Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Use It Well

I had my identity stolen. And that's not a joke. It totally happened. But apparently, it's not always as intense as people make it sound. Someone set up a credit report membership, and I got charged about 16 bucks as a first month's monthly fee. So, it was easy to fix. I cancelled my debit card, ordered a replacement, and called the credit report company to have "my" membership cancelled and refunded.

What confuses me is the fact that they used it on a credit reporting service. If you're gonna steal someone's debit card information, why would you do something responsible like set up monthly credit reporting? That's like breaking into a jewelry store so you can sweep the floors and polish the diamonds for them. I'd think they'd go to Best Buy or something. That's what I'd do. Not that I'd steal a credit card or anything, but if I did, I wouldn't waste it on a credit reporting site. (There's something ironic about using a stolen credit card number to purchase a credit report, but I can't put it in words.)

The funniest part of the whole thing was that my wife put it as her status on facebook: "Well, Taylor was a victim of identity theft." And the way people reacted, you'd have thought someone had shot me. "Oh no! That's horrible!" and "That's terrible! I'm so sorry!" But my favorite comment was by one of my friends who put, "That's just because people want so badly to be him." That was worth getting a new card and losing 16 bucks.

1 comment:

-lisa- said...

Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!