Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Identity Theft 2.0

Someday not soon, I'll be thankful my wallet was stolen in Chicago, St. Patrick's Day weekend March 2010.  Because I'll be able to tell this story of how my taxi cab driver took me to my megabus pick up point for a third of the cost.  And then, when we get to the pick up point, and as I'm fearing I won't be able to eat all day (because I have no money), the cab driver offers to buy me breakfast.

I gladly accept, and since we have an hour before my bus departs, we eat at a nearby diner.  The taxi driver's name is Eddy and over breakfast I learn his wife had passed away, leaving him to raise 3 little ones on his own.  I think he was hoping I'd offer to stay in Chicago and agree to be his wife, and the mother of his 3 children.  Although a great opportunity, I didn't feel we were the right fit for each other.  So rather than stay in the windy city, I thanked Eddy for breakfast and then hopped on my bus to Ann Arbor to meet my family.

It was around 2 or 3 AM, as we were leaving a pub, someone stole my wallet.  I canceled all my cards immediately, but the thief still stole my identity.  And somehow he managed to open a comcast cable account for his apartment and rack up a $2000 bill - under my name!

I didn't find out about it until this past fall when a creditor called.  I got everything squared away, and thought I was in the clear, but then, today, as I'm doing some work via paypal, I discover, the chi town man also linked a paypal account under his name to my checking account - as my roomie Shannen would say - awesome (in a sarcastic, knowingly less than awesome, tone give away).  Thankfully he wasn't able to draw funds from my account, but even still - so annoying.

But why I mention all this blah blah blah about identify theft, is because we face identity theft every day.  The enemy throws lies at us, and sometimes we take the bait, and in doing so our identity is compromised.  Rather than being the fully alive human being God intends for us to be, we become subpar, living out our lives hijacked by the enemy.  


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