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Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Identity Stolen in Real Life Too! WTF!!!

Wow, I can't believe what bad luck I've had with this whole identity theft thing both online with the blog and in real life too! I finished my 2011 tax return and tried to efile it last night. Only to have it rejected saying a return has already been filed with my social security number!!! Unbelievable... Apparently there are criminals out there who steal people's social and try to get their refund, or apply for unemployment benefits with them! I mean think about it, if you get a few hundred numbers, you could potentially make millions while the government is too slow to react. I don't know how people do this or get away with it but it has been done with mine! It's really infuriating to think that there is not much you can do once your identity has been stolen. Sure you can file report with the FTC and with the police. And you can monitor your credit reports or put a freeze on it which I am doing. But if someone were to open an utility account or something that doesn't require a credit check, you will never know!! They could even be getting a job under your social and it will look like you did not claim all of your income! The thing that makes me really really mad is that I am pretty much 100% sure that my info was stolen when I was going through the mortgage loan process for my condo. Because when I first found out my info was compromised was a few months after I bought it (Directv called me saying I owed them close to $1000 for an address that was not mine), and I had not applied for anything else for a long time before or after that. So it had to be that time when it was stolen. And there was nothing I could have done to prevent that!

Anyway, so I called the CA tax franchise board today and found out that luckily they had not sent out a refund check to this fraudulent individual from Compton (yep, that's the address they provided). So now there is a hold on my account, I had to fax the tax board all kinds of documentation, and will have to mail in my tax return instead of efile. It will take way longer to process than normal, and my account will be flagged for the next 3 years so I will potentially have more issues. What a pain!!!

My federal tax return is ok though, thank god. It's painful enough to just deal with California. When I first found out my social has been stolen last year I had informed the IRS so they sent me a special number to file with my return every year.

Anyway, I am ranting, but it just makes me so mad! I am expecting a large refund from California, but I probably won't even get it till like March or April!

But hey, lesson learned, always file taxes early to beat any impostors! Lol how sad... Sigh... So this was what I spent all day doing today! I hope this never happens to any of you.

18 comments:

  1. Ma pauvre, tu n'as pas fini d’être ennuyée avec ce problème! bon courage!!

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  2. Oh this is terrible :( Hope things get better!

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  3. Royal suckage. If you figure out how it happened (specifically), can you update us so we can avoid this? I'm really sorry :(

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    1. I'll try but I don't think I will be able to figure out exactly how it happened =(

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  4. That is absolutely awful! I cannot imagine how pissed I would be. Especially since it looks like it was all stolen when you applied for a mortgage which is supposed to be the safest thing to apply for. Good LUCK!

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    1. I know! That's why it makes my blood boil thinking about it. During the mortgage process so many people from the bank or escrow company have access to all my info. It could have been any of them! And once the info is out there, there's not much to do.

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  5. This is so freakin' scary. I'm glad you were able to find this out now, and then if companies do come after you for bills you 'supposedly' owe, you will be prepared to deal with it. I wonder if there is a chance that this person who stole your information will ever be caught?? Good luck :)

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    1. I read an article yesterday saying the US govt is cracking down on this since it's one of the fastest growing crimes now. And apparently they arrested 3 individuals in LA. I hope one of them was the one that stole mine! My guess is the people they arrested stole massive amounts of social and did the same to everyone so there is a chance...

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    2. Looks like you have a po box in Compton and you didn't know! Good luck with that...

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  6. Maybe you should try to set up a hidden camera up or stake out the po box and see who comes to get the refund check they thought they would get!

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    1. Haha... it's actually a house address. I google mapped it. Not sure if I want to venture into Compton... lol

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  7. Wow, sorry to hear about this. My husband's credit card number was stolen about 2 months ago and used to make 3 fraudulent purchases/cash advances in Michigan (we are in NJ). I can't even imagine having your SSN stolen too. Hope it is resolved quickly!

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    1. Yeah, I've had my credit card number stolen before too actually but credit card companies are usually good at refunding you. But this stuff is soooo much worse! It's out there forever now... I will always have to be careful from now on. =(

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  8. It happened to a friend of mine many years ago. Somehow he was able to apply for a new SSN. Though you need to hold on to some copies of your credit score and credit card statements just in case you need to prove your credibility on the new SSN number. I'm so sorry it happened to you. Good luck! I just found your blog recently and totally love it.

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    1. Thanks! I actually somewhat researched getting a new social, but they say they will only issue you a new one under rare circumstances, like if your number has been used repeatedly. I think my situation qualifies? lol. I need to read more about it, right now I'm not sure if that is the best solution for me.

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  9. I know it’s kinda late, but I wanna say sorry for what happened. Sometimes you think that your confidential information is secured within an office. Then, it turns out that it was stolen! That’s really awful! But then, you are lucky that the check was not sent. Or it can be a real pain otherwise. Lesson learned: Protect your files and any personal info. :-)

    Annie Valdez

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