I never thought it would happen to me, but it did.

In July 2003 my identity was stolen. Why would someone steal my identity? I had bad credit, a poor credit rating and no money. Apparently, all identity thieves want is your information because the thieves were able to get credit from companies that had refused me credit just weeks earlier. So, no one is immune from these vultures.

But, I was lucky. I monitor my checking account almost daily.

Identity theft is a horrible crime and it occurs more often than you know. But the real tragedy is that no one cares. The credit card companies, the stores and the collection people could care less. All they want is the money and they don’t care where it comes from. As a matter of fact they hope you will pay it because if you prove that it was a theft they get nothing.

So, the collector’s will pressure you to pay to save your credit rating or protect your good name. If that doesn’t work they will accuse you of filing a false report to avoid paying for all the stuff you bought. They have one goal and that is to collect the money.