Identity Theft: Violation and Helplessness.

At 11:49AM Thursday, March 15th 2018 someone walked into a branch of our bank, presented the teller with a withdrawal slip that contained my wife's forged signature, a temporary ID and withdrew $1,200 from our bank account.

At 12:15 PM the same day I logged into our account online to pay some bills and noticed the transaction.  I immediately checked with my wife, who was at work, and called the bank to freeze my account to try and limit the damage. I also put a fraud claim in.

Sometime later that afternoon the fraudster attempted to withdraw $1,500 using the same method but was denied.

By 6PM that afternoon we had a new bank account, all of the money transferred out of our old one, and the real work of getting our lives back together started.  That night we placed fraud alerts on our credit accounts, signed my wife up for LifeLock, and the next day and weekend I spent almost the entire time unwinding our auto-payments and other various and assorted accounts in order to ensure that no payments were missed.  It's Thursday evening, March 22nd, one week later, and I'm still in the process of getting everything switched over.

So, how did this happen?

Were we hacked?  Some kind of online chicanery? Russian or North Koreans?

Nope.

The vermin who did this got us low tech, they went through our mailbox and stole a few checks the old fashioned way. 

We're now looking at a PO Box as an option going forward for all important mail, just another monthly expense that we're going to have to absorb because someone out there is presenting themselves as my wife.

Sure, we filed a police report.  But the (very nice) Sheriff's Deputy that came by admitted that nothing was going to be done.  While Ed Emmett and the Harris County Commissioners continue to spend Millions on the Astrodome key government functions like crime prevention have taken a back seat.

The Feds? (this was mail fraud most likely) They won't even look at it unless more than $5,000 was taken.  In other words, when you or your family are financially violated the law enforcement and justice department at all levels of the United States, State and local governments are unwilling (and unable) to help.

And this in an area where we're told we have "the right party" (i.e. the GOP) largely in charge. (I live in unincorporated Harris County, and have Republicans representing me at all levels of government)

Yes, it is a helpless feeling.  Every day now I wonder if something 'snuck by me' and if the vermin got more mail that I'm not aware of.  Our debit cards are supposed to arrive soon.  Do I know if these vermin have grabbed them?  What about when our new checks arrive?  Am I going to have to get ANOTHER bank account because I cannot shut these people down?

I'm currently looking at the USPS to see if there's any temporary options I have to make my mail more secure while I work on a PO Box etc. Until then am I just prey to the whims of vermin who could care less about laws and my personal property?

And that's the biggest thing.  My wife and I are very fortunate, we both have good jobs and have enough money socked away to ride this out.  Losing $1,200 temporarily (the bank has already processed the refund on a fraud claim) didn't break us.

But it COULD have.

What if we were living paycheck to paycheck, or had just lost our jobs, or one of us had a medical condition and funds were tight?  The vermin that did this did not care about that, and that makes them sub-human in my estimation.

And they're almost certainly not going to get caught.

I don't care what you think about the United States of America, what your political leanings are if you don't understand why the system is broken then I cannot help you. We live in a dysfunctional Republic.  When something like this happens to you (and I hope it doesn't) you will understand just how dysfunctional it really is.

People ask me all the time why I don't vote. How could I have been so politically active just a few years back but I'm so disinclined to care now? It's because of things like this.  Our political system in America is corrupt, worthless and a wheezing husk and it doesn't matter who you put in office this is never going to change.

I would never do it but I understand now why some people are starting to take the law into their own hands.  I'm just sad it's gotten to this point.

These vermin stole more than money, they stole our identity. They stole us.  That's hard to forgive.