Identity Theft Update

The ironic part about having your social security number stolen is that in order to prove you are not the person working as a home health aide or responsible for an account that has defaulted, you have to give your social security number out to any one who will listen. You also need to keep copies of your card on hand for filing reports with government agencies or carry the card with you in order to make copies when filing complaints which puts you at risk for identity theft because you are carrying the very document which a thief needs in order to steal your identity.

The other ironic part about having your social security number compromised is that the Social Security Administration, in all its glorious bureaucracy, doesn't take complaints of fraudulent use of a social security number. For that one must go to the FTC and that form took more than an hour to fill out by the time all was said and done. In order to complete some of the information I needed to call the collection agency in order to find out what kind of account the suspect had defaulted on. Turns out it was some sort of gym-type membership with a vague affiliation with Kmart.

I hope the woman who stole the number used that gym membership to give herself buns of steel and in the process got a raging case of athletes foot from the showers. Or worse.