Feelings
Confusion, fear, anger, and helplessness.
I experienced all of these emotions in about 2 minutes when I realized my identity had been stolen. First, let’s talk about how I found out. I got lucky, the company that performed the credit/background check on my information sent a copy of that report to the latest address based on the The Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Confusion
First response, confusion. What is this? Who is this from? Who are these Companies? I didn’t apply for a job.
Fear
Then fear set in. That is my name, my addresses (going over 10 years back), my birth date, and my social security number (partially masked). But, that isn’t my phone number.
Anger
That's about when the anger set in. I’m going to call this number. If this even happens to you, which I hope it doesn’t, take a few minutes to game plan. I guess I thought I would ring up this number and the person at the other end would just say “Hi this is ____”. Mind you, they would use their name. That’s not what happened. Instead it went like this. By the way I will refer to the other person as Fake Mark or Fark.
“Hello?” (Fark)
“Hello.” (Me)
“Who is this?”(Me)
“Who is this?” (Fark)
Push the breaks…. He wants to know who I am? I’m the real me. He is the guy who is pretending to be me. What to say, what to say. I got it!
Real Mark: “This is John, calling about your application with Arise Virtual Solutions. I need to first confirm your identity, before we can start”
Fark: “Umm, this isn’t a good time, I am at class, can you call me in 4 to 5 hours”
Real Mark: “That will be 10pm, that’s pretty late”
Fark: “I don’t get off until then.”
Real Mark: “Ok, I’ll call you back then”
DEEP BREATH. What do I do now? I have about 4 hours.
Police Report
Still angry at this point, I determined my next move is to talk to the police. I live on a military base, so I head over to the military police. Now the phone number has a local area code. At this point I am thinking this could be a local person. What did I expect. Action baby. Saddle up your boys! Let’s go find this guy. What did I get? I got a piece of paper and was told that as far as the police are concerned a crime had not been committed yet. WHAT!!! I’ll give you a crime. Apparently, not knowing what information the individual had and if they used it for a crime, means not a lot of help. They couldn’t look up the number either. I did get some good information from the officer I spoke with though.
Federal Trade Commission Report
He recommended reporting it on the Federal Trade Commission website. He seemed a little shocked that I called the number, spoke with Fark, and had a follow-up call. The officer recommended making sure if I record the call that I notify the other party. Got it, after all most good businesses record every call for customer satisfaction and training purposes.
Helplessness
As I left the police station helplessness set in. It’s all me.
First priority, Federal Trade Commission website. After you input a report it gives you a checklist of actions. My identity was stolen for the purpose of employment. Turns out, criminals steal your identity for all kinds of reasons.
I was afraid I could tip Fark off, I better make sure I get all of my credit freezes in place before my call. It was easy. If I knew how easy it was, I would have done it a long time ago to help protect myself. DO IT NOW!
At this point it was time to call Fark back. My goal was to confirm what information this guy had and try to draw out any additional information that may be useful for future authorities or to prove a crime was committed. I recorded it, so check that out soon!
What Is Next?
At this point, it is a continuing process of completing the Federal Trade Commission provided checklist and notifying involved parties. As I continue to make progress and learn about the process we will post videos and more blog articles to the website. So don’t forget to like and follow our Facebook page and subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
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