My identity had been stolen, and I found out the most frustrating way possible.
Heres how it happened, and how I recovered.
I know what it looks like when a service I use gets hacked.
But how would I actually know when Ipersonallyget my identity stolen?
In my case, it all started when my Spotify account wouldnt stop playing Enrique Iglesias.
I started to notice the warning signs in early February.
At first, I didnt pay much attention.
Given how many company password databases get leaked, I assumed this would happen eventually.
Besides, they didnt actually get in.
The firstactualbreak in was Spotify.
I changed my Facebook login info, re-logged into Spotify, and everything was fine.
Looking back, I shouldve realized something worse was coming.
As I learned later, someone else had filed a tax return in my name on February 8th.
After I got off the phone with the IRS, I tried to figure out how my information leaked.
The other possibility is that my information was includedin the T-Mobile data breach late last year.
…I got everything sorted out in the short term…
I had a bunch of cleanup on my plate after my call with the tax man.
In addition, I would have to include aForm 14039 Identity Theft Affidavit(PDF) with that return.
Aside from being mildly annoying, its actually relatively painless.
Its less convenient and my refund will take a little longer, but it hasnt ruined my life.
The site also helps walk you through other steps you should take to protect your identity.
Once you contact one, they will notify the other two.
Weve also gone over many of these same stepsin more detail here.
Any time your identity is stolen, its good to be as thorough as possible.
…but theres no way to know if this is over.
I used my password manager tocheck how strong my various passwords are.
Any service that stores financial information was the first thing I checked, but I didnt stop there.
I also decided to sign up for one of those free credit monitoring services I qualified for.
you’ve got the option to alsomonitor your credit for free, forever.
In my case, T-Mobile offered two years of Experian identity protection for free.
The strangest part for me, though, is that theres no real climax.
I triple-checked all my security measures, but theyre not infallible.
However, I only found out my identity was stolen in time by dumb luck.
Yourebetter off being prepared.
