I've been thinking more about this identity theft situation, and trying to identify what's driving me so crazy.
Okay. I'm thankful that it seems like it's going to be sorted out quickly. (But paranoid that something will go wrong, or it won't be completely taken off our record by some accident and it's going to somehow screw up our credit rating.) And I completely recognise that we should have signed up for Equifax updates half a year ago, when we were dealing with the whole "someone apparently stole Chris's mail like five years ago and took out a credit card in his name, and seriously there's only about $50 on this card, but the bank and credit card company still haven't solved this problem and so it continues to sit on our credit rating and why did we only find out about this six months ago and not when Chris bought a car and got a credit card three years ago?" situation. Also, I recognise that what we're dealing with is relatively minor identity theft. I know people who have gone through far, far worse.
But it's still making me angry. As with any kind of theft, it leaves us feeling really vulnerable. But far worse, unlike any other kind of theft I can think of, you, as the victim, are considered guilty until you can fully exonerate yourself. You are not treated as a victim of theft. You are treated as a defaulter, as someone who owes massive amounts of money, as someone who is on the hook for taking care of all of this unless you can sufficiently prove that someone else did this to you.
And that's something that doesn't sit well with me.
3 comments:
I haven't had to deal with identity theft, but I can relate to the frustration and worry that's created with these kinds of financial situations. I've always, always, always been so careful about money and bills and have had to deal with collectors when there's been a clerical error on someone ELSE'S part and it's frustrating and violating and humiliating, especially because you know you're in the right. I hope everything gets cleared up quickly for you guys. If you have trouble getting some of these things wiped entirely from your credit, don't worry. There are things you can do to fix it.
Keep us posted, okay? I can imagine how frustrating this is, and how scary.
It totally violates the whole, "innocent until proven guilty" thing, too.
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