<prompt> Human: It started with an email I initially thought was a phishing attempt. I put it in the trash, but took another look a few days later, and I realized it was legitimate. My application for an Amazon credit card had been granted, but I had not applied for one. I did some investigation, found out that someone had applied for several credit cards in my name. I was NOT NOTIFIED about these applications, not by mail, email or telephone. And they are all granted!Then I found out that someone had changed the addresses on my bank accounts, gasoline credit cards, and one major credit card. Interestingly, the new addresses were all the same -- a slummy neighborhood a few miles away from my home. It appears to be an actual residence, looks like the kind of place where meth addicts would live. I dont know the criminals name -- he is using my name. It seems likely he has a fake ID with my name and his address on it. This is interesting, because it looks like its a local job, not some cyber-crime ring from Nigeria or Russia.If youre wondering, I dont actually do many financial transactions over the internet. PayPal, internet banking and Amazon, mostly. I dont have internet access to any of my credit card accounts.This is all rather disturbing. Ive spent a long time on the telephone. If you ask, most banks and credit card companies will give you a personal password. I did that. I locked down my credit reports with all three major credit agencies. I set up two-factor authentication with the small number of internet sites I do business with.It looks like the perpetrator knows my date of birth and social security number. Cant imagine where he got them. Ive not had any computers lost or stolen. My best theories: 1-He, or someone he knows, got into my office, found some documents in an unlocked file cabinet. Maybe a janitor or something. 2-He stole some mail from my mailbox. These are just theories, though.I dont know if its possible for a local thug to buy information like this, related to local addresses, on the dark web. Does anybody know?Im being more careful with documents in my office, and I got a locking mailbox at home. However, the damage is already done. He knows my date of birth and social security number, probably. Once information like this is in the wild I can never get it back again.I had a long talk with my bank. My life savings are in those accounts, all my retirement savings, all my working capital, everything. How was he able to change the addresses on those accounts? I was surprised and disturbed by what I found out. It was apparently done over the telephone, but that isnt clear because banks dont keep detailed records of these transactions.Over the telephone, banks ask security questions. I think they might be computer-generated, based on information the bank and credit reporting agencies have on file. Apparently, if he had my name, address, social security and date of birth, he had complete access.Banks and credit companies are pretty lax. If they say, What is your mothers maiden name? I can reply, Gee, I was an orphan, I never knew my mothers maiden name. The bank might say, Oh well, we understand. How about your social security number? Do you have that? And so on. They will let you fail a number of security questions before denying access. If the perp happens to know a few answers, he might get access.I later learned that a suspicious bank representative actually let the perp change my address, but then called me, left me a voicemail message, wanting to confirm that the change was legitimate. They left the voicemail on a Friday afternoon at 4 PM on the beginning of a three-day weekend, on my business voicemail. I didnt get it until Tuesday morning. Needless to say, this was incredibly lame and lax. By then, the perpetrator had changed the billing addresses on other credit cards and accounts, and applied for many other kinds of credit, in my name.Ive talked with the local police. A young and pleasant officer came to my house. He seemed concerned, but he was completely unprepared to cope with the problem, he was poorly trained, just guessed at what had gone wrong, gave me a photocopy of a half-assed pamphlet about identity theft, containing the usual obvious advice. I asked him if the local police department had some kind of specialist to handle crimes like this. He was evasive, but the answer was obviously No. Beyond that, most local police departments, including mine, seem to consider these cases low priority. They dont have the resources or the motivation to pursue them.Since someone was tampering with my mailing address, I thought it might be a federal crime, so I tried reporting it to the Postal Service authorities. I got as far as the USPS website. I tried reporting it on an incredibly shitty and user-hostile website. The Postal Service responded by holding my mail at the local post office without notifying me! I didnt get any mail for over a week, so I thought someone was stealing my mail every day out of my mail box. This caused new anxiety. I tried to talk it over with the local post master. I normally defend the postal authorities, but this guy clearly did not give one single fuck. He just told me to visit the website and fill out a form. Of course I had already done that, and thats why my mail was missing in the first place! That was infuriating. I eventually found out by accident that all my missing mail was being held at the post office.Today, I got a letter from Cross River Bank, representing Best Egg, which appears to be some kind of a loan company. Somebody, probably the same guy, just applied for a 5,000 home improvement loan, in my name. Fortunately, the application was denied, because I have locked down my credit reports at the big three credit reporting agencies.I know a private detective who generously offered to look into the matter for me - I didnt hire him. Working from the perpetrators address -- the address he changed my bank accounts to, he was able to find out the perpetrators name. He wont tell me the name, but he tells me that local law enforcement is aware of the situation. My guess is that the perpetrator is on probation or parole and the detective was able to have a friendly off-the-record chat with the probation or parole officer. I dont know if this will go anywhere.The good news is, I havent lost any money yet, and I guess my position is fairly secure now, though I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.So, theres my story. If youve been through something similar, you might find some of this information useful. Ive learned a few things about this topic, so if you have questions for me, I might be able to answer. If youd like to comiserate, Id love to hear from you. If you have good ideas that have not yet occurred to me, Id like to hear them.My big-picture comment is that bank and credit security procedures are unbelievably lax. If local thugs have figured out how to commit this kind of fraud, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Its possible that no one really knows how to fix it. Two-factor identification seems to be the best idea going around, and that is a step in the right direction, but criminals are going to figure out how to bypass that, too.My guess is that it is already a huge problem, but the banking and credit industries are trying to keep it quiet.My only remaining question is whether I should change my Social Security number. There is a mechanism for doing that, but its not easy and there are some strict guidelines. Im not sure if Im eligible and it might be more trouble than its worth.Date of Birth is often used as a secure identifier, but I guess there is no way to change my date of birth!I hope this will turn into a conversation useful to others.  <response>: Wow. Thanks for that.Hope it all works out. 