Stolen Identity

Just when I thought I was getting more in touch with myself, my identity goes and get's stolen.

Yes, I have inadvertently been sharing my social security number with a criminal in Houston, Texas who has over a dozen aliases.

After conversations with the Social Security Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Anchorage Police Department, Alaska State Troopers, and the Alaska Bureau of Investigation, I am little closer to answers.

What I have been forewarned of is this: if for some reason this person "borrowing" my social has a warrant out for her arrest, and I up here in Anchorage were to be pulled over, I might be arrested.

Hmmm. Interesting concept.

So, I could be ferrying the kids to the library and maybe go a bit to fast to make the light at 36th and New Seward, and get pulled over. Then, with my four kids watching, be arrested then and there. Yikes.

How it came about is divine. Our church is doing routine background checks on people who work with children. My report would have been clean, except that Elaine, the person administering the check, "accidentally" typed my birthdate in wrong by one number. And suddenly all this criminal history came up.

Now, keep in mind this hasn't seemed to touch our financial records. Nothing is amiss with out credit cards or my credit report. The only way this was found out was by a background check and a entry error. But the problem is real, as evidenced by the reaction of the representative with the Social Security Administration. Clicking her tongue and sighs of "my goodness" were enough to set my heart 'a-racing. And every phone call ended with each genuinely sympathetic person saying "Well, good-luck with that."

So, I guess identity theft is real. Bruce speculates this person may be in the U.S. illegally and borrowed my southern California-issued social and birthdate.