Life After Identity Theft: A Survivor’s Story

Identity theft can ruin a person’s life and financial reputation. I’d know. I’ve been a victim of identity theft twice. But what happens after all is said and done? This is my story of how I survived identity theft.

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It was a Tuesday afternoon. I was at work when I got a call nobody ever wants to get.

It was a guy from the local police department.

He had my name, my address, social security number and other personal information. He called to tell me that my identity was stolen and I needed to come in.

At first I was extremely skeptical. I thought, “maybe this guy is the thief and is trying to corroborate the information he has on me”. But reality set in when I went to the police station.

They had just busted a local identity theft ring. In the raid, they had collected hundreds of fake credit cards and credit applications under victims’ names.

One of them was mine.

The Application that Started it all

Several months prior to that, I was shopping for a mattress set.

Although I had about $1,000 earmarked to spend on it, when I went into the local store they offered me zero percent financing.

If I paid it off within six months it would be same as cash.

The offer seemed appealing to me.

It meant i could walk out the store with my mattress that day and I got to keep my thousand bucks for any emergencies, so I took the offer.

For some reason, I did feel kind of concerned about providing all my personal information on the application the sales guy handed to me.

Call it gut feeling, intuition, or whatever. I ignored it.

I asked the guy what would happen to the application. He said they kept it for a couple of days to make sure everything went through ok with the bank and that they would then shred it.

I thought, “ok, that’s not bad”, I’ve seen this all the time. So I filled out the application and happily walked away with my new mattress.

About two months later, I started seeing weird things show up on my credit report. There was an account I didn’t recognize, and an address I wasn’t familiar with was listed as new.

I was worried, so I put a credit freeze on my accounts.

That’s when you alert the credit bureaus that you suspect fraud on your account.

It forces potential creditors to verify your identity before extending credit to you, or someone impersonating you.

When it Rains…

Honestly, it’s a pain to have a freeze on your credit.

At around the same time this was happening, I had a really bad leak in my apartment.

The place got moldy within a couple of days since I couldn’t get the landlord to take care of it right away.

It was so bad, the apartment had to be remodeled.

Because it was gonna take over 2 months, so I had to stay at a hotel with my son for a whole week while I found somewhere else to live.

Turns out most apartment complexes check your credit nowadays, and when I finally found something that was available within the time frame I needed it, they got a blank report when they checked my credit.

It was the credit freeze.

Although I explained my situation to them, they were skeptical. It took a LOT of convincing so they would run my credit again.

Identity theft almost left me homeless.

In the end, I was able to move into another apartment, but the aggravation didn’t end there.

The Side Effects

Being a victim of identity theft can have a lasting impact on your finances.

In my case, it took about three years to clean up the mess identity thieves caused in a matter of weeks. (If you’d like to learn step by step how I increased my credit by over 300 points, please check my free Quick Start Guide to Credit Repair here).

Sadly, the perpetrators were able to drain some of my bank accounts and open several accounts under my name.

I had to cancel all my credit cards, and since my bank was compromised, my funds were frozen for weeks while the bank was able to sort things out.

I had to rely on friends and family for the basic necessities while my funds were frozen.

Not only did I lose money with all this, but I also lost valuable time. I had to go down to the station several times to file police reports and collaborate with the investigation.

I wasted countless hours on the phone with creditors, and I lost many more hours of sleep.

Identity theft can also leave you a little paranoid.

When your identity is stolen you lose trust – in people, in companies, in yourself.

I became overly cautious about who I gave my information to and how I could protect myself from any future incidents.

At times I felt depressed. It felt like this one incident will haunt me for life.

How about you? Have you ever been a victim of identity theft? If so, what did it feel like for you? Please let me know in the comments below!

The Way Out

Thankfully, that was not true. Yes, it took time, effort, and more than a few tears, but in the end, I was able to free myself from all the wrong that was done against me.

I got the identity monitoring service from myFICO for peace of mind, and to be able to monitor my credit closely.

If you have any concerns about your credit or your identity, I highly recommend these kind of services. The services they provide is invaluable.

I educated myself on how to properly be protected, online and otherwise, and I became more confident again.

After all the hard work I put into cleaning up my credit, I was able to buy a house last year!

For me, that was the culmination of all the effort I spent on fixing all this mess.

Throughout this ordeal I learned that caution goes a long way, and that it’s way better to prevent than to cure.

Related Content:

Learn Exactly How I Fixed My Credit and You Can do it Too

5 Quick DIY Credit Repair Solutions

Identity Theft: 15 Ways to Protect Yourself

If you take away just one thing from my story, I hope it’s that identity theft is no joke. It can prevent you from a lot of things: Having a bank account, a car, a home.

The financial impact can be great, but also the non-financial impact.

The stress, the sleepless nights.

Those are the things nobody sees, but the things that hurt the most.

So how can you protect yourself?

Be cautious without becoming paranoid

Don’t give out your information to people without knowing exactly how it will be handled

Only shop from reputable sites

Those are just a couple of ways. I put together a comprehensive guide on how to protect yourself from identity theft and I hope you check it out!

That’s my story.

Being a victim of identity theft is a terrible thing to deal with.

It takes a lot to clean up your credit, but it’s possible.

If by any chance you’re dealing with anything similar, I want to tell you that there is hope, and that if I could clean up my credit, so can you!

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