[Sharing Lights]

Page 3
allowed Phillips to open all these accounts and quite obviously, someone was very negligent in their duties. The garnishment greatly added to that distress. FCRA RELATIONSHIP: While Phillips made creditors, banks, and willing merchants the monetary victims of this crime, it has been those same creditors and credit reporting agencies that made me a victim. I have struggled with the repositories, creditors, and debt collectors for 20 straight months now and still have many accounts and debts incorrectly reported in my name and SSN. My imposter has been in jail for 19 of those 20 months and no accounts have been opened in my name since his incarceration at the end of 2001. I have overwhelming documentation to verify I did not open any of these accounts and I’ve willingly provided those documents to all creditors I’ve found as well as the credit bureaus. I’ve discovered it’s more cost effective for creditors to write the debt off in the victim’s name than go after the real criminal, even after you tell them who and where the real criminal is. Credit bureaus hide behind the fact that they are only reporting what creditors tell them while at the same time, victims are repeatedly sending affidavits, police reports and detailed dispute letters proving the creditors are wrong. That is why it takes identity theft victims years instead of months to recover from this crime. From that first day in November 2001, I have been very aggressive about restoring the damage done in my name. I have sought out the fraudulent accounts and in most cases; I’ve contacted them before they’ve contacted me. I’ve dispute all accounts directly with the creditors following that up by disputing the accounts through the repositories. I’ve encountered a great many difficulties. While two of the repositories have done what I consider to be a fair job assisting me and responding to my disputes, one of them, Equifax has failed to meet nearly all the provisions of the FCRA. It took eleven months and three dispute letters to get a second report from Equifax. Further, I found the report they sent to me was not the same report they were sending to creditors. Both reports that Equifax has in their system still contain as many as fifteen fraudulent accounts. 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 4
I also found that when I disputed accounts to any of the repositories, whether the results of the re-investigation come back with deleted or verified accounts, the accounts were rarely resolved. Creditors were either not accepting my dispute through the repositories or the dispute was not being sent to them. In either event, the majority of creditors continue to seek me out directly or through a debt collector. In some instances, I’ve had accounts deleted from one repository only to have it show up with another one. I’ve also encountered creditors that after I have initiated contact with them to dispute an account, sold the debt to or hired debt collectors that seek me out at a later time. I’ve also had difficulties with accounts that return months after I have successfully disputed them, like AAFES. Lastly, there have also been accounts that I’ve contacted and could find not record of a debt in my name and then months later their debt collectors are calling my home or showing up on my credit reports. It has been and continues to be a nightmare. I’ve accounted for over 100 bad checks drafted from four different fraudulent checking accounts. Phillips wrote bad checks in eight different states and they account for nearly $60,000 of the total debt. Unfortunately, the checking accounts have created significantly more complications for me than the credit accounts. While creditors have just three reporting agencies to choose from, banks and vendors that accept checks have a multitude of reporting agencies. Additionally, the majority of those reporting agencies, which maintain both positive and negative information on consumers, do not provide consumer reports nor are there systems in place to dispute negative information. I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to understand the checking situation to learn how to properly dispute each bad check that was written. My conclusion is, there is no system in place to assist an identity theft victim when banking accounts are opened in your name and SSN, but are completely removed and unrelated to your own banking accounts. This industry is well behind the progress that has been made in the credit industry. PERSONAL IMPACT: There is a still misconception by some that creditors, merchants, banks and others that sustain monetary losses are the only victims of identity theft. So often when speaking to someone about 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 5
my situation the comment is made, “At least you’re not responsible to pay these fraudulent debts”. Somehow, that makes my situation seem less tenuous. I’ve invested over 1100 hours of my time defending myself and working to restore my credit and banking histories. I’ve filled eight notebooks with over 1500 pages of documentation. I can account for about $1500 in out of pocket expenses directly related to my identity theft. Higher interest rates have cost me over $4000. I’ve been unknowingly sued by at least one of the creditors. I’ve had my military retirement garnished. I’m not credit worthy enough to open any new accounts and bad checks reported in my name prevent me from opening any deposit accounts with banks. It was also during January 2003 that my own creditors began taking adverse actions against me as a result of the negative information contained in my credit reports. I lost $25,000 in available credit as my creditors closed accounts with zero balances or lowered my credit limit to existing balances. I had been with some of those creditors over ten years, but my history of always paying on time did not influence their decisions. EMOTIONAL IMPACT: I’ve always considered myself to be a very strong individual. During the twenty years I spent in the military, I was often singled out as someone that worked extremely well under stress. The length of time it takes to resolve a stolen identity, the frustration in dealing with companies that don’t understand the crime or it’s impact and don’t take the correct actions, repeatedly having to clear up the same accounts, the constant phone calls and letters from debt collectors is enough to cause anyone emotional distress. In September 2002, eleven months into my struggle, I began to have difficulties with anxiety and insomnia and my physician prescribed a mild anti-depressant. In January 2003, the problems with my identity were causing serious distractions for my work as a salesperson. I spoke with my supervisor about the problems and began weekly therapy in February 2003 through our Employee Assistance Program. I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. As the doctor put it, my fight or flight instincts were stuck on “fight”. Those problems eventually led to my termination at 5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------