Unaware that companies like Life Lock even existed, I was oblivious to the fact that my identity had been stolen. According to the Federal Trade Commission, “Identity-Theft is the fastest growing crime in America; 9.9 MILLION victims were reported in 2006.” This is an absolutely devastating number. And the worst part about it is that a vast majority of the victims where unaware their identity was stolen.
Well it happened to me. I lost everything and ended up plunging into debt. At the time I owned a little condo, my wife had recently delivered our second son and I had stellar credit. I opened a new restaurant and had plenty of room to dip into lines of credit.
That fatal day came! I opened my credit card statements and one by one they reduced the total available limits. I went from having access to more than $100,000 to ZERO. After further inquiry, I found out there was a negative mark on my credit report. Someone had stolen my identity and charged my B of A card for $100.
Have you ever tried to remove a charge from your credit report? It takes months and months. It is a painful experience. Hundreds of hours talking to fraud departments in the credit card companies. NONE of them caring nor understanding my situation. And it was all too little too late. This $100 event not only caused me lose the business, but losing that source of income also prevented me from covering bills. You can imagine how this feels.
Having been a victim, I feel the urge to bring awareness to the topic though this blog and encourage the public to become proactive when it comes to identity theft prevention. I will create new Identity Theft Prevention Nuggets (posts) from time to time and encourage you to take action.
Whether you decide to protect yourself or use companies like Life Lock or Trusted ID, my advice is BE PROACTIVE! It is not about reporting unauthorized use of your credit information, it is all about PREVENTING it from happening.
