Less Hustle More Coffee

Well, yesterday my employer informed me that a fake unemployment claim had been submitted in my name, using my information along with my social security number. Apparently it was not just me but has happened to a few others as well. The claim said that I was a Sales Activity Manager, which that part made me and my spouse laugh. I’ve never heard such a title. And would never be such a thing. Was not a very good made up title either. “Bless their hearts”. Probably not a very educated crew to be doing such a thing, lol. I mean let’s face it if they were educated, they wouldn’t need to work so hard to steal government money with my information.

First of all though, so I did not go into full on panic mode, and leave work to take care of the situation, I just informed my spouse. To get his take. Life is stressful enough. I figured my spouse would be very upset at whatever “breach” has occurred from wherever it has occurred. But he was fairly calm and said he was surprised it hasn’t already happened. That said, we have frozen our credit with the three major sites, which we can go in and unfreeze when/if we need to buy anything that will require our credit report and such.

I also have filed a claim with the Department of Justice because of the fact they used “the dreaded illness” which I try not to use the term in my blog post so it will send you an alert and not cause my post to be buried in SEO guidelines. Anyway- any fraud based on this or any one taking advantage due to emergency situations during these times can face a federal crime – it included the dreaded illness, hurricane damage, and other natural disasters or emergency situations. And this person used “labor dispute due to _______(the dreaded illness)”. So I filed that yesterday since it qualified as a place you could file a complaint.

So my employer of course, as they should, denied the claim and said it was fraud —so they took care of that part on their end. But today I will also file on my end, that way I have a fraud claim filed not only with the federal government but with the state. So if they catch the person(s) they will be facing a bigger situation than they ever dreamed. I also prayed they would be caught.

Unemployment fraud is however, a huge problem as is company breaches, hacks, and leaks. I guess everyone can assume your information has been leaked somewhere sometime. Not everyone follows or even has guidelines as to inform individuals that their data has been breached. But I was appreciative that my employer let me know that my personal data was used, and that they let me know I wasn’t the only one. So who knows whether the breech was a massive scale within the government and a few of our people just happened to be picked, if it was our breech or a third party. Who knows? But hopefully the government can do a bit of hacking of their own to find out!

So tomorrow we go and file the police report. I asked George if we needed to hire a lawyer for any reason. But he said no, not at this point anyway as we (as of yet) have no monetary loss against us, nothing stolen, nothing charged in our name – that we know of. But the government websites say to file a police report of the stolen identity so that you don’t have any troubles later and can show proof that it was filed. It gives you a document to show so if anything goes wrong with credit later.

He has checked on some of our accounts but we’ll be checking on the rest as we can get time to do so.

After a long day at work yesterday, and it was my turn to fix dinner – a meatloaf, pasta salad, and lima beans, rolls – then after we ate, I had to go and freeze the accounts through the 3 main credit agencies. ::sigh:: George had frozen his while I fixed dinner. But he was kind to sit with me for moral support while I went to the three websites, created an account with each and froze each. I can think of better things I’d rather do with my time!

I considered doing a Life Lock account, but that makes me feel uncomfortable really. You have to give them all of your accounts, and that is just one more agency that has your data that can leak it. But I think having done our research and taking care of freezing our credit – I think we’ll be good. But we probably have to take a few other steps with some of our accounts. But at least they can’t go buy a car in our name, like another person experienced. :-O

Have you ever had your identity stolen? It’s a shame people go to so much effort to get $. It seems easier to just go get a job.

A Little Note to the Criminal

So to all you people out there spending hours trying to be someone you are not – I hope you get caught and you live a life of having to look over your back and hoping not to be in prison for years and in debt the rest of your life. I wouldn’t want to be you. But I will pray for you and I will pray that you are caught. My God is bigger than your devil, and he can whip you and your devil in shape in a heartbeat —or rather a sound of a trumpet–lol. So you best turn your life around! It’s a shame to have to live a life that way. To not be able to go to bed at night without trembling over what you did today, no good sleep that you did an honest day’s work. How bad you must feel to be a low life, and to have made a nothing of yourself, to be on the bad side of the underworld and not triumph with anything good in your life – only lies, fear, dread. And what do you have to look forward to? How miserable. Maybe you have a nice car, nice house made with money you didn’t earn with an honest days work? How’s that make you feel? I can’t imagine that would make you feel good for long. So you probably have to drown it out with drugs, dope, and drink and all that right? Yeah, I’m right aren’t I. You are in a cycle you can’t get out of. That is why I’m praying for you. Bless your heart. Oh, and “bless your heart” in case you are not from the south, is not always a good term! But it’s a nice way of saying a few other things that we don’t want to have to say because we do enjoy a good sleep at night.

A Little Note to Wherever the Breech Came From

What are you doing to fix this if you are aware of it? Have you told others of the breach so they can take steps to protect their info. Or have you just swept it under the rug and hope it goes away? What are your policies regarding this type of thing? Do you even have a policy regarding this type of thing in today’s world?

I don’t have all the answers, but God does. And I’ve put Him on it! 😉 As well as the authorities.

The tribe has spoken. And will likely speak again!