I had my identity stolen years ago (2015). Absolutely destroyed an 835 credit score and multiple years of my life. Between court dates, being reduced to a $300 credit limit on a high APR card (a massive fall from the days of having top tier cards thrown at me), dealing with calls and letters from collections agencies for cards I’d never apply for in a million years (Kohl’s, Ulta, mall jewelry stores for example), having a security clearance revoked - it was a massive pain in the ass. The worst was being written off completely as someone irresponsible because of a data breach completely out of my control. People have legitimately told me that identity theft is a myth and that I must have mismanaged my money. The real fun part was when I’d get money management advice from people who make < 20% of what I pull in over the course of a year (without my wife’s income) and throw everything on their credit cards (whereas we try and be as close to 100% debt free as possible).
I can assure you that at most these people are going to get a letter offering them a half assed apology, a promise that the agency will look into it and a few years of pointless credit monitoring that doesn’t actually help with any damages.
I had my identity stolen years ago (2015). Absolutely destroyed an 835 credit score and multiple years of my life. Between court dates, being reduced to a $300 credit limit on a high APR card (a massive fall from the days of having top tier cards thrown at me), dealing with calls and letters from collections agencies for cards I’d never apply for in a million years (Kohl’s, Ulta, mall jewelry stores for example), having a security clearance revoked - it was a massive pain in the ass. The worst was being written off completely as someone irresponsible because of a data breach completely out of my control. People have legitimately told me that identity theft is a myth and that I must have mismanaged my money. The real fun part was when I’d get money management advice from people who make < 20% of what I pull in over the course of a year (without my wife’s income) and throw everything on their credit cards (whereas we try and be as close to 100% debt free as possible).
I can assure you that at most these people are going to get a letter offering them a half assed apology, a promise that the agency will look into it and a few years of pointless credit monitoring that doesn’t actually help with any damages.
Fucking everything they can up?
HA...HA...HA...HA.,...HAAAAAA