Tuesday, July 22, 2008
I Guess the Tapes Just Rolled Right Off the Back of The Truck
(hmm ...)
(cartoon from bizarrocomic.blogspot.com)
Banso
(cartoon from bizarrocomic.blogspot.com)
Here's a strange story related to the return of the stolen automobile we took back to our local dealer in February/March, which we then sold back for a whopping $15,000 loss after we received it back damaged (we also took photos with the help of a good friend as a witness to these events). In the mean time we're continue to go forward with prosecution of these individuals and gathering and filing all the paperwork together. ID theft is time consuming!
My husband Vince and I had to take out a second mortage on our house to pay off this second auto loan(which included the loss of the damages from the ID theft) and everything was on the level, except for the painful $15,000 loss we incurred due to these ID thieves. It so happens about that same time, the local bank we do business with and the one we took out the second mortgage with 'somehow lost a data tape' in transit somewhere in New York (they are somehow affiliated with BNY Mellon after I did some calling of the 1-877 number of a boilerplate form they sent to me and many other people who apparently lost data on this same tape.
I've attached the form here (with pin number blacked out) of the scanned image of the boilerplate form they sent to each of our sons, and my husband too. Strange coincidence in timing huh? We think so too. In any case, we signed up for the policy they offered just in case we sustained any monetary damages due to this loss of data which is primarily related to our monthly checking account and mortgage payments. They say we "will receive $25,000 in identity theft insurance".... I'm also tempted to believe this is just another ploy to get folks to sign up for ID theft insurance. But we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, pending any legal matters heaven forbid since they extended this insurance for24 months.
Oh, a couple more things , remember that FTC report we filed back in February? We've never yet received a follow-up call or an email from the FTC.
Update: On the payment of past utility bills associated with the illegally rented home with an illegal power of attorney. Apparently the local utility company Atmos Energy, doesn't recognize jurisdictional boundaries like the police do across different cities and counties in this area of Texas. The past due utility bills for this illegally rented home were "co-mingled" with the $$ dollar amounts on the account for our local residence under my husbands name (in good standing for the almost ten years since we've lived here in Texas). Thus, the thieves who perpetrate such crimes succeed in passing on their ill gotten utility bills to your credit worthy account.
Here's a thought. I wonder who gains when such jurisdictional boundaries hinder police, but help utility companies and bills get co-mingled? Is there an incentive to help identity theft victims if utility companies don't also see this crime from the perspective of the victims when this sort of thing occurs and try to help victims? There's an idea for state legislators with some small changes in laws.
My husband called Atmos several times over the past three months and asked that the bill be sent separately to us instead of co-mingled with a long standing legitimate account. Because I reside at the same residence, they just lumped all the bills together - the illegitimate ID Theft bills with the legitimate ones. Even though they were only a few hundred dollars in this instance, it is still a very time consuming process to make phone calls, ask for account managers to review bills (in three attempts we didn't get the bills separated). Finally on the fourth attempt a smart young lady at Atmos finally realized what we were going through and why we needed separate bills (makes it easier to seek damages when bills are separate with clear account numbers, dates, etc when those bills occur).
There seems to be a need for laws that protect victims and perhaps even preventing utility companies from crossing such jurisdictional boundaries with victims accounts (since the police apparently can't). If the police can't, the utility companies can, don't you get the feeling the system is skewed in favor of the thieves just jumping from home to home as some have done, creating new victims, and running up bills? We sure do !
Good luck ID theft victims !!! .....do you see now why laws have to be changed ? Never forget to exercise your rights of free speech.
My husband Vince and I had to take out a second mortage on our house to pay off this second auto loan(which included the loss of the damages from the ID theft) and everything was on the level, except for the painful $15,000 loss we incurred due to these ID thieves. It so happens about that same time, the local bank we do business with and the one we took out the second mortgage with 'somehow lost a data tape' in transit somewhere in New York (they are somehow affiliated with BNY Mellon after I did some calling of the 1-877 number of a boilerplate form they sent to me and many other people who apparently lost data on this same tape.
I've attached the form here (with pin number blacked out) of the scanned image of the boilerplate form they sent to each of our sons, and my husband too. Strange coincidence in timing huh? We think so too. In any case, we signed up for the policy they offered just in case we sustained any monetary damages due to this loss of data which is primarily related to our monthly checking account and mortgage payments. They say we "will receive $25,000 in identity theft insurance".... I'm also tempted to believe this is just another ploy to get folks to sign up for ID theft insurance. But we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now, pending any legal matters heaven forbid since they extended this insurance for24 months.
Oh, a couple more things , remember that FTC report we filed back in February? We've never yet received a follow-up call or an email from the FTC.
Update: On the payment of past utility bills associated with the illegally rented home with an illegal power of attorney. Apparently the local utility company Atmos Energy, doesn't recognize jurisdictional boundaries like the police do across different cities and counties in this area of Texas. The past due utility bills for this illegally rented home were "co-mingled" with the $$ dollar amounts on the account for our local residence under my husbands name (in good standing for the almost ten years since we've lived here in Texas). Thus, the thieves who perpetrate such crimes succeed in passing on their ill gotten utility bills to your credit worthy account.
Here's a thought. I wonder who gains when such jurisdictional boundaries hinder police, but help utility companies and bills get co-mingled? Is there an incentive to help identity theft victims if utility companies don't also see this crime from the perspective of the victims when this sort of thing occurs and try to help victims? There's an idea for state legislators with some small changes in laws.
My husband called Atmos several times over the past three months and asked that the bill be sent separately to us instead of co-mingled with a long standing legitimate account. Because I reside at the same residence, they just lumped all the bills together - the illegitimate ID Theft bills with the legitimate ones. Even though they were only a few hundred dollars in this instance, it is still a very time consuming process to make phone calls, ask for account managers to review bills (in three attempts we didn't get the bills separated). Finally on the fourth attempt a smart young lady at Atmos finally realized what we were going through and why we needed separate bills (makes it easier to seek damages when bills are separate with clear account numbers, dates, etc when those bills occur).
There seems to be a need for laws that protect victims and perhaps even preventing utility companies from crossing such jurisdictional boundaries with victims accounts (since the police apparently can't). If the police can't, the utility companies can, don't you get the feeling the system is skewed in favor of the thieves just jumping from home to home as some have done, creating new victims, and running up bills? We sure do !
Good luck ID theft victims !!! .....do you see now why laws have to be changed ? Never forget to exercise your rights of free speech.
Banso
Labels: Missing Tapes with my Son's and Husbands SSN
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