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Just around three years ago I had the joy having my identity stolen just long enough for someone to open around 10-12 credit cards in my name. When the congratulatory welcome to our credit card letter came in the mail just about a month later, I discovered the punch line. Now I don’t want to spoil the joke for everyone, so if you really don’t want to read it, click on another page.

Ok. You decided to read on. Here is the punchline. I was told that I had the joy of proving it wasn’t me. Funny isn’t it. Well, maybe not without some atmosphere, so lets add some. Fast forward a few days for me to collect all the cards, go to a different police station in each district the crime is committed in to file a complaint, and then start calling the companies. Fairly quickly all but one company discovers its a fraud. How do they discover this, you ask. Maybe you didn’t, but I did. It turns out that someone with a Virginia license with a New York address and my name was given a credit card with no other information. Now we are almost done with the atmosphere. Here we go. I call the last company, Barney’s. I am on the phone with manager of the store in which the instant credit was granted and who walks in, none other than the person using my credit card. They have this person on video using a credit card in my name that I did not open and I am on the phone with the manager at the time. So here is the punch line. They still say I haven’t proven that it is not me!

Eventually after numerous mailed forms, they finally relent and say it wasn’t me. Great or so I thought. Time passes and one of my credit card companies raise my interest rate due to some negative information on my credit report. Guess who was the negative information? Did you peek? Well you are right - Barney’s.

So I break out all the old information that I had thought I was all done with, and call them again. They apologize and say it was their mistake and will fix it post-haste. That was in March of this year. Now it is August and it still on my credit report. Not only that, they added a comment saying that the accounted was settled and that I am disputing that!!!

I just felt the need to rant about this as I get ready to call them again. I am doing all that I can to have them correct their mistake without requiring legal action on my part. Mainly because I feel we live in too litigious a society, but now I am beginning to understand why.

Oh well. Time to stop ranting.

It is true. Someone dies in the latest Harry Potter. I will not say who, how many, how, or anything else.

All I will say is that it was sad and they will be missed.

Goodbye Potter Person