The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a great story that chronicles the real life drama of an identity theft victim who thinks she recognizes the thief six months later at a Starbucks, chases her through the streets of San Francisco, loses her, and with the help of the police finally has her cornered and arrested.

According to the victim, a creative consultant living in San Francisco, the crime that started with the theft of mail from her mailbox eventually cost her six months of hell and $30,000 in lost earnings. Yet despite pleading guilty, the thief got away with time already served in jail waiting for her day in court (a paltry 44 days) as well as three years probation.

No wonder she smirked and waved at her victim during sentencing. She was already on probation for other crimes when she committed this theft. And no wonder victims feel victimized all over again when thieves who ruin credit and lives get away with a slap on the wrist and a smirk.

You can read the entire story at  

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/15/MNG77QG0G11.DTL

There still seems to be a lot of confusion out there about how much identity theft will cost you as a victim, and what you need to do to recover from a theft and restore your good name.

Of course, the faster you act to respond to an identity theft, the less it should cost you financially and emotionally. But you can’t assume that “zero liability” means that you’re 100% protected.

Victims, for example, can expect to spend an average of 330 hours recovering from identity theft, often over a period of years.

The average loss per victim is estimated at as much as $6,000 and victims recover only about half of their losses.

And just in case you’re a “show me” type of person, why not check out some of these other sobering identity theft restoration stats?:

Continue reading “The Road to Recovery: Steps You Should Take to Get Your Identity Back

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