Identity Theft Victim Interview

with John Fischer   

Transcript

John: Hi. I’m John Fischer. Welcome back to CreditFYI. Today we're going to change gears a little bit and talk about identity theft. The problem with identity theft is that people often disregard it. They figure, "It can't happen to me. Why should I be concerned about it?" It's just numbers in a newspaper or statistics they see online. Problem is, that's not the case; there's a lot of identity theft victims out there. In fact, we have one here today. Now, for that reason, we've obscured her facial features. You won't be able to tell who she is. And we've also given her a false name. We'll call her simply "Ms. X" throughout the interview.

Ms. X: 2003, I guess it was right around New Year's. I had just gotten back in town from a vacation. Stopped by my bank on my way to work the New Year's Eve Shift. I went to get some cash out of the ATM, and it said I was overdrawn by like 200 bucks. It kind of surprised me a little bit; I've never overdrawn a bank account. So I immediately panicked, and I went into the bank to see if I could figure out why I was overdrawn. Of course, I felt like everyone was judging me because my account was overdrawn, and everyone was kind of rude. They printed out my statement. I went over it, trying to figure out where I messed up; I thought I messed up. Turns out, I had this 200-and-something dollar charge on my bank statement from a place called Seventh Avenue. (I don't even know what that is.) But I told the lady that I didn't make the charge. She told me that I would have to go through a formal process to investigate it, and that could take up to two weeks. And they would continue charging me overdraft fees until they were able to confirm it — that it was my fault, just a huge mess; I was in tears. And when I left — I went straight to work. I got to work late. The next morning, I called my boyfriend to tell him about this horrible problem. I didn't know what to do about it. He suggested that I check my credit reports. He said it sounded like someone had gotten into my bank account, and he thought that that could affect my credit reports. So that's when I pulled my credit reports, and I found a couple of accounts on there that weren't mine — Victoria's Secret and an AmEx card; both of them were maxed out. I never applied for either of those cards ever before. And there were false names on my credit report, like aliases that weren't mine. I'd never reported them. My address was wrong. It was the same address — I lived in an apartment building — but it was the wrong apartment number. My place of employment was wrong. Everything was wrong. And I had absolutely no idea why.

John: How soon after the initial discovery did you involve the authorities — if at all?

Ms. X: Well, I didn't even know if you could really report identity theft; I didn’t really know much about it. But I did some research online, and everywhere I went, the FCC — all of their educational material — suggested that you file a police report to help alleviate all the problems. I called the police department in New Orleans and told them that I wanted to make a police report about identity theft. I heard a huge question mark — a silent question mark — go up, and then they said they would send someone to my house.

John: So clearly they didn't — at least in your mind at the time — have a lot of experience with it. They didn't even know where to tell you to go.

Ms. X: Not at all; not at all. I was unsuccessful. They came to my house and took my report. Well, they listened to me, and they told me that they couldn't take a report. Because it just didn't sound like a crime to them.

John: They send a city policeman, or state police?

Ms. X: They sent a city guy — just regular NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) guy in a (police) cruiser to my house. He listened to me for about thirty minutes, before he said that this was the wrong avenue to go down. I'm still a victim of identity theft, but many months down the road (after the NOPD's visit), I went to the NOPD. I went in person. This time, I was a little bit more prepared. I had a binder full of stuff, and I was going to make a police report. And I was sure that I could make a police report that day. I walked in with my stuff and was very affirmative. I said, "I want to make a police report about identity theft — about this many incidences." And I tried to be clear. That way, maybe that will give them some direction — maybe that way, they'll figure out what to do. And they told me that they didn't take identity theft reports, that I would have to go to the FBI in New Orleans, because they handle that. And, of course, when I went to the FBI, they told me that I needed to go to the NOPD — because they didn't handle that.

John: It's interesting because clearly — this is approximately five years ago — and I would venture a guess that the law and law enforcement knows a little more about this crime at this point in time. But it sounds like back then that you didn't have a lot of guidance.

Ms. X: Well, you know, that wasn't the only police enforcement that I dealt with. I also filed police reports in Connecticut, in Arkansas, and in Chicago. And I did make progress with other police departments; I was able to file police reports with the other departments — or the other agencies. However … in fact, one of the agencies even went as far as searching the home of the alleged identity thief, finding tons of information about me and plenty of other identity theft victims. But even after going in, finding all of this evidence, and having more hard evidence than you can imagine, they still couldn't arrest the person. And now they don't know where the person is. And because of lines of jurisdiction, each agency can't communicate with other agencies to work together to try to capture her.

John: Sure, that's interesting — especially after more than five years now from when the crime initially occurred. So basically, you're telling us that you never — it was very unlikely that you had an opportunity to work with the same people. You were — really, your case was being passed around from person to person — whomever was available. You didn’t have a dedicated person on the case at any point in time?

Ms. X: Sure, in each area: In each state — in each city, rather.

John: In each jurisdiction, essentially.

Ms. X: Exactly. But there's no communication over city lines. And there's really no work being made on the case. I can call today — I can call any one of the agencies — and get the same status update as I got two years ago. Which is "no change."

John: Do you communicate with anyone regularly?

Ms. X: Not any more — not since I put the credit freezes on my credit reports. That pretty much gives me the peace of mind that no one can do anything. But the problem is, even I can't do anything. I can't go get credit in my name. So whenever me and my fiancé decide to buy a house next year, or decide to change our cell phone plan, or decide to replace my "beater car" with a new car, we're going to have to unfreeze my credit reports. And for any length of time that my credit reports are unfrozen, I'm at high risk of more incidences of identity theft.

John: So as a former and, essentially, current victim of the crime, you're on the hook for the time being, credit-wise. If I'm understanding what you just said correctly, if you release the freeze on that credit report, you're immediately a target.

Ms. X: Absolutely. Absolutely. They may have tried over the last — I guess I've had the credit freezes for two years now — they could have tried a number of times to get credit, and they weren't successful. But there's nothing in the world to stop them from trying again while my credit reports are unfrozen, and getting the credit that they apply for.

John: You've alluded to the fact — if I'm reading between the lines here properly — that you actually know who the perpetrator is. Could you elaborate a little on that for the audience?

Ms. X: Sure, yeah. Absolutely. The perpetrator — we're absolutely certain of who the perpetrator is. It's just a matter of finding her and keeping her in one place. She was actually another tenant in my apartment building when I lived in New Orleans. It was one of those cases — her live-in boyfriend was the maintenance guy for the apartment building. And I suppose they had figured out how to open people's mailboxes. Most people in the apartment building didn't realize that their mailbox would open without actually putting the key into it; you just take that for granted. So they were stealing my mail for a little while. I didn't notice it. I didn't notice that I wasn't getting my bank statements; I didn't notice that I wasn't getting unsolicited offers. That's how it began. We were in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They relocated to Arkansas. And it wasn't until they were in Arkansas that we were actually able to develop all the evidence to prove that they were actually the perpetrators.

John: So if I have this correct: Essentially, a federal offense — which would be stealing another person's mail — is what led to this specific crime in your mind. I see. Do you have any particular advice for people out there in terms of — just to reinforce the point that we echoed at the beginning of this — that this can happen to anyone? That it's not a matter of pre-selection; it's not a matter of race; it's not a matter of creed; it's not a matter of anything other than happenstance.

Ms. X: It doesn't matter. It could happen to anyone. The way I've experienced it, this person — this perpetrator has incidentally stolen several people's identities. And from what the law enforcement was able to provide, they've been older people, younger people like me, foreign exchange students — just anybody and everybody whose information they could get a hold of, they ran with it. So, no, it doesn't matter who you are. Any advice I can offer? Check your credit report regularly. I've heard some people say you should check your credit report at least once a year. I think you should check it at least once a quarter, because it can happen so quickly. And the quicker you catch it, the easier it is to resolve things on your credit report, and with all of the companies who are granting the credit. And also, if you do find out that you are a victim of identity theft, keep extremely good records. No one else will do it for you, and they pile up very quickly. If you have an experience similar to mine, where you're constantly chasing this person across the country, you have to be able to — each time you make that police report — show each agency all of the evidence from everywhere else. And if you don't have all of that evidence organized, you're never going to get anywhere.

John: Other than obvious personal heartache and personal inconvenience that this has caused, do you mind, or can you share with the audience, at least, a ballpark number of dollars it's cost you out of your pocket to try to rectify the situation — when in fact, it's still ongoing?

Ms. X: Oh, man. I've taken days off of work, I've missed classes at school, I've spent money out of my pocket for mailing massive documents and notarizing documents. Ballpark figure? All the days I've missed of everything? It has easily been 1,000 or 2,000 bucks out of my pocket over the last five years. But that right there is nothing compared to the time, the energy, the frustration that I've also dealt with. If it hadn't been for the credit freezes, I don't know that anyone would want to be around me.

John: So, bottom line: Identity theft is real, and it can happen to you. So be smart, check your credit report regularly; don't compromise your personal information. If you have to give out your Social Security number, only give it out to those you trust — especially online. Protect yourself.

I'm John Fischer for CreditFYI, and we'll see you next time.