My identity was stolen last year

[Psychedalienation]

Date of story: October, 2017
Date now: December, 2018

This is a story/life advice question:


So I went through alot of crazy shit living homeless on the Venice Beach boardwalk. One thing that did happen, was I got caught selling weed (and LSD I think?) on the boardwalk without paying taxes to the Shoreline Crips AFTER some older OG's had already warned and told me to pay.

So I was only about a month in to being homeless. I hadn't gotten my food stamps and govt assistance yet. I had gone to LA's DPSS office to apply for benefits. I had brought my birth certificate, my ID, and my social security card with me. I successfully got my benefits and headed back to my spot in Marina Del Rey (before I had moved my shit to Venice with my street fam).

On my way back, I'm skating on this longboard towards my spot. I just feel a CRACK!!! This dude named Shark (BUFF ass crip dude), had snuck up on me and cracked me in the head. I fell the to ground and began running. He keeps smashing me and I remember begging passerbys to help me, but he kept talking calmly to them saying "He's a drug dealer, he does bad things". No one would help me no matter how much I pleaded and ran. As I'm sprinting away still, another one pops out of the alley in front of me. I booked it another way and like got around Shark and ran. Yet again, another one pops out of the alley. Like straight out of a movie scene. So I knew I was fucked.

They cornered me and told me to give up everything I had. I gave them everything I had. I was bleeding and wanted them to go. They took my social, id, and birth certificate, along with any drugs and money I had on me.

To this day, I don't know what happened with my identity. He robbed me twice after that for the same reason and never said anything about it. I also joined the U.S. Army months after the incident with no static. I've attempted to do like CreditKarma and stuff, but they ask these security questions before about what is on your history and I can't get it right.

I'm sure something would have been sent to my address if something was opened up or something was paid for in my name?

What should I do about it? Who do I see or talk to?

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

that sucks. is there some outreach program you can talk to a social worker through? they might know what steps you need to take. maybe a legal aid program. or a program for vets.

 

[thujone]

I'm sure something would have been sent to my address if something was opened up or something was paid for in my name?

not usually. fraudsters take out loans with a drop address for this type of stuff. verification methods are shit, you are unlikely to hear about any fraud until a skip-tracer at a collection agency finds your real phone number on LexisNexis and hands it to a collection agent.

if this happened months ago why are you just wondering about it now? you should have filed a police report and still should do that just to record the crime. this just covers your ass in case anything big does happen. definitely get a copy of your credit report to find out if anyone has opened a new line of credit in your name, if someone is really stealing your identity and not just using it for basic fraud, then they could be servicing accounts under their control like a normal responsible person, just to keep a low profile and keep those accounts active for bigger criminal purposes.

hit up the credit reporting agencies (CRAs) for a copy of your report and while you're at it, have them enable a credit freeze so that nobody can open up any new lines of credit in your name. this used to cost money but it's free in the U.S. now, see this article for info on that and the contact info for the CRAs.

if you see anything dodgy on the credit report, contact the bank or loan company you shouldn't have an account with and lead with the part about it being fraudulent activity.

hopefully Shark lost your papers on his way home that day, good luck