence "Get
lots of copies of your real ID, be prepared to spend lots of time and
money at the post office"


Oh, and I forgot one other important piece of advice: make yourself a
thorough pain to your accusers. Call at 10, then when they say they'll
call you back, call again at 10:20, and mildly ask "I was just
wondering if there was any resolution yet?". Then again at 10:45, and
so on. It seems to work especially well on Friday afternoons when the
secretaries want to go home. Today when I called for about the fifth
time in the day, the judge who had just "left for the day" was
mysteriously "just pulling back into the parking lot, and maybe I can
catch him". I would imagine that if you start their phones ringing at
8:59 on a Monday morning, it would have much the same effect.

So basic advice:
1) Call them straight away. Tell them it wasn't you. Ask what you can
give them as proof
2) Send all they ask for, and anything else you can think of
3) Pester, pester, pester, until they drop the charges rather than
having to listen to another whine from you. If you piss off the
secretary, she's going to go charging into the boss's office and tell
him to drop the case because you're annoying her. He in turn is so
frightened of her that he'll do whatever she tells him to.

Seriously: 1) document 2) follow up


Good luck.

my identity was stolen last year. drivers license, SIN, bank cards. stole 50K from my accounts. took out a pile of no money down deals for various electronics.

MAJOR pain in the ass (it still is). i got tired of dealing with asshole collection agencies, etc and hired a lawyer to handle the entire mess for me... much less stress now :)

Thanks :thumbsup

The only part I am really worried about is sending them all those documents for proof. I would rather walk in there, show them the proof that it isn't me, and then walk out without giving them copies of all of my other personal information that they don't already have. To me, giving them the rest of my information seems kinda like saying "Look, somebody stabbed me but I didn't die. Let me give you a gun so you can finish the job." (A pretty extreme analogy, but I think you get the point.)

The bright side is that if somebody really did want to steal my identity I think they would be mighty disappointed. I don't have much worth stealing! :winkwink: