Saturday, February 23, 2008
This is My Identity Theft Story - I Hope it Helps You
They Get on Your Good Side
This person I encountered was a former employee where I worked, so I had trusted her, not knowing what she was capable of after she claimed she was being abused and beaten by her boyfriend. Naturally, when co-workers ask you to help someone your guard is down. After obtaining an apartment via my kind assistance, and later an automobile they said they desperately needed I essentially became a victim. They then fled with the automobile refusing to return it when I asked kindly several times. By then this ex co-worker had actually then married the boyfriend who abused her and made off with my identity, I just didn't realize it yet. This is a common ploy used by such thieves, with a different twist customized to the particular victim (me in this instance). See the videos I linked to on the side of this blog. Even the elderly are taken advantage of in abuse of Power of Attorney (POA) situations like I fell victim to.
I also later learned she defrauded me in a real estate transaction after I initially helped her find shelter in an apartment with a lease I helped her with when she fled from being battered. When she vacated this apartment, she deceived me to obtain a 'Limited Real Estate Power of Attorney' (POA) with my signature. The perpetrators (both with past criminal convictions I later found out via public Collin and Denton county web sites) cleverly made sure they never signed any documents involved, while they asked for my kind assistance, nor was I aware this person (and boyfriend) had past records at the time when co-workers asked me to take her into my home last year for a few days to to escape the abuse by her then boyfriend. Helping this person unfortunately caused my identity theft to occur and ruined my unblemished credit and left me with almost $20,000 in debts/damages to pay.
At first I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I then realized the lies and the con game they were playing with me as the bills came in and how others had become victims and this person called a co-worker and asked her to lie about me and my actual salary. Later, when I attempted to retrieve the car they obtained fraudulently, her boyfriend threatened me verbally in front of a friend assisting me and he refused to return the car keys. I felt panic stricken - my credit had also been damaged by all their unpaid bills. I then sought help with the local Texas authorities in January 2008, but became a victim once again to a buracratic justice system which moves at a snails pace for identity theft cases like mine.
How The Bills Alerted Me to My Theft Situation
I later realized what they were up to in Dec 2007, but it was too late. After three months of unpaid bills starting to come to my fictitious address and a landlord calling me for a leased property I never signed up for(he thought I lived there!). He subsequently evicted them and they left another $5600.00 in damages to this home(dog destroyed carpeting, holes in walls, floor tiles damaged, toilets fouled with human feces,rodent dung in several rooms, dog destroyed room and interior door when apparently locked in a bedroom) . They had not made any payments on the car as promised to me when they deperately asked for help (they also put over11,000 16,000 miles on it in four months I later learned when it was retrieved and odometer was looked at), ignored past apartment rents after being evicted from the first apartment ($3600), brazenly piled up $900 in road toll bills in my name (I later found out in Jan 2008) using the car they begged me to help them purchase to drive to and from work at the airport each day for 4 months. The toll bills started showing up in my name as if I was driving this vehicle(I just didn't know it yet). The toll system bills I obtained later in January 08 just had a license plate snapshot. Apparently, if you don't purchase a toll tag and have it registered in your name and address (would a thief buy one?) and you are the vehicle owner (and oh by the way they never transfer title to their name ..they leave it in your name too when they steal the car) . When you get the bills later - surprise!! The thieves actually got the bills at the home mailing address that they have cleverly rented and obtained in my name by the falsified POA, and never forward the mail to me (would a thief do that either?)
Apparently the Texas tollway systems also don't check police reports on file, nor do they warn someone when a string of violations is occurring in your name on the tollways (even by past convicts with firearms charges) until they are ready to send you (the vehicle owner) to jail by going to the justice of the peace for ignoring all the fines. Again - see the way these thieves manipulate the system knowing you will never see these bills until later ?
These perpetrators now driving a car I owned, cruising tollways each day had also somehow taken my social security and drivers license number as well. I found this out from the city utilities they signed up for in my name, which was also somehow obtained by illegal means (I never gave them access to this information on any documents when I offered to help her with apartment shelter). The voiceprint of my voice also did not match the person who signed up for the ultility services in my name to the house they had rented, so the utility company rightly cut off utilities when I became alerted to this theft of utilities in January 2008 in the city of Frisco, when the illegal use of a POA to rent this home came to my attention. The thieves then became angry with me for ruining their 'free ride' on my credit when I filed police reports and notified the home's owner what was transpiring on his property. Notice to other victims of this type of con game: The police wouldn't even consider a stolen vehicle report after several attempts to do so - depite the clear evidence of tollway violations of over $900.00 for several months!!! However, neigboring Police officers in Allen and Plano whom we asked for assistance said they were mystified as to why they wouldn't take such a report up in Frisco for such a situation. Jurisdictional boundaries again and how each department interprets the laws I suppose.
By the end of Jan 2008, I had also found out that what they claimed was a limited real estate power of attorney(POA) when I signed a paper in front of a notary as witness was also fraudulent. They had misrepresented the intent of what I was signing (they claimed they were vacating the apartment that I helped them obtain when she claimed she was being battered earlier that year ..see the con game?), but apparently the 2 page document was changed afterwards to look like a Real Estate "Limited Power of Attorney." I had signed the second sheet only and the perpetrator cleverly never signed anything at all, nor did she give me a copy when I first signed it (I trusted her back then that she was telling me the truth). Months later she apparently changed the cover sheet, and said I had signed a Limited Real Estate Power of Attorney as a way to justify her renting the new home - saying she did it with my full consent. A complete fabrication from the evidence I've gathered and what transpired.
Luckily, the notary's log book (a legal record we have a copy of) says otherwise about what I signed...not a POA. Here's essentially what they had done. While I was out of the country last summer with the kids, they had cleverly took advantage of my signature and attached it to what they passed off as a legitimate real estate POA to to a Frisco real estate agent to defraud me by signing up for this rental home in Frisco. The real estate agent never bothered to check if she was even a fellon. As I stated above, I thought they were using what I had signed to vacate the old apartment I helped her seek when battered - they never said anything about using my name for a home rental later on. I thought she was being evicted from an apartment leased in my name and signing the paper she presented me and the notary would help her get a 'door key' to access the old apartment she was evicted from to remove her belongings. She had also turned on utilities to this home not informing me of what was transpiring about bills pilling up in my good name (all behind my back of course - would a thief do otherwise?).
My credit has since been damaged by the bills and debts will empty my savings as an average wage salesperson as I seek restitution from a local court and police system that is apparently (after speaking to the officers on my case) backlogged. With these sorts of crimes it takes time they said, so they essentially they let these types of thieves go inadvertently to another host victim (the thieves know this and take advantage of the situation and court delays). One real estate agent we contacted in Frisco knows of another couple who have jumped from home to home (over 7 properties in three years) and never have paid any rents. They dissappear and move on when their eviction notice arrives. Again ..thieves abusing a slow court system.
My two children and husband have also had to deal with a grouchy mom in this whole process as you can imagine, and a recent vandalism to my husband's automobile (window was bashed in just last week) has now got him all riled up. Certainly interesting timing, even if it is a coincidence perhaps.
The Police Don't Often Tell You of Perpetrator's Prior Offenses - Watch Out
Furthermore, I have since learned through my investigating this matter personally by assisting the police, that the local police being overwhelmed with their case load didn't even bother to inform me (gee thanks) that the woman I filed the fraud complaint against (Frisco Police Case 08-00-43-42) had a prior arrest for assualt with a deadly weapon!!! in Denton county(via the Denton County web site: Jail ID: 357662 ) and had been in the Frisco jail in 2005.This would seem to me to be a serious possible situation for someone to get harmed, particularly since I was asking for a car back and they were refusing to do so. This information could have easily been obtained via the very same police computer system when I filed the police report on my identity theft in January. Did the FRisco Police warn me of this possible situation should I claim this car? on my own - No.No wonder they wouldn't go after these guys either !(perhaps they were afraid too?) It took me a month of searching to find this information being a first time identity theft victim not familiar with the justice system of Texas. The police could have at least provided me with the Denton and Collin County web sites that I later found on my own time. These are unfortunately my true lessons learned in how the police are watching out for identity theft victims like myself in Texas - where clear intent is evident to the victim, but not a justice system that wants to consider these things a civil matter.
You Have to Speak Up and Let Your Voice be Heard- Share Your Experience with Others
Even though I have received thoughtful assistance from the police, I still think a Policing Agency representing the State of Texas should at least warm a potential crime victim about such matters when the perpetrator had recently been released from their own jail system under a prior-conviction for a weapons asssault. Afterall, could such a perpetrator who had also committed theft on a smaller dollar amount (also found with the Collin County web site) possibly be capable of larger fraud such as in my case? What laws need to be changed to help the police provide such warnings to ID Theft victims (particularly when they steal your SSN and Drivers license at a minimum and have documents to prove it) and stop these types of identity thieves from jumping from "civil victim to civil victim to civil victim." It certainly seems well within police knowledge of such matters on their own computer systems to do so, but without their ability to prevent further people from becoming even more victims how will identity theft such as mine or heaven forbid, the next unsuspecting person's be prevented? It's one thing to worry about jurisidictional boundaries, but another to ignore your own records systems.
The local police (Plano, Allen, Frisco and Coppell) all claim there is nothing that they can do to stop this type of theft because of all the jurisdictional boundaries involved. What I've learned about these types of identity thieves through all the people I have spoken to and numerous phonecalls, emails and shoulders of friends I've cried on- including several attorneys and even Real estate agents who have been victims- is that these thieves use these jurisdictional boundaries to take advantage of the court systems and ultimately use victims like us to their own ends and means. However, thieves beware - the laws are going to change as more of us speak up. Justice will be served.
With the help of my husband ( who is now fully PO'd at such theives and the system)- who can write and speak much better than myself, I've also started this blog to help others in the state of Texas who also have unfortunately been victims of identity theft like myself, but can't find the resources and information to help all in place or what steps they need to take. Hopefully what I learn can help you as well. I'll also try and provide informational links and be a voice, not only for myself but for others while I help myself recover from this crime and see that justice is done in this manner though the court system as a faithful taxpayer and law abiding citizen. For the $20,000 and pain I've been through, maybe a blog can also help others as I help myself and also provide some feeling of justice by bringing to light issues along the way in my journey to bringing a thief to justice in a Texas court system. Maybe it will also help educate others on how to strengthen and change gaping holes in state laws.
The FBI states that identity theft is becoming a more widepsread crime. Perhaps there should be a separate court system to handle such matters in each state nationwide? Perhaps victims like me speaking up and providing suggestions will help.
A victim like myself, who seeks justice should not have to struggle to find all the related resources needed here in the state of Texas to help. If thieves can have "one stop shopping" to steal from victims, certainly at a minimum there should "one stop resources" for victims of identity theft. There should be a Texas web site (I haven't found one yet as of Feb 2008) with all information you need in one place. We now live in a digital world with web resources and emails. We as victims have to help each other fight this type of crime and stay one jump ahead by educating each other!!
I also later learned she defrauded me in a real estate transaction after I initially helped her find shelter in an apartment with a lease I helped her with when she fled from being battered. When she vacated this apartment, she deceived me to obtain a 'Limited Real Estate Power of Attorney' (POA) with my signature. The perpetrators (both with past criminal convictions I later found out via public Collin and Denton county web sites) cleverly made sure they never signed any documents involved, while they asked for my kind assistance, nor was I aware this person (and boyfriend) had past records at the time when co-workers asked me to take her into my home last year for a few days to to escape the abuse by her then boyfriend. Helping this person unfortunately caused my identity theft to occur and ruined my unblemished credit and left me with almost $20,000 in debts/damages to pay.
At first I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I then realized the lies and the con game they were playing with me as the bills came in and how others had become victims and this person called a co-worker and asked her to lie about me and my actual salary. Later, when I attempted to retrieve the car they obtained fraudulently, her boyfriend threatened me verbally in front of a friend assisting me and he refused to return the car keys. I felt panic stricken - my credit had also been damaged by all their unpaid bills. I then sought help with the local Texas authorities in January 2008, but became a victim once again to a buracratic justice system which moves at a snails pace for identity theft cases like mine.
How The Bills Alerted Me to My Theft Situation
I later realized what they were up to in Dec 2007, but it was too late. After three months of unpaid bills starting to come to my fictitious address and a landlord calling me for a leased property I never signed up for(he thought I lived there!). He subsequently evicted them and they left another $5600.00 in damages to this home(dog destroyed carpeting, holes in walls, floor tiles damaged, toilets fouled with human feces,rodent dung in several rooms, dog destroyed room and interior door when apparently locked in a bedroom) . They had not made any payments on the car as promised to me when they deperately asked for help (they also put over
Apparently the Texas tollway systems also don't check police reports on file, nor do they warn someone when a string of violations is occurring in your name on the tollways (even by past convicts with firearms charges) until they are ready to send you (the vehicle owner) to jail by going to the justice of the peace for ignoring all the fines. Again - see the way these thieves manipulate the system knowing you will never see these bills until later ?
These perpetrators now driving a car I owned, cruising tollways each day had also somehow taken my social security and drivers license number as well. I found this out from the city utilities they signed up for in my name, which was also somehow obtained by illegal means (I never gave them access to this information on any documents when I offered to help her with apartment shelter). The voiceprint of my voice also did not match the person who signed up for the ultility services in my name to the house they had rented, so the utility company rightly cut off utilities when I became alerted to this theft of utilities in January 2008 in the city of Frisco, when the illegal use of a POA to rent this home came to my attention. The thieves then became angry with me for ruining their 'free ride' on my credit when I filed police reports and notified the home's owner what was transpiring on his property. Notice to other victims of this type of con game: The police wouldn't even consider a stolen vehicle report after several attempts to do so - depite the clear evidence of tollway violations of over $900.00 for several months!!! However, neigboring Police officers in Allen and Plano whom we asked for assistance said they were mystified as to why they wouldn't take such a report up in Frisco for such a situation. Jurisdictional boundaries again and how each department interprets the laws I suppose.
By the end of Jan 2008, I had also found out that what they claimed was a limited real estate power of attorney(POA) when I signed a paper in front of a notary as witness was also fraudulent. They had misrepresented the intent of what I was signing (they claimed they were vacating the apartment that I helped them obtain when she claimed she was being battered earlier that year ..see the con game?), but apparently the 2 page document was changed afterwards to look like a Real Estate "Limited Power of Attorney." I had signed the second sheet only and the perpetrator cleverly never signed anything at all, nor did she give me a copy when I first signed it (I trusted her back then that she was telling me the truth). Months later she apparently changed the cover sheet, and said I had signed a Limited Real Estate Power of Attorney as a way to justify her renting the new home - saying she did it with my full consent. A complete fabrication from the evidence I've gathered and what transpired.
Luckily, the notary's log book (a legal record we have a copy of) says otherwise about what I signed...not a POA. Here's essentially what they had done. While I was out of the country last summer with the kids, they had cleverly took advantage of my signature and attached it to what they passed off as a legitimate real estate POA to to a Frisco real estate agent to defraud me by signing up for this rental home in Frisco. The real estate agent never bothered to check if she was even a fellon. As I stated above, I thought they were using what I had signed to vacate the old apartment I helped her seek when battered - they never said anything about using my name for a home rental later on. I thought she was being evicted from an apartment leased in my name and signing the paper she presented me and the notary would help her get a 'door key' to access the old apartment she was evicted from to remove her belongings. She had also turned on utilities to this home not informing me of what was transpiring about bills pilling up in my good name (all behind my back of course - would a thief do otherwise?).
My credit has since been damaged by the bills and debts will empty my savings as an average wage salesperson as I seek restitution from a local court and police system that is apparently (after speaking to the officers on my case) backlogged. With these sorts of crimes it takes time they said, so they essentially they let these types of thieves go inadvertently to another host victim (the thieves know this and take advantage of the situation and court delays). One real estate agent we contacted in Frisco knows of another couple who have jumped from home to home (over 7 properties in three years) and never have paid any rents. They dissappear and move on when their eviction notice arrives. Again ..thieves abusing a slow court system.
My two children and husband have also had to deal with a grouchy mom in this whole process as you can imagine, and a recent vandalism to my husband's automobile (window was bashed in just last week) has now got him all riled up. Certainly interesting timing, even if it is a coincidence perhaps.
The Police Don't Often Tell You of Perpetrator's Prior Offenses - Watch Out
Furthermore, I have since learned through my investigating this matter personally by assisting the police, that the local police being overwhelmed with their case load didn't even bother to inform me (gee thanks) that the woman I filed the fraud complaint against (Frisco Police Case 08-00-43-42) had a prior arrest for assualt with a deadly weapon!!! in Denton county(via the Denton County web site: Jail ID: 357662 ) and had been in the Frisco jail in 2005.
You Have to Speak Up and Let Your Voice be Heard- Share Your Experience with Others
Even though I have received thoughtful assistance from the police, I still think a Policing Agency representing the State of Texas should at least warm a potential crime victim about such matters when the perpetrator had recently been released from their own jail system under a prior-conviction for a weapons asssault. Afterall, could such a perpetrator who had also committed theft on a smaller dollar amount (also found with the Collin County web site) possibly be capable of larger fraud such as in my case? What laws need to be changed to help the police provide such warnings to ID Theft victims (particularly when they steal your SSN and Drivers license at a minimum and have documents to prove it) and stop these types of identity thieves from jumping from "civil victim to civil victim to civil victim." It certainly seems well within police knowledge of such matters on their own computer systems to do so, but without their ability to prevent further people from becoming even more victims how will identity theft such as mine or heaven forbid, the next unsuspecting person's be prevented? It's one thing to worry about jurisidictional boundaries, but another to ignore your own records systems.
The local police (Plano, Allen, Frisco and Coppell) all claim there is nothing that they can do to stop this type of theft because of all the jurisdictional boundaries involved. What I've learned about these types of identity thieves through all the people I have spoken to and numerous phonecalls, emails and shoulders of friends I've cried on- including several attorneys and even Real estate agents who have been victims- is that these thieves use these jurisdictional boundaries to take advantage of the court systems and ultimately use victims like us to their own ends and means. However, thieves beware - the laws are going to change as more of us speak up. Justice will be served.
With the help of my husband ( who is now fully PO'd at such theives and the system)- who can write and speak much better than myself, I've also started this blog to help others in the state of Texas who also have unfortunately been victims of identity theft like myself, but can't find the resources and information to help all in place or what steps they need to take. Hopefully what I learn can help you as well. I'll also try and provide informational links and be a voice, not only for myself but for others while I help myself recover from this crime and see that justice is done in this manner though the court system as a faithful taxpayer and law abiding citizen. For the $20,000 and pain I've been through, maybe a blog can also help others as I help myself and also provide some feeling of justice by bringing to light issues along the way in my journey to bringing a thief to justice in a Texas court system. Maybe it will also help educate others on how to strengthen and change gaping holes in state laws.
The FBI states that identity theft is becoming a more widepsread crime. Perhaps there should be a separate court system to handle such matters in each state nationwide? Perhaps victims like me speaking up and providing suggestions will help.
A victim like myself, who seeks justice should not have to struggle to find all the related resources needed here in the state of Texas to help. If thieves can have "one stop shopping" to steal from victims, certainly at a minimum there should "one stop resources" for victims of identity theft. There should be a Texas web site (I haven't found one yet as of Feb 2008) with all information you need in one place. We now live in a digital world with web resources and emails. We as victims have to help each other fight this type of crime and stay one jump ahead by educating each other!!
Labels: Damages
Quotes - In The News:
