Readers' Digest, May Issue 2008

Name: Jereld Ng(26)

Class: 3E

Article Title: I Hunted Down The Woman Who Stole My Life, pg36-41

Written by: Anita Bartholomew


Synopsis:

With some confidential letters in hand, identity thief, Maria Nelson, was able get into Karen Lodrick’s life, pretending to be the latter. She withdrew all of Karen’s savings, opened credit cards using her name and spent every cent of her money. As she tried to close all of her accounts, the thief opened new ones. There seemed to be no stop.

Creditors are now after Karen, who is in fact innocent throughout this saga. Life was horrible for her. With her empty bank accounts, she could not even afford to pay for her meals and rent. How is she going to survive?
Luckily, the bank’s surveillance camera took a shot of the ID thief and with an affidavit; Karen managed to get a printout of the ID thief. Randomly on the streets, she came across a woman who was wearing a coat that was strikingly similar as the person who stole her identity. Out of curiosity, she tailed the mysterious woman. The Prada wallet the woman tossed out while being tailed brought light to the case.

Reflection:

It is indeed ironical as to how 4 letters can bankrupt a person. It must be heart-aching to have someone steal your identity. Any random person is able to take control of your life, all with just one simple card.

Granted, technology is beneficial to mankind, but on the flip side, it could turn out to be our foe as well. More often than not, it is emphasized that strong confidential and personal property all in the same place does not guarantee optimal security. For convenience’s sake, many people tend to store their confidential property into a thumb drive or a portable external hard disk. However, this may result in detrimental effects. Regardless of the number of backups one utilizes, once the tiny thumb drive is lost, the information disappears into thin air as well. A random person who may happen to find the thumb drive by accident will be able to gain access to all the files stored in the thumb drive. Similar to Lodrick, the owner may lose his identity, and if things get from bad to worse, all of his assets! Nevertheless, one has to appreciate that Karen is quite a lucky, but yet at the same time, a strong-willed person.

To come across her identity thief in the midst of nowhere suddenly would be too much of a coincidence. San Francisco and California are big countries, both in terms of population and geographical territory. This is just like chancing upon an old enemy who stole your precious eraser when both of you had graduated ages ago. It is indeed God’s will. The way Karen lost Maria 3 times, but found her again, reinforces my view against her.

How determined was she? Perhaps it was out of desperation that she tailed Maria. She merely saw someone wearing the same coat as the person depicted in the printout she received. That person she saw could just be another stranger on the streets, but what drove her to shadow that random person? It is probably because if she did not seize every opportunity to find out who this serial ID thief was, given her poor financial status, how she was ever going to survive is beyond belief. Likewise, if I were in her shoes, I would do the same. At least, it is better than waiting for the thief to splurge every single cent of my assets.
Identity thieves are rather smart. With a stolen identity card, they are able to masquerade as the victim.

Remember, this is only of the work of 4 letters. A mere 4 pieces of paper can result in such detrimental impacts. Imagine what technology will be like in the future. Perhaps these thieves will require only 1 pixel of drawing to accomplish their misdeeds!

To end it all, I personally reckon that at the end of the day, it is the characteristics of the individual that matters the most. If one is extremely careful with his personal information, identity thefts will not happen at all.


In addition, you may wish to read page 40 on how to better protect yourself against such thefts.

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