I know of three:
A former co-worker spends nearly 6 months trying to get her credit cleared up after a car-wash attendent stole a credit-card receipt from her car. She has memorized the numbers to all three credit agencies.
A friend is contacted by AZ police to return to prison. He's never been to AZ. Apparently a suspected wife-beater gave an AZ *police department* a stolen ID and skipped bail. My friend spent several lost work days going back and forth to CA authorities to clear up the mess to save a plane-flight (on his dime) to AZ.
Another friend was just contacted by OH officials regarding an embezzlement case there. Some local schmuck listed my friend's address, phone number, SSN and other information as the Financial Officer of a fly-by-night scam business.
I was the most lucky of the incidents I'm aware of personally. I was contacted by a electronics store in Los Angeles regards a $6,000 tv purchase. The company respresentative was *very* helpful and offered to forward all information she had to my credit card company for use in prosecution. My credit card company (i.e. my bank) wasn't interested. They simply said, "Wait for your new card in the mail. We can't chase down every lead."
Unfortunately, many police officials have the same attitude. When my stolen (and subsequently stripped) car was found in Oakland, I asked what plans they had for persuing the perpetrators. "What do you want us to do, take fingerprints?", the officer replied sarcastically. Yeah, I guess that would be a waste of time.
The financial equations of theft.
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