I feel like it’s only really a threat if you have things to lose, but if someone already has no money or assets or bad credit, what is there to lose?
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I had my identity stolen. It came from an employer of mine. Was made available on the internet with everything needed to access my credit including my home address at the time. Here is a sample of what I experienced.
* Many credit cards opened in my name. Had to sue everyone and in the case of one credit reporting agency I had to sue them twice for the same debt. (Those credit freezes are a joke).
* Many people opened bank accounts and wrote bad checks.
* Every year people filed fraudulent tax returns in my name. I had jobs in all 50 states at one point.
* I had people who are here illegally use my name and social to get jobs.
* I had my wages garnished for taxes from jobs I never held and never knew about till the wage garnishes came in. Lost a good job as a result of one of those.
* Someone bought a house in my name. But only to use as collateral for 2nd mortgages and other loans against the asset.
* One person (that I am aware of) who had a driver’s license with my info but his picture on it. He had a warrant for his arrest (well technically me) and I got arrested at gunpoint. Thankfully the charges against me were dropped due to a very good lawyer who was able to prove identity theft.
* l was unable to get an apartment for a number of years due to how bad my credit was. I was making six figures at the time.
* I had to pay cash for nearly everything normal people would use credit for. Couldn’t even open a bank account for a while due to all the bad checks having been thrown around.
Eventually, I was able to clear it all up but it took over a decade and hundreds of thousands in attorneys fees which were thankfully done on contingency fees. I had a couple of great law firms who cleared it all up but it took forever. They did very well out of the deal financially. It also involved a lot of help from law enforcement, the IRS, and the social security dept.
All this because someone was able to make available my social security number and home address on the internet.
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