What's even more annoying than mere telephone spam?
Things they don't tell you about different nuances and effects of identity theft - ugh! A while back there were five families including us, who shared our extremely common last name all living in the same 180 unit condo complex. This is not surprising. Like I said, it's a common last name. So common in fact, that I there is usually another person with this same last name in my department or one I work closely with at any given job. At one job, a man with the same last name as our's was my department's Admin Assistant so, because I use both my maiden name and my married name together, when my boss went out of town and left the out of office message asking folks to contact one of the two of us in his absence, it souded like he had a married couple working for him. So, like I said, commoon last name.
Any way, two of of the same names families in our complex started claiming they lived at our house, less I suspect to actually steal lines of credit than to shift their collection calls and such over to someone else. Getting their collection calls, collection mail and the like to stop took forever. When we found out that in the middle of it one of these folks, an elderly lady named Virginia, was actually claiming to be married to Mortgaged, we realized it wasn't just an accident and called the cops. Being able to refer the errant collections callers to a police report number helped stop them, but it took a long time. Moving helped as well, though this was not the reason we moved. No harm was ever actually done to our credit - thank god! - but we continue to watch it like a hawk just in case.
The one lasting effect is not damaging but is still obnoxious. We've stopped receiving mail for Mr. & Mrs. Mortgaged and Virginia ExtremelyCommonLastName, but somehow we can't shake the impression that the various spam ad companies have that Mortgaged is 80 and disabled like Virginia. So we get spam mail and spam calls for hearing aids, walkers, carts, elder care bathtubs with doors, cheap heart meds and the like and for every one I convince that a) Mortgaged is not my father, he is my husband and b) he's in his 30s not his 80s there are 10 more waiting in the wings...and the annoying part is that being on the DNC registry doesn't help because until I inform them otherwise, as far as these companies know, they are all affiliates of companies who regularly do business with my "elderly" husband's wife, Virginia. The kid I just got off the phone with - a very policite young man maketing the aforementioned elder care tubs, was shocked and, to his credit not that this is any fault of his, beyond apologetic, when I said, 'Look, good luck with your calls, but Mortgaged and I are in our 30s. Take us off your list.'
Any way, two of of the same names families in our complex started claiming they lived at our house, less I suspect to actually steal lines of credit than to shift their collection calls and such over to someone else. Getting their collection calls, collection mail and the like to stop took forever. When we found out that in the middle of it one of these folks, an elderly lady named Virginia, was actually claiming to be married to Mortgaged, we realized it wasn't just an accident and called the cops. Being able to refer the errant collections callers to a police report number helped stop them, but it took a long time. Moving helped as well, though this was not the reason we moved. No harm was ever actually done to our credit - thank god! - but we continue to watch it like a hawk just in case.
The one lasting effect is not damaging but is still obnoxious. We've stopped receiving mail for Mr. & Mrs. Mortgaged and Virginia ExtremelyCommonLastName, but somehow we can't shake the impression that the various spam ad companies have that Mortgaged is 80 and disabled like Virginia. So we get spam mail and spam calls for hearing aids, walkers, carts, elder care bathtubs with doors, cheap heart meds and the like and for every one I convince that a) Mortgaged is not my father, he is my husband and b) he's in his 30s not his 80s there are 10 more waiting in the wings...and the annoying part is that being on the DNC registry doesn't help because until I inform them otherwise, as far as these companies know, they are all affiliates of companies who regularly do business with my "elderly" husband's wife, Virginia. The kid I just got off the phone with - a very policite young man maketing the aforementioned elder care tubs, was shocked and, to his credit not that this is any fault of his, beyond apologetic, when I said, 'Look, good luck with your calls, but Mortgaged and I are in our 30s. Take us off your list.'