Identity theft stories are everywhere. By reading one that could happen to you, it might help you to see the importance of being proactive in protecting personal documents and information. The following scenario is based on a story that was submitted by an anonymous author:
A woman went out with friends to a night club and didn’t want to be weighed down with carrying a purse, so she decided to leave it in the car of the friend she rode with. Upon leaving the club, they discovered that the car was broken into and the purse was stolen. Can you imagine how frightening it would be to realize that your bank card, credit cards, keys to your house and car have just been taken by someone you know nothing about? This poor woman went home and reported her cards stolen. She then logged in to her bank account online. Already, the thief was using her Visa debit card! And, as she states, this is not just some random credit card but her debit card, her hard earned cash. As this story unfolds, she decided to look at her account again the next morning and found that the thief not only had bought gas with it the night before, but also used it to go to the drugstore and out to eat. She had reported her card stolen and the charges were still being piled on. On a side note, it is so important to write on the back of your cards, near your signature, “check id.” This simple step could deter thieves from being able to use your card. Of course, this depends upon whether the cashier looks at the back of the card, but since many do, don’t skip this important step. The card continued to be used until Monday when this victim could call the bank and speak to someone. By this time, $2,000 had been stolen. This poor woman had to physically report to the bank to file a report of unauthorized use of her card and sign an affidavit that the charges were not hers. Fortunately for her, the bank did refund her money within two weeks.

This is not the end of her story, though. She also had checks in her purse and those were used to buy pizza. She is still showing up in check systems database and can’t write checks at certain stores, because of identity theft that she rightly refuses to pay for.

The thieves were finally caught when they went to a check cashing store and forged her name to cash one of her personal checks for $400. The police were contacted and this woman was able to press charges.

She had to go for more than two weeks without the money that the thieves accessed and this was financially hard on her. Can you go that long without the money you currently have in your bank account? Maybe it’s a good idea to have a separate “emergency fund” account with no checks or debit cards attached, just for this type of emergency. Only you can access it by taking your ID to the bank and using a withdrawal form.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 8:50 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.