While identity theft has only been prime in the news for about the last five yaers, the crime is certainly not a new one. All one has to do to determine that fact is read about the case of Tom Lesh. His identity was stolen back in the 1970s. The saddest part of this news story is that it took prosecutors 35 years to nab the criminal that did this to him, even though he was pretty sure he knew who it was, especially since the identity thief was bragging about it publicly.
Way back when, Tom’s brother had a bit too much to drink and told his friend, Clark Mower, a lot of personal details about Tom, including his birth place and his mother’s maiden name. Little did he know that this would turn into such a debacle.
During the 35 years that the so called friend “was†Tom, he accumulated $10,000 in back taxes and wrote off bad debt that reached into the hundreds of thousands. Mower even filed for bankruptcy and received benefits from the Department of Social and Health Services in a state that the real Lesh had never even lived in. Lesh’s first inkling that something was wrong came when an employee in personnel at his place of business told him that someone else had submitted his Social Security number for reason of employment in another state. He was subsequently denied a car loan, even though he assumed his credit was fairly good.
While he could not get an arrest made until just now, Lesh did do some smart things to protect himself, and thus he never had to shell out a dime that he did not owe. For one, he put a fraud alert on his credit file so that Mower could not continue opening new credit cards without Lesh’s permission. Secondly, he contacted the authorities after noticing something was amiss. In fact, he has been working with the Social Security Administration, the IRS and other organizations for years.
This case made news because of the severe length of time it took to get the culprit arrested. In most instances it does not take nearly that long. Well that is if the thief is apprehended at all. However, there are some very important lessons that can be learned here. First and foremost, is do not share other people’s personal information, or your own, no matter how much it seems like a good idea after you’ve had a few beers.
The additional and more serious lesson is that you should purchase some kind of identity theft protection.
Lesh was completely surprised that there was something going on with his identity, and he only realized what was going on because another person told him. Then again, he was still shocked that he could not get that car loan. If he had identity protection that kept an eye on his credit report for him, he could have contacted the creditors when something could be done about it quickly. This 35 year saga could have been cut much, much shorter. It would have been far easier to repair and of course the heartbreaking ordeal could have been thwarted.
Do you need a better reason to protect your identity? Why not start today?