Your identity; to whom does it belong...?

written by Pamela Scholes

       We enter this world with our own special identity, things that separate us from other people and allow us to blossom into our own unique selves. This journey takes a lifetime to build and yet it can be swept from underneath you like a flying carpet ride. Your entire world can now be turned upside down and inside out by the fastest growing and yet least paid attention to crime of Identity Theft. People out there have become experts on being able to steal who we are and we, sadly, are the last to know it and by then the damage is done. And once the damage is done there is a long uphill road waiting to climb to try to untangle this web of a mess.Through some research I have found that not even the IRS will give the police authorities any information concerning any identity theft victim or case even while asking questions about an open investigation. All words fall on deaf ears and people hide behind policy to abandon the innocent.
       The IRS and other governmental departments know who the perpetrators are through fraud tax returns and duplicate filings and yet they still withhold any/all information from the victim and authorities. I have been told that victims of this crime spend years spinning their wheels and doing their own leg work while the "powers that be" sweep this ever growing invasion of ones life under the proverbial rug. This deserves full due attention. Imagine the devastation of waking up one day to find that on paper your identity has been stolen and you have no clue where  to turn. It is a sad fact but the avenues of help are 95% closed. Oh, it is acknowledged that this crime does exist but I have never heard of one proposal or plan to bring down an iron fist on this. We should not only feel protected, we should BE protected. Hackers are sneaking in and dissolving what one has worked so hard for and no one offers a hand toward a solution nor do we hear of anyone suggesting ways to implement a better, stronger system. The government itself  is being hacked and yet they do not seem on high alert nor do we hear much about the corruptness striking even them. No one is beyond reach in this epic saga of technical robbery. Any one of us could fall victim  to having our identity stolen on any given day.
       It is a time of true "beware" but it will never be broadcast on the news as such; might alarm people-as opposed to looking at it like informing them.  In my research and with talking with many victims I was astonished at the number of people who appear as new cases each day through the Fraud Investigative Department. A Detective shared with me that identity theft is his main case load now and they can lay dormant  for long periods of time due to a tall wall of shut down from those who should be helping by providing information so that the perpetrators may be brought to justice. The "powers that be" just close the door and draw the blinds as if it  will just go away. It is a far larger problem than I have heard admitted. How can a continual blind eye turn to yet another screaming and obviously  intrusive attack against innocent people? Is it really that easy to think that if it just isn't addressed out loud then it will quietly find a way to fix itself? There are extreme measures that are long past due to be taken to fight for the victim instead of protecting the criminal. Ask anyone what price they would put on the tag for all the trauma and discord a situation like this cost and they would have no numbers to offer for so much of the violation took irreplaceable things. Heads should be hanging down for leaving a person hanging out to dry and letting them try to figure out how to recapture who they are. I intend to expand on this issue in the Atlanta Constitution but I just HAD to share it here as well. Beware and make sure you know to whom your identity belongs...