Someone got my SS#....WTF!!!!

[irishmalemark]

Hi board....I am sad to inform you that despite careful efforts in protecting my personal data i.e. shredding, rarely use SS#, etc. I jsut discovered yestersday that someone is trying to assume my identiity. I am so freakin pissed!!!

Here is my story:

on 3/8/05 I ordered my 3 free reports granted to me by the recent new credit legislation. When I received the reports I immedtely notice several inquiries for my credit as well as 5 current and former addresses in dowtown Detroit none of which I ever resided at (I live in the Detroit Metro suburbs).

I then start calling the companies listed under the nquiries and find out they are 3rd party credit depositories that serve teh mortgage inductry w/ credit reports. I am then given local Detroit phone numbers of the mortgage companies where the applications were taken from....I am now starting to freak out this is happening locally! So I start calling these mortgage companies and learn that the loan officer who pulled my CR was fired from this company and lo and behold the company this individual moved to just ran my report again 2 weeks ago....The mortgage company that I did talk to agreed to talk to police if necesary and immediately put a fraud alert on the mortgage application....I don't know if this loan officer is reponsible but it sure sounds suspicious to me?

So I then start calling the credit card companies one of which was Sears and learn that this criminal tried appying for a card online but was rejected.... due to wrong birthdate....Sears is sending me teh fraudulent application for the police....

This is the most scarey part, per the FTC website I head down to my local city police station and report that someone is trying to assume my identity. The officer takes my name looks at my CR's and takes some notes, etc. He then hands me an FTC ID Theft brochure and informs me that there isn't much they can do regarding these types of crimes. He then goes on to inform me that in my small little city they get 2 - 3 of these complaints a week!!!! Further proof that ID theft is proliferating at a pace that most law enforcement agencies can't keep up with or have the man power to fight it....

The real scarey part is I have the imposters phone number from the mortgage application of this person and they are working numbers! So far nobody has answered the phone. I also have names and office location of the alleged fraudulent loan officers. I am thinking about calling my local news crime stoppers team sicne teh police won't be of much help.

Just when I was close to getting my good credit name back I am faced with this....just goes to prove that no matter how careful you are we are still vulnerable. I have absolutley no idea how this could have happened to me? The inquiries started in January 2005 so perhaps I am a victim of the Choicepoint crimes??? who knows?

Thanks for hearing me out if anyone has any advice I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

Irish

[DocDon]

It's not that law enforcement doesn't have the manpower to keep up with it, it's that it's what's known as a 'bloodless crime' (take note that police officers don't have a problem handcuffing children)...

So.. if I steal $100 from your room, it's theft. If I do it by pretending to be you, there's nothing they can do. I think you're being fed a line by a department that doesn't know WHAT to do...

As a betting man, sounds like the weak response you got was from Clawson or Pleasant Ridge PD....

The news stations could be a great idea.... maybe they can track the thief down and catch the person on camera (they've done it before)... then, by embarrassing the police into action, may be able to get this "nothing we can do about it" issue resolved.

[divemedic]

Hey, that five year old reads on a 5th grade level!

[Ripped Off]

"As a betting man, sounds like the weak response you got was from Clawson or Pleasant Ridge PD.... "

Nah! As an even bigger betting man, I would put my money on the Detroit PD.

And I keep seeing all of this bs about protecting yourself from identity theft. It is just bs. Everything an identity thief is floating around everywhere, and we have absolutely no control over who collects our information or what they do with it, and forget about keeping it secure.

I suspect that my identity theft problems started in Detroit. Several of the addresses used are in Detroit, others are in North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, etc. Boy, I do get around, don't I???

It would not surprise me to learn that someone in the Detroit or Wayne County government is peddling our information. If you must file a Detroit tax return for some reason, or buy any property in Wayne County, they have eerything they need for id theft.