Family Identity Theft Story From Get Rich Slowly

March 11, 2008

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 The other day I mentioned a post at Get Rich Slowly about Identity Theft.  I just wanted to highlight this brutal story that Beth posted in the comments.

Last fall I married a man I had known for years as a friend/fellow employee that had had his identity stolen for years and did not realize it until January of 2005. The identity thief was his wife!! She had set up post office boxes for mail she didn’t want him to see, made elaborate copies of checking and savings statements that were his accounts to show him if he ever asked - which he seldom did. She forged his signature on CD and IRA cash out requests. Nobody ever questioned the requests. All in all, she went through almost $95,000 he had saved. (His first mistake was trusting her to handle the bills and finances without any oversight by him) It all came crashing down when he received a phone call at work from a credit card company demanding payment. He knew he didn’t have a credit card with them and realized in his heart what had happened because she had done it once before about 10 years prior, but not to the great extent it turned out to be this time. She even had taken out a mortgage on his family home - been in the family over 100 years - that he knew nothing about. One week after he confronted her, she committed suicide. He has spent the last two and a half YEARS, with the help of an attorney, getting everything straightened out. We still occasionally get a letter or call from some company looking for the deceased wife. So yes, identity theft can be an absolute nightmare. Don’t ever trust anyone to handle your checkbook, finances or anything without YOU knowing exactly what is going on.

Can’t imagine being in that situation.  A lot of pain all around.

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