Hope Everyone Can View This

I got this in an email. It was supposedly made by a 15 year old girl. At the end it tells her name and the name of another person who did the art work. Take a minute to watch this. It's about 4 minutes long, but it's worth it.

I get a lot of emails with jokes, war things, religious quotes, etc. If your in my address book, you know I only forward the good ones.

WARNING: This may bring a tear to your eye...

Click Play Twice and here's the address in case you want to forward or you can't view below.

Home Alone...

No it's not the movie, just me. My fam has taken off... Just for one night mind you. Kristy has a seminar in OKC she was chosen to attend. It's a management course. I'm proud that she's been pursuing this. She'll do well.

Daytona's gone too so I've got the whole house to myself. I rented a movie and brought the computer in the front room to have all my toys in one room. It's really just a little Too quite. Guess I shouldn't have rent this "horror" flick tonight. LOL

I have no idea why I'm really writing other than because I'm here alone with nothing much else to do. Every body's doing just fine. Daytona is, in our opinion, getting better at school. His teacher is still using the Green, Yellow, and Red system. With Green meaning the child has been good all day. Yellow; a warning had to be given. Red; Warning was given and child disobeyed for a second time. Trouble is, a child in her classroom could get warned about playing in the bathroom for instance. Then get put up to red for talking when he/she was supposed to be quite. Hell I don't think I would make it more often than not.

Daytona is now staying in Green or going only to Yellow more often than he goes up to Red. That's a good thing and as long as there's improvement we're happy. I think the system expects more and more out of these kids. These days they don't spank, or at least not in most schools. Yet they load these kids down with more and more rules, work, etc. Is that really better? Who knows.

Other than that, I really don't have any drama. I'm still working on that whole identity theft thing. The guy at Road Loans has helped by answering my questions and doing everything he's supposed to do. I made my police report and have everything ready to mail to the credit reporting agency. I should have gotten that off a few days ago, but they should have it next week and as of now I haven't seen anything suspicious. In the mail or at my bank. Knock on wood. God willing, this might just be over... I hope.

Fighting Back Against the Identity Theft Saga

This has been the only thing I've written about in the last few days, but it's really the only drama in our life. Today I started my "fighting back" campaign. I've read the majority of what the government has to offer on the subject. They have a lot of useful information on what to do to prevent, protect, and defend against identity theft. Click here to visit.

I spoke to a man in the fraud department for Road Loans. He helped me a bunch. I've tracked down the IP address and the exact time it came to Road Loans. Don't ask me to explain. Road Loans directed me to Modern Consumer. Modern Consumer directed me to theplanet.com. So far that's where the trail ends.

The Planet doesn't talk over the phone about fraud. Why? Heck, I don't know. I was, however, given an email to their fraud department and I'm waiting for a reply. I'm just trying to track down where this all originated from. A person doesn't Have to do these things, but the guy at Road Loans said I could. What ever I find out helps to authorities that much more.

According to FTC (think I got that right) I'm to send Road Loans a copy of the report I filed with the police (doing that tomorrow). Then I'm to send One of the three credit reporting bureaus proof that I filed with the FTC, copies of any material I received, and (I think) a copy of the police report. That should get things on the right track and issuer that nothing else comes through. Hopefully.

There have been quite a few laws passed over this subject. I printed out some of these laws from the website I listed in the first paragraph (FTC?). Laws that outline what the police department HAS to do. Laws that outline what Road Loans HAVE to do. Also, laws that outline what the credit bureau HAS to do to protect me from further attacks.

All and all, I'm on the right track. Luckily for us, the government has certain things in place to help when identity is breached. I think the most common mistake made is not reaching fast enough. I just hope I'm reaching fast enough. The application was submitted to Road Loans on the 23rd of October. Which is the same day that all the debit transactions started. I'm just trying to get "ahead" of the bad guys, but right now I'm still trying to catch up.

Identity Theft Gets Worse

If you haven't read any of my previous posts about my identity theft, you need to read them in order to catch up on what I'm saying. Today I received a notice in the mail. The notice was from a Road Loans and referred to an Equifax Report. If you don't know what Equifax is, I'll explain.

Equifax is a credit reporting company. It's one of the 3 credit bureaus that companies use to see if you qualify for a particular lone, etc.

The letter was informing me that I was unfortunately denied a loan. The loan was for a place called Road Loans. Apparently they give loans to people for cars, and they do all this through the Internet.

After receiving the letter I proceeded to try and call Equifax, but the recording was for getting your credit report. To do that or anything else with Equifax, you have to do so through mail. After attempting that I Googled Road Loans. Luckily I found their website and matched the letter head to that of the letter I received. I then called Road Loans myself.

It's funny trying to explain that someone by the name of "yourself" tried to get a loan for "yourself". LOL. That's the last joke I'll make about this. I'm really freaked out, but I've done some research and acting fast is the most important course of action. Or at least I hope. I have no idea what to do to make sure this doesn't go any further. It's really scary to have someone out their trying to buy things in your name (and sometimes succeeding).

Researching identity theft online I found this website. It's a government type site that has lots of good advice on identity theft and what to do. I wrote some numbers and addresses down to contact. They include places that are supposed to notify credit bureaus like Equifax. I'll keep everyone posted on what happens next. Thank God the loan for Road Loans was denied because and I quote, "Social Security Number - Unable to verify". I'm just afraid the bad guys may be trying to get my Social Security Number and take this identity theft thing to a whole new level.

Funny For All Males...Females Need Not Read

Update on Identity Theft

In a previous blog I told everyone about being subject to identity theft. I thought I'd take the time to let everyone know what has happened since then.

It was a weight off my shoulders when I spoke to the Bank Branch Manager. He informed me that I was to contact all of the businesses that debited my Visa and try to resolve the issue. He was kind enough to go over every detail including showing me where to find the phone numbers to these companies. Turns out their all on your bank statements. At least all the ones in question were. Some of the numbers where cut off, but he looked them up on the full report and filled in any missing numbers.

The Bank Manager also informed me that "TransAmerica" (Visa) wouldn't hold me liable for anything over $50. So if I were to turn in all of the transactions and say I couldn't get anything from them, Visa would give me back all my money minus the $50. Apparently that is the agreement I signed when I got the debit card.

My first action was to call the $86.97 charge. It was the deeds4dollars.com one. I spoke to a lady and within, I'd say, 5 minutes she issued me a full refund. And yes, she gave me her name and ID number/Extension. I was very happy. The ones after that didn't go so smoothly. I was able to get back charges for $6.95 and $3.69. Unfortunately that left charges of .99, $1.00, $4.95, $14.95, $1.00, and $12.70. Some where helpful, but said they just couldn't find any record of taking the money, or of my card being used. Weird...cause you guys didn't have any trouble Taking money from my account...I thought.

The charge of $14.95 from a Grant Consultant USA, was by far the most irritating. In fact, GOD more than likely frowned at the words I chose for one particular lady. This place told me there would be NO refund and that I must have entered my CC number in somewhere. Apparently it was my fault they got the money. She had the nerve to ask me if I got the CD. I said "NO!". She replied, "Then I'll have another one sent out today."

You can imagine that, that is when things got a little heated. So I won't be seeing any of that $14.95 back. Feel free to visit their website at by clicking here. Nice website, but I bet you wouldn't have guessed it to be crooked before, would you?

As for the others, one wanted my CC number and I refused. That one was for $1.00. The others had disconnected phone numbers or I had to leave a message for someone who will never call me back.

All and all I'm just thankful that I got most of the money back that was taken. It could have been worse. Just make sure and check the validity of any place that you visit on the web or in person. I swear, you would never guess the places bad guys lye.

Identity Theft

"I thought it would never happen to me. After all, I'm very careful with my credit/debit cards."

That's a quote that has probably been made by a number of people. Then BAM!! Their hit with transactions they Didn't make. Up to this point I would've considered myself very safe when it comes to keeping my identity my own. Not anymore.

Today (November 5th) I received my statement from the Credit Union. Not the account Kristy and I share mind you. It's an account I use for business and gifts for Kristy. It didn't take me long, while looking over my statement, to notice something really, really wrong. Starting on the 24th of October, someone started using my debit card on various websites. There were charges from places like emusic.com, deeds4dollars.com, gmoney.com, spanishlangcds.com, and a few others I couldn't quite make out on the statement. The Deeds 4 Dollars one charges me one transaction of $86.97. After looking further, I noticed charges totalling over $130.

I quickly got on the phone to call my bank. Turns out the bank had already cut off my debit card after an independent company affiliated with M.F.C.U alerted them to. These charges were made on October the 23rd and 24th. The bank gave me the number to the place that looks for these things. Turns out they tried to contact me on the 24th, but had an old phone number.

Now remember, I got the statement on the 5th. Lucky for me, the company noticed there was a problem and cut the card off quickly. I could have had my entire checking account wiped out. That's a scary thought. I'm really happy with my bank for checking these things out. They told me the transactions were all made early in the morning, between the hours of 2am and 4am for example. I'm going to my bank in the morning to fill out the appropriate paper work. I'm almost sure I won't see a dime of the money back. The lady at the bank basically broke that to me on the phone.

I use my debit card for online purchases, business type transactions, and gifts. I thought I checked the validity of these companies thoroughly. I was wrong, and you could be too. All I can say is keep a record of when and where you use your debit card, especially when it comes to online purchases. Apparently I wasn't being as careful as I thought. I thank God I was only hit for around $130, versus being totally wiped out of my personal cash savings.

New Picks Online NOW!

I know it's been awhile since I've written in our blog. Heck, our title should no longer be Apartment 408. Maybe Kings of Kingsbury. I don't know...give me a title...

Things are good and we're settled in just fine in the new house. Daytona loves it and he told his daddy, "Daddy, we have a Big one now!".
I have to say, that made our day just a little better. There's so much to tell that I don't want to even start. Soccer, new home, Kindergarten, Halloween, and a whole lot extra. For now I wanted to share some of the new pics I took for Kindergarten and Halloween.

The pics of the worms was a spur of the moment kinda thing, but if you can really see 'em you'd be freaked out. I swear there were hundreds of skinny little worms all over my driveway!

Love you guys and follow this link to see picks of Flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian-n-kristy/