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Should I be concerned about ID theft with 1099 sent to wrong address?

conigs — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:54:59 -0800

A contract employer sent my 1099-MISC to my old address at which I haven't resided since Jan. 2007. Should I be concerned about possible identity theft/fraud? I already had a fraudulent charge to one of my credit cards shortly after my mail stopped forwarding. Also, are there any repercussions I can/should take against the employer (large state university)?

How screwed are we?

EatTheWeak — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 17:31:53 -0800

A birth certificate has gone missing in public. What now? Today, my girlfriend and I went out to get her learner's permit, and among the forms of identification she brought was her birth certificate. We had to make a couple stops on our way to the department of licensing, and we were walking with it on us for a time. Somewhere along the way, we lost her birth certificate. After hours searching where we had been and the car itself, the document is still lost.

She passed muster for identification without it, but we're concerned about her birth certificate floating around out there. Assuming that someone did pick it up, how shall we protect her from identity theft and fraud? We want to circle the wagons in a hurry, but are at a loss as to how.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Mortgage fraud / ID theft victim. What next?

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:23:28 -0800

I recently found out that I've been a victim of mortgage fraud. In short, someone stole my identity and took out a ~400k mortgage on a house in MA, in my name and with my credit. Has anyone out there been through this? What can I expect going forward? They applied for multiple mortgages, and evidently one of them did go through, because my name is on a deed according to the police officer I'm dealing with. I've nipped the other loans I found out about(via forwarded mail from an old address of mine that the ID thieves were apparently using) in the bud and am working with the lenders and the police and the postal inspector, which will eventually result in a police report, ID theft affidavits, etc. I've taken all of the basic steps you're supposed to when you find out you're an ID theft victim. Locked down or changed my existing accounts, put fraud alerts in with the credit reporting agencies, temporarily forwarded my mail to a different address, called the attorney general's office, and so on.

But, I feel like I've done all I can do and now I'm highly paranoid and totally in the dark about what comes next or what else I should do from here on. The police aren't exactly being helpful about what I can expect, and hey, to be fair, it's not their job to be my advocate. But, they don't even know who the lender is on the loan that did go through, and I have no idea how to find out on my own, short of waiting for it to show up on my credit report or for bills to start coming. I feel like I need to be out ahead of this to document my innocence and limit my own liability, but I'm largely at the end of my amateur sleuthing abilities here.

The unknown liability is what I'm really scared of. I've done a quick crash-course on on mortgage fraud, but I can't find many stories about what happens to individual victims and what they did in the aftermath, and I have no idea if I'm ultimately on the hook for this loan / property or not. I'd really like to know what I'm looking at over the next few months as opposed to the immediate damage-control period. What the typical resolution-state looks like for someone who gets into this kind of mess. I'd also like to know whether I should be lawyering up(though finding a lawyer and finding money for a lawyer will not be easy at the moment, so I'm hesitant to do that until I know my position more fully) and what else I should be doing to cover my currently very exposed financial posterior. I'm an MA resident when it comes to legal issues. Single, 28, currently renting, have never applied for a mortgage.

My wallet was stolen -- how do I protect myself against ID theft?

melissa may — Sun, 07 Nov 2004 19:48:22 -0800

My wallet was stolen -- how do I protect myself against ID theft? I was in NYC most of last week and my wallet was stolen while there. In it were my DL, a couple of credit cards, and unfortunately, medical insurance cards that used my SS# as an ID number. The cards are cancelled, I filed a police report, and I’m going through the tedious process tomorrow of reconstructing my wallet’s contents. I’m hoping against hope that all they wanted was the cash, but I can’t safely assume that. Are there any processes that I can initiate to flag my name and information as a potential victim for ID theft before anything happens? Or will that only create more trouble for ME with credit transactions? I would really appreciate specific advice from people to whom this has happened or who work in this area. I don’t want to get this wrong.