Any other victims of ID theft? What was the worst/most difficult part of recovery?

[Anonymous]

TL;DR

I was a victim of ID theft that resulted in fraudulant transactions exceeding six figures (including 3 unreturned rental cars).  Through sheer willpower, determination, and a whole lot of luck, I helped catch my thief along with 10 other of his ring members.  My professional background provided me with a unique skillset that proved to be a key factor.  I am interested in developing an iPhone/Droid app that can assist others.

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Background:

Last November, I became a victim of identity theft. My thief went on a shopping spree in Beverly Hills, took numerous excursions to Las Vegas, and stole 3 cars (among other things). With a lot of effort and an incredible amount of luck, I was ultimately able to assist law enforcement (three different state police forces & US Secret Service) in capturing my guy(!).  My project is to create an app that would allow victim of identity theft (approx. 9.9 mil each year) to work quickly and efficiently to limit damage.

The above mentioned thief did most of the damage in a 60 day time-frame(!). In my case, my unique professional background in credit collections and insurance claim recovery gave me the skillset needed to work quickly and efficiently to limit further damage, build a legal case, and eventually hunt down the bad guy and his ring (10 members).

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Question:

I am interested in developing an iPhone/Droid app to assist other victims.  An important step in this process is determine what is the worst/most difficult part of the recovery process? 

I know what I felt was really painful/annoying about the whole process, but I want to hear from others first so I don't influence the answers.

Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Good job on handling that situation. I'll stay on your good side..lol.  I found out about my identity theft when I went to file my taxes. I learned the thieves were filing two years of taxes under my identity. (I didn't file the previous year). Luckily they were about to literally mail the first refund and the IRS stopped it. I filled out Identity theft affidavits that the IRS has and followed their instructions. Received a secure pin for next years taxes.  One issue I came across besides the many involved....was that the first thing I was instructed to do was start a paper trail by filing a police report. Then I could continue filing with government websites and so forth. But when I called my police dept, they tell me they no longer file police reports for that.  I'm like what?  Really? It's only the highest growing crime in the US.  Anyway, moving forward...so first thing agencies ask for, or other companies ask for when I state I need something removed due to fraud and identity theft, is they ask for the proof of claim.  Police report, other forms I might've filed.  To this day, I still need to file under some government sites.  But it seems like it's more of a reactive type situation then a proactive or preventive type of measure.  Unless you freeze your acct...you find out after the fact.  Fraud alerts help but it still after the fact. Don't want to overwrite...but this is some of my experience.

[Anonymous]

That's exactly how I felt -- all the other products on the market are focused on ID theft prevention -- and none are particularly good at it. 

I'm trying to stay out of that space and am simply focusing on recovery (after the fact).

I'll throw some issues that came up in my own recovery that I found very annoying so you have an idea of what I'm asking. 

In no particular order:

1.) Going to and waiting in line at libraries/banks to get stuff notarized

2.) Keeping all the paperwork straight

3.) Being on hold all the time from all the phone tag (creditors, collection agencies, law enforcement, credit bureaus, etc.)

4.) Forgetting key questions and having to start the entire call over, including staying on hold again (I got better at it)

5.) Having to "sneak" fax & copy at work -- I eventually gave in and bought a copier/printer/fax

I'm trying to determine what was the most annoying part of the whole experience and building an app to solve it (at least one of them).

LifeLock claims to have 1mil+ members.  There are 300+mil in the US with 15mil affected every year by this problem -- these folks are going to need help.

I was one who thought it would never happen to me.

Oops.

[Anonymous]

miketd1 -

Great work, congrats on having the ability to actually stop the bad guys!

I dont have any experience at all in ID theft (from being a victim or a perpetrator!) so no help there.

From reading accounts from other people, I am thinking one of the hardest parts is organizing all of the documentation one needs to support your claim of ID theft.

I didnt have ID theft but I had severe credit problems in 2008-09 and the government agency I was hired into had security clearance regulations and I had to provide documented proof I was making progress with my problems.  I had been called and emailed while at work about it and I became very paranoid about being able to answer their questions quickly.  I carried a briefcase everyday but I started carrying a manila folder with copies of what I needed to answer.  I only needed once in the five years I was there, but I felt much better being prepared.

My suggestion would be to develop an app that would provide a virtual filing cabinet that was configured  with folders for the necessary documents, like initial police reports, IRS documents, other Government forms, collection agent folder (with ability to add new subfolder with custom names), and what ever else is 'standard'.  You also need to provide the ability for users to customize it with their own subfolder names, etc.

You could also provide a contact list they can maintain and places to record notes from calls, and then a place to click to go to the extended version of the files. 

You could also provide a section with basic steps and documentation, from your experience, linking to external sites as needed.

And of course, make it so that it can be used from a smart phone and also a computer / tablet, and a 'cloud storage' associated with the app, with the appropriate levels of security of course.  It wouldnt look good for the ID Recovery app to get hacked!

Hope that helps with some suggestions.