Ever since I heard my room mate's story about 'identity theft' and consumer reporting bureaus, and the bullshit they entail, I've been paranoid about my identity being stolen. For some unknown reason, simply because the father and son (my room mate and his dad) have the same name, the credit bureaus "mixed" their records together. Unfortunately for my room mate, his dad is a multiple felon, has been in debt and filed bankruptcy before.
He found out when he was applying for his first job as a minor that he got rejected on the basis of him not being truthful about his criminal record in his background check. Now whenever he applies for a job, he's got to mention this fact to employers (some believe him, some don't, but most probably don't want to take the chance.) Credit cards, bank accounts, car loans, etc. are all out of the window at this point.
Despite the fact that they have different dates of birth and SSN#, for some fucking reason something in the automated HAL-9000 fucked up (my theory is that since they lived in the same house some shit overlapped, or his shady dad used his son's SSN instead of his to escape his criminal record) and he can't fix it. He's too poor to afford a high class lawyer (and who knows if that will help) and his numerous appeals to different agencies are usually ignored or lost in a labyrinth bureaucracy. The sad part is, no one gives a fuck because it's easier not to sell to/hire someone with a glitched record and not worry about it. He's essentially been economically crippled over nothing.
I figured I'd be invulnerable to identity theft because I do monitor my credit every now and then (comes free with one of my credit cards), but boy was I wrong. Out I go to buy a brand new car and get a deal of a life time with a low APR. Next thing I know I get a letter from said credit monitoring agency saying I've had (20!) credit checks (when an institution sends a request to see your credit score) within a matter of a week. Turns out, in order to sell me said car, the dealership went ahead and gave me the deal and their national finance company rejected the terms. Since they sold me the car already they had to figure out a way to finance the vehicle so they applied to every bank they could think of. I had my credit dinged by a bunch of greedy jackasses; I'm only glad that this sort of thing is temporary, unlike another story I will tell you:
One of our frat bros was living in the frat house and royally fucked up the carpet with a spilled hookah. Burned some holes here and there and needed to be replaced. The house was run by a bunch of drunk tards so no one charged him for the damage, and furthermore the fraternity got their house taken away from us due to incompetence. When the fraternity took over the house (mind you, this is two years later), I guess they didn't bother to look hard enough for the guy who burned his carpet because he went straight to the collection agency. He was never notified about this happening either. Collection agency: death to your credit. Don't bother trying to finance a toaster with that on your record. Complete financial annihilation over a $200 bill he would have gladly paid.
I find it kind of pathetic that our fates are so directly influenced by these credit reporting bureaus or 'criminal records'. Read the countless horror stories of having your identity stolen, a pissed off landlord sending you to the cleaners, mistakes being made, and other goodies.
This is especially significant to [PPC] affiliate marketers, since having good credit lets you leverage successful campaigns to their fullest, and give you a buffer when shady networks stiff you. All of that could be gone with a blink of an eye over your angry hag of a landlord that you pissed off 5 years ago and is suddenly going bankrupt. The kicker is, even if the collection agency has been deceived or someone's made a mistake about the claim and you successfully refuted the accusations or bill, your credit still gets fucked! Essentially someone with less than a $100 and a semi-legitimate claim against you can technically fuck you and you can't do anything about it!
Back to the question at hand.. could this happen to a celebrity? Could Tom Cruise or J.Lo be identity thefted and have their credit ruined [not that it would matter with the money they have, but humor me]?
He found out when he was applying for his first job as a minor that he got rejected on the basis of him not being truthful about his criminal record in his background check. Now whenever he applies for a job, he's got to mention this fact to employers (some believe him, some don't, but most probably don't want to take the chance.) Credit cards, bank accounts, car loans, etc. are all out of the window at this point.
Despite the fact that they have different dates of birth and SSN#, for some fucking reason something in the automated HAL-9000 fucked up (my theory is that since they lived in the same house some shit overlapped, or his shady dad used his son's SSN instead of his to escape his criminal record) and he can't fix it. He's too poor to afford a high class lawyer (and who knows if that will help) and his numerous appeals to different agencies are usually ignored or lost in a labyrinth bureaucracy. The sad part is, no one gives a fuck because it's easier not to sell to/hire someone with a glitched record and not worry about it. He's essentially been economically crippled over nothing.
I figured I'd be invulnerable to identity theft because I do monitor my credit every now and then (comes free with one of my credit cards), but boy was I wrong. Out I go to buy a brand new car and get a deal of a life time with a low APR. Next thing I know I get a letter from said credit monitoring agency saying I've had (20!) credit checks (when an institution sends a request to see your credit score) within a matter of a week. Turns out, in order to sell me said car, the dealership went ahead and gave me the deal and their national finance company rejected the terms. Since they sold me the car already they had to figure out a way to finance the vehicle so they applied to every bank they could think of. I had my credit dinged by a bunch of greedy jackasses; I'm only glad that this sort of thing is temporary, unlike another story I will tell you:
One of our frat bros was living in the frat house and royally fucked up the carpet with a spilled hookah. Burned some holes here and there and needed to be replaced. The house was run by a bunch of drunk tards so no one charged him for the damage, and furthermore the fraternity got their house taken away from us due to incompetence. When the fraternity took over the house (mind you, this is two years later), I guess they didn't bother to look hard enough for the guy who burned his carpet because he went straight to the collection agency. He was never notified about this happening either. Collection agency: death to your credit. Don't bother trying to finance a toaster with that on your record. Complete financial annihilation over a $200 bill he would have gladly paid.
I find it kind of pathetic that our fates are so directly influenced by these credit reporting bureaus or 'criminal records'. Read the countless horror stories of having your identity stolen, a pissed off landlord sending you to the cleaners, mistakes being made, and other goodies.
This is especially significant to [PPC] affiliate marketers, since having good credit lets you leverage successful campaigns to their fullest, and give you a buffer when shady networks stiff you. All of that could be gone with a blink of an eye over your angry hag of a landlord that you pissed off 5 years ago and is suddenly going bankrupt. The kicker is, even if the collection agency has been deceived or someone's made a mistake about the claim and you successfully refuted the accusations or bill, your credit still gets fucked! Essentially someone with less than a $100 and a semi-legitimate claim against you can technically fuck you and you can't do anything about it!
Back to the question at hand.. could this happen to a celebrity? Could Tom Cruise or J.Lo be identity thefted and have their credit ruined [not that it would matter with the money they have, but humor me]?
