Almost 2 years back my buddy was the victim of identity theft. The first wave of purchases was real bad, almost 40k in credit cards, 7 bank accounts and much more. He said he would get at least 15 collection bills for separate accounts a month! Well his lawyer advised that he apply for a new SSN number so he could get a new credit file, knowing that all his good credit and employment history would be wiped out, he went ahead and did it. Someone was using his SSN for almost a year before he found out. The whole process took about a month to get his new number. He was 27 at the time so it wasn’t to bad he to build back up his file. Well to make a long story short, about a year after trying to build back up his credit and apply for secured cards and CDs, somehow his new credit report got cross referenced with his old one and now everything that was on his old one is now on his new one. He has been with the same employer through this whole time and after he got his new number he couldn’t get direct deposit and even his 401k plan was so screwed up. This is kind of a meaningless post but I found out yesterday and just had to vent. He says the stress is overwhelming and does not know what to do now. Just thought I would share to see if anyone else has similar experiences.
