I'm sure most of you have heard horror stories about identity theft, well I'm living the nightmare. It all started about 15 years ago. I started receiving letters and phone calls for a Patricia Smith. It was debt collectors trying to collect their money. I would simply tell them they had the wrong person. Most of the addresses they had on file were in south Georgia or north Florida. That is also where most of these businesses were. After this went on for a short period of time I got a copy of my credit report. It seems this person had used my SS# and had applied for credit to buy a computer, jewelry, furniture, two cell phone services and other misc. items. I'm not sure but I think they acquired my SS# through a dumb fault of my own.
See, the state of Georgia had this brilliant idea of using your SS# as your drivers license number so that you wouldn't have another number to remember. It is also common practise that when you purchase something by check you have to write your drivers license # on the check. Well, I'm sure you see what a HUGE mistake this was. I corrected that ASAP, but not before it was too late. Now time for damage control. I had to contact each of these places and explain the situation and I finally got that taken care of, and had a red flag put on my cedit file. This means that any time anyone tried to use my SS# and a credit report was run, a red flag would go up and I would immediately be notified and the credit report would not be released without my authorization. I remember getting one call and then no more. I figured she had finally given up since I had taken those precautionary steps. I thought that this was all behind me. Oh, was I sadly mistaken. After moving here to Michigan I gradually started getting collection letters for a Patricia Smith and the phone calls began again. One of them interesting enough was a letter about a bounced check written in Georgia. I called and explained everything to them and got that taken care of, but I have an address. I don't know if it is a legitimate one, but next time I get to Atlanta I'm going to find out! Also it seems she has changed the SS# by one digit, but why I am still getting calls I have no idea. I don't know how my Michigan telephone # ever got mixed up in all this, or my address.
This morning I received a call from a debt collector for a Patricia Buggs. Well, at least she is being a little more inventive with names. I'm not a vengeful person, but I wouldn't mind seeing this person do time for the pain she has caused me. She's probably living it up better than I am! It seems the red flag I put on my credit file only lasts for 3-6 months then you have to reapply to have it done. So now I have to order reports from all 3 credit bureau's. I'm afraid to see what they will show. I know that I have been late on a few payments, but my credit shouldn't be as bad as it is. I certainly hope none of you ever experience this. It is truly a nightmare!
See, the state of Georgia had this brilliant idea of using your SS# as your drivers license number so that you wouldn't have another number to remember. It is also common practise that when you purchase something by check you have to write your drivers license # on the check. Well, I'm sure you see what a HUGE mistake this was. I corrected that ASAP, but not before it was too late. Now time for damage control. I had to contact each of these places and explain the situation and I finally got that taken care of, and had a red flag put on my cedit file. This means that any time anyone tried to use my SS# and a credit report was run, a red flag would go up and I would immediately be notified and the credit report would not be released without my authorization. I remember getting one call and then no more. I figured she had finally given up since I had taken those precautionary steps. I thought that this was all behind me. Oh, was I sadly mistaken. After moving here to Michigan I gradually started getting collection letters for a Patricia Smith and the phone calls began again. One of them interesting enough was a letter about a bounced check written in Georgia. I called and explained everything to them and got that taken care of, but I have an address. I don't know if it is a legitimate one, but next time I get to Atlanta I'm going to find out! Also it seems she has changed the SS# by one digit, but why I am still getting calls I have no idea. I don't know how my Michigan telephone # ever got mixed up in all this, or my address.
This morning I received a call from a debt collector for a Patricia Buggs. Well, at least she is being a little more inventive with names. I'm not a vengeful person, but I wouldn't mind seeing this person do time for the pain she has caused me. She's probably living it up better than I am! It seems the red flag I put on my credit file only lasts for 3-6 months then you have to reapply to have it done. So now I have to order reports from all 3 credit bureau's. I'm afraid to see what they will show. I know that I have been late on a few payments, but my credit shouldn't be as bad as it is. I certainly hope none of you ever experience this. It is truly a nightmare!
5 comments:
What a nightmare! I can't imagine why a state would use SSN's for their driver's licenses! Isn't that supposed to be confidential??
Oh Pat, my goodness! Virginia has that same law...you never think it's going to happen to you until it does but I would die if I had to go through all this on top of whatever other stresses in life you have to go through. I'm sorry, my friend...maybe soon it'll be all over.
pat, you have all my sympathy with this, it's got to be a huge headache! that woman sucks so bad, and heaven help her if you ever DO find her!
Oh my! My heart is sank when I read this post. Shame on that person.
This is terrible!!! I hope you can get this totally stopped. That person has caused you a lot of difficulty, and that person deserves to pay a price for the fraud she has committed.
I pray you can get this all worked out and get justice.
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