Those were the words uttered by the Little Rock detective when I answered the phone earlier this week. The thieving woman who stole checks from my mailbox and used them was in jail. Yea!!!! Yes, since I moved, I have been the victim of both forged checks AND identity theft from a credit card. And . . . yes . . . it is the hell everyone says it is in trying to deal with it. When I moved from Arkansas, I did what you're supposed to do --- completed one of the forwarded mail forms with the Post Office and had my mail forwarded as of the day we left town. And I was living my new life in Colorado, thinking all of my mail was being forwarded. Silly me.
In early March, on a Friday afternoon (these things always come on a Friday afternoon, don't they?) I received a letter from Citi Cards stating they suspected fraudulent activity on my Shell gas account. Huh?? My Shell gas account wasn't a Citibank account. ??? And the numbers weren't the same at all. So I politely called Citi Cards to tell them they made an oops, and it must be someone else's account at risk. Well, lo and behold, . . . . it was my account. Unbeknownst to me, Shell gas company partnered with (i.e., sold my information to) Citibank to offer me, without my authorization or knowledge, a platinum Mastercard, with a $10,000.00 limit because I'm "such a good customer", i.e., "gosh ma'am, we were doing you a favor". Well, they sent the fully loaded, ready-for-purchases card to my old address in Arkansas. And either because there is an "insider" at the post office who lifted the card there OR because the post office stupidly delivered my mail to the mailbox of my not-yet-sold house, some evil, nasty person/people got the card, called the 800 number to activate, AND (slimiest of all) used my daughter's name as the password on the account. Then they proceeded to spend $9,600.00 in 8 days in February until CitiCards, in their infinite wisdom, thought "huh, something doesn't seem right here" and cut them off. The slimy, rotten criminal bought lots of gas, lots of clothes in Little Rock, lots of meals in Little Rock, Memphis, and New Orleans, and topped it all off with a $1400 limo ride in New Orleans.
As I'm trying to come to grips with what has happened and having to deal with the credit card people, the FTC, the Arkansas Attorney General, the credit reporting agencies, and local law enforcement in all the cities (because by gosh they won't cooperate and work together I've learned), I get a notice from my credit union 3 days later stating that I exceeded my limit on my Visa. What???? I never use my credit union visa. ???? Apparently, my credit union, also as a courtesy to me, mailed out 3 Visa checks for my use. The thoughtfulness of these companies in awarding me because of my great credit history has now resulted not only in theft of my identity, but also now stolen and forged checks . . . the same slime bucket or a different one . . . unknown at this point . . . (do I sound bitter? well that's because I AM!) stole the checks. This last slime bucket is the one in jail. She is not the smartest criminal because (1) she wrote a $2400 check to herself and deposited in her own account and (2) (and this is the one that makes everyone laugh ---- I'm not quite yet to laughter stage) she wrote a check to a photographer for a "sexy lingerie shoot" as the photographer described it. So the police have all of her lovely photos as evidence.
The police can't tie her to the credit card theft yet, but she has spent the past 2 weeks in jail according to the detective. I hope she rots there!! In the meantime, I continue to battle my identity theft. In the past 2 weeks alone, I've received notices from 3 other companies that someone has tried to open accounts in my name. My initial credit card fraud alert expires in a month, and I'm trying to get the 6-year one, but it is not easy to do. Everyone from the police to the FTC to the Attorney General has told me this will be a life long battle. I've spent over 10 hours just going through various accounts on my credit reports --- accounts from the past 22 years-- trying to make sure everything is as it should be. I've closed every account I had except for 2. No more gas cards, no more department store cards. 1 Visa and 1 AmEx. That's it for me. I'm in the process of trying to eliminate all direct mail offers and eliminate all unneccessary mail. For utilities and other bills, I'm getting them switched to on-line so I will not receive a paper copy in a mailbox.
This same thing happened to my niece in Fort Worth when she moved from her apartment to a house during the same time period. The Fort Worth police indicated they think these things are all tied to insiders at the post office who get your information that you're moving and then, boom, you're a target. I sincerely hope it never happens to you.
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