Ever have one of those moments where your blood runs cold?

Ken and I (Daria here) had one when I was going through the mail and noticed a letter from our bank. Not thinking anything of it, I opened the envelope expecting to find a solicitation for a CD, life insurance, an offer for a home equity line of credit - heck maybe even a chance to get a free toaster. Our bank is always sending junk mail, and I'm sure yours is, too!

Instead of a sales piece, however, I found a single sheet of paper that read, As you have requested, we changed your billing address for this account number to the new address as shown on this notice.

Huh? I knew we had never made such a request, and we sure has heck didn't have a new address. The letter showed both Ken's and my names with our "current" address...but it was not where we lived. In fact, we had never even heard of this address!

Uh-oh. I smelled identity theft...and I was right.

If you've followed us at all through Dolans.com, you know how much we rail against identity theft. We practically grab you by the collar to get you to protect yourself as much as possible. We practice what we preach and are extremely vigilant about protecting our own identity...

And yet, it still happened to us.

You know what that means, right? Yes, it could happen to you, too. Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in America, and there is no doubt the problem is only going to get worse. That's why we want to share all of the hoops we had to jump through so you'll better understand the steps you should take if you find yourself in a similar situation.

We hope you never do, but just in case, here's the whole sordid story...

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