The Michelle Brown story: Identity Theft

1 It began on a winter day with a seemingly ordinary message on an answering machine. It was from someone at the bank. Something about her new Dodge Ram pickup and the payment past due on the loan…

2 Michelle Brown was a single woman in her late twenties. She lived in southern California and worked as a credit analyst. She was cheerful, and people found her fun to be around. Friends were always telling her how she was too nice. She worked hard and was tidy with her finances. She owed 15 credit cards but had never been late on a single payment. Ever since she was 17, she had perfect credit. She liked everything in her life to be perfect.

3 She returned the call. She told the bank officer that there had to be a mistake; she hadn’t bought a truck. The officer quickly agreed that he must have the wrong Michelle Brown. The phone numbers on the credit application weren’t working… to prove beyond a doubt that it was another Michelle brown he was searching for, she told him her social security number. She was stunned- it was the same one that was on the application.

4 Alarmed, she called up the credit reporting agencies and told them that something fishy was going on. They put a fraud alert on her credit and promised to send out a report on her recent purchases. She checked with the Division of Motor vehicles and learned something astonishing a duplicate driver’s license had recently been issued to a Michelle Brown. Someone else was using her name, her address, her Social Security number, and her driver’s license. It was as if someone was slowly erasing her identity…

5 When her credit report arrived, there were delinquent bills on it for thousands of dollars, including a sizable phone bill and even a bill for liposuction treatments. What was this? She became afraid to open her own mailbox, for fear what new debt would be awaiting her. In time, she would learn that there was an arrest warrant out for Michelle Brown in Taxes. The charge was a conspiracy to sell marijuana. She had never broken a law, any law. How could she be wanted by the police?

6 She began to worry that the other Michelle Brown would break into her apartment in search of her passport or checks, or who knew what else. Whenever she got home after dark she carried a flashlight and searched through the rooms, including every closet. She was weary and angry. When she went to bed at night, she was scared. If she heard the slightest noise, her first thought was that the woman calling herself Michelle Brown was out there in the dark, right beneath her window. Who was this person, who was stealing her identity? Why of all the people in the world, did she pick her? And what did she want?

Comprehension

Read the statements and mark them T (true) or F (false). Rewrite the false statements to make them true.

___1. Michelle Brown was careless with her finances.

___2. One form of identification was stolen from her.

___3. The person who stole her identity made a variety of purchases.

___4. She began selling drugs as a way of paying her bills.

___5. Identity theft affected her emotionally as well as financially.