The Annabelle Echo Closet

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Best of luck at your new address! NOT!


Best of luck at your new address! NOT!

Last week I called my bank. I told them that I was through with credit. From now on, I wasn’t going to pay interest on things I didn’t really need in the first place. If I didn’t have the money in the bank I wasn’t going to spend it. They told me that if I deactivated my credit card I wouldn’t have a credit history. I relented. But I still cut up my credit card. Then yesterday I found this letter on top of a pile of junk mail.
I can’t make this stuff up:

June 5, 2007
Dear Annabelle Echo,
Congratulations on your recent move and thanks for keeping us up-to-date on your credit card ending in ****. As an added safeguard would you please take a moment to verify the address change requested?
New Address:
445 E Euclid St
Detroit MI 48202
If this information is correct, you are all set. There is no need to contact us. If, however, there is an error - or if you have in fact not requested this address change – please call us toll free at 1-888-***-****. Call us any time and we will be glad to set your records straight. When calling, please remember to have your account number available.

Best of luck at your new address!

Sincerely,
Fraud Operations

Here is my response:

Dear Fraud Operations,
It is my distinct pleasure to inform you that I have never even been to Detroit, Michigan and have no future plans to visit let alone live there. However, if you had done a simple search on Google™ Maps you would see that according to your records I am now living in a VACANT LOT!
Most people might lose a little sleep knowing that someone is out there masquerading and using their identity to buy a lot of worthless junk such as a MacMansion, a gas guzzling sport utility vehicle or a yacht and ruining their credit and putting them into debt. Strangely, I slept like a baby last night. I dreamt that all of the junk mail that usually piles up on my doorstep was being delivered to a vacant lot in Detroit only to swirl and then scatter.
On the Web:
Turning trees into trash…Forest Ethics fights back!
Church of Stop Shopping, Links of Resistance…
What My Identity Thieves bought on Ebay sung by Weird Al Yankovic…
Are you a victim of Identity Theft?