The Foul Practice of Fraud

Just last week, I'd left my purse in a public bathroom, late on a Monday night, and only hours later and several hundred miles away, around 1 am, did I realize what I'd done. The FANTASTIC news is that despite my fantastic idiocy, someone turned in my purse! And not only did they turn it in, they did so with everything still left in it... 1,300 dollars' worth of stuff left in it; NONE of it missing!

Initially, I had had little hope that any of the contents of my purse would be returned, let alone my purse, itself, but even though I got it all back, it doesn't change the fact that because I 'lost' my purse, someone - anyone - had access to A LOT of my personal info., perfectly able to copy any and all of it for future fraudulent uses.

I'm no stranger to fraud, but that's a kinda looong story, so I won't go into right now, but man, I'm tellin' ya one thing = it sucked, BIG TIME! So this time 'round? When I figured out I'd left my purse behind, I made all the right calls in less than 15 minutes, knowing it could already be too late. I cancelled all of my debit and credit cards, and my cell phone service, and this is the important part: As recommended by the Federal Trade Commission, I also contacted two credit report companies (I chose Experian and TransUnion), and put my credit profile on what's call "Fraud Alert" for the next 90 days. Doing this entitles me to free copies of my credit report, and ensures that ANY effort made using ANY of my personal info. to acquire ANY kind of credit in the next 90 days, will be blocked. Of course, this 'alert' lasting for a limit of 90 days, the more saavy crooks surely know about this kind of thing, so it's not entirely foolproof, but I figure it'll at least protect me from the dummy crooks who don't know how to patiently wait.

Please continue to wish me luck on this one! Let's hope it really ends as the happy story it is thus far.

P.S. I do really think it will be fine.