Identity Theft Victim Prevails Against Equifax

A woman whose identity was stolen in 2000 eventually got it all straightened out, after extraordinary mental and financial distress, and after her life was figuratively “turned upside down”. The thief was eventually caught and prosecuted. This is quite rare, by the way. Statistically, only about 9% of all IDT crimes result in arrests. Anyway, back to this story. Everything was fixed, meaning all of her personal and financial information was put back into her credit profile and the incorrect information was removed from her credit reports. But then Equifax, one of the three credit reporting agencies, failed to provide correct information to potential creditors and mortgage companies. They supplied the wrong, false information from the 2000 identity theft, and the result was that this now twice victimized woman had all of the emotional distress all over again. She sued Equifax and in August, 2007 she won $200,000.00. She was later awarded an additional $268,652.00 for attorney’s fees.

Morale of the story: Identity Theft is a serious problem, it is actually the single biggest crime in the world, passing drug trafficking! In 2007 the population of the US was over 303 Million, and there were over 162 Million reported breaches. There are several “services” out there and I can actually recommend an excellent service (which my family and I use) to you.