How Stolen Identity
Protection got my credit back. Identify
theft could happen to you.
I never realized I needed a stolen identity protection until a
year after my business trip to New York. While I was traveling
in New York, I left my wallet on the table at a restaurant. Of
course I did not realize what had happened until the next
morning. When I went back to the restaurant my wallet was long
gone. The nice people there searched high and low, but they
could not find it. I borrowed some money from a friend to get
through the rest of the weekend and I returned home. As soon as
I got home, I canceled all my cards and reported the other
sources of identification in my wallet. I soon had new cards and
a license sent to me. My credit card company offered me stolen
identity protection but it seemed too expensive and did not
cover much so I declined.
After my new cards came, I never gave it another thought. Almost
a year later, I received a phone call from a collection person
with a major department store in New York that I had did not
even go near while I was in New York. Then he told me that I
owed twenty four hundred dollars to the store and wanted to know
why I had not paid on my account. I must admit that I was rather
short with the man and after I assured him I had never shopped
at that store and had no card with them I hung up on him.
I should have checked on my credit then but I really thought he
was just a nut or a scam artist. Another week went by and I
started to receive more phone calls and letters from other card
companies and stores wanting money for things I never bought nor
received. I HAD BECOME A VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT. When I called
the police they told me they could not help me and to call the
credit card companies. I called them and by that time the bills
had been sold to collections and they did not want to hear that
I had not made the purchases.
I called all three reporting agencies and the one who was the
most help to me was Equifax. I purchased stolen identity
protection from Equifax at a much lower rate than my card
company wanted and they helped me get back on track. Now they
watch my accounts closely and report any suspicious behavior.
Who ever stole my wallet also tried to steal my life. They have
continued to try but Equifax continues to monitor my situation.
Equifax has saved me a fortune in time and money. More
importantly they have saved me all kinds of hassle dealing with
more fraud.
According to Spamlaws, "victims spend from 3 to 5,840 hours
repairing damage done by identity theft. This difference is due
to the severity of the crime - for example a lost credit card
versus the use of your social security number to become your
"evil twin." The average number of hours victims spend repairing
the damage caused by identity theft is 330 hours." And "26-32%
of victims spend a period of 4 to 6 months dealing with their
case and 11-23% report dealing with their case for 7 months to a
year."
By James K
This is the research I used to recover my good name.
