Fraud's Personal Touch

  These days, it's not uncommon to know of someone who has had his or her identity stolen. Many have their own ID-theft experiences, including myself. I actually have two.
  Five years ago, I started getting calls from MBNA, saying I was late on payments for a Gateway computer. I never bought a Gateway computer, and thus began my first travail to clear my name.
  To me, the scariest aspect came when credit reports from Trans Union, Equifax and Experian noted two Detroit addresses as past places where I had lived. I'm sure it's nice, but I've never lived near that city.
  The reports also showed I was late on payments for a Dell computer. Apparently, whoever bought the Dell and Gateway computers used the two different Detroit addresses.
  It was relatively easy to resolve those matters, but while I was working to clear my name and correct the credit-report information, my checking account came under attack. Someone deposited two large, bogus business checks into my account. I discovered the deposits when I noticed an ATM receipt showed an unusually high balance.
  I reported the discrepancy to the bank, and the institution's security division put an access lock on my account after a branch teller that same day became suspicious when someone tried to cash what appeared to be one of my personal checks.
  To me, the account breach was more significant than the other incidents because I was not trying to secure a loan at the time. When your checking account is breached, you're essentially guilty (no access to all of your account funds) until you can prove your innocence (funds fully returned).
  Fortunately, after I saw the large balance on my ATM receipt, I printed out my transaction history from the bank's online banking site. In doing so, I could show the bank which deposits and withdrawals were real and which were bogus.
  After a little more than a week, the bank closed the account and transferred the proper amount to a new account. While I have not had any other ID-theft experiences since then, I have this feeling of certainty that I'll be subjected to fraud again.
  I'd be interested to experience personally how changes imposed over the past five years have helped fraud victims to clear their names more quickly. But that may just be my journalistic curiosity and interest in the payments industry talking. I really don't want to go through that again.
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