Replies to '07/19 Identity Theft'

My mother, or the "ruthless criminal sociopath" as I now call her, pulled the same kind of crap on me in my late teens, circa 1986. When I turned 18 I got my very first credit card, a Zellers store card with a $500 limit. I'd used it just once in 3 months to purchase a $10 T-shirt, then my mother asked to borrow it to buy some $30 curtains. I signed and dated a hand written note to explain to the cashier that the person presenting the card had my permission to use it for this one and only purchase. I was pretty naive and trusting, and I thought everything would be OK. Then, 3 weeks later, I got a $1,600 credit card bill in the mail. Apparently, my mother had found it so easy to slap my card down for the curtains that she decided to go on a spending spree, forging my name for numerous purchases (i.e. clothes, shoes, a blender, an iron, a toaster, gifts for her boyfriend). The folks at Zellers didn't seem to notice or care that the card had skyrocketed well past its limit in a matter of days, and didn't contact me about the abnormal shopping blitz on an otherwise restrained record of shopping purchases. As soon as I got the bill I demanded my card back from my mother and told her she had to pay it off. She just laughed at me and told me that if I was stupid enough to trust her then my "punishment" would be to pay it off myself, before the credit bureau destroyed my otherwise flawless credit rating. I called Zellers and they told me that the only way to erase the debt would be to register a formal complaint that the card had been stolen, meaning the police would arrest my mother for fraud, identity theft, forgery etc.. Despite what she'd done, I loved my mother, and she already had a record as a convicted child predator (long story) so, reporting her would have irreparably torn my family apart. So, I had to quit college and take on two other part-time jobs (3 in total) to pay it off as quickly as possible, before my credit was ruined. Again, gullible and trusting as I was, I gave my mother about $200 per month in cash to go down to Zellers once a month and pay down the bill. I thought that would be better than sending a cheque in the mail -- I didn't even have a chequing account at the time. Then, about 8 months later, I got an angry phone call from the Zellers credit office asking why I'd only given them $200 of the now $1,800 I owed them (interest, services fees). I was absolutely stunned -- and horrified -- that I'd been duped once again by my mother who, by the way, started laughing when she overheard me on the phone with the person from the credit office as I tried to explain the situation.

I've known all my life that my mother was a skilled grifter, con-artist and shoplifter, but never in a million years did I ever think she'd make me one of her most profitable "marks". I moved out of the house a few weeks after I got that last call from the Zellers credit office and I've only spoken to my mother maybe five times since about 1989. Frankly, I wish she was dead.

KJC

My mother, or the "ruthless criminal sociopath" as I now call her, pulled the same kind of crap on me in my late teens, circa 1986. When I turned 18 I got my very first credit card, a Zellers store card with a $500 limit. I'd used it just once in 3 months to purchase a $10 T-shirt, then my mother asked to borrow it to buy some $30 curtains. I signed and dated a hand written note to explain to the cashier that the person presenting the card had my permission to use it for this one and only purchase. I was pretty naive and trusting, and I thought everything would be OK. Then, 3 weeks later, I got a $1,600 credit card bill in the mail. Apparently, my mother had found it so easy to slap my card down for the curtains that she decided to go on a spending spree, forging my name for numerous purchases (i.e. clothes, shoes, a blender, an iron, a toaster, gifts for her boyfriend). The folks at Zellers didn't seem to notice or care that the card had skyrocketed well past its limit in a matter of days, and didn't contact me about the abnormal shopping blitz on an otherwise restrained record of shopping purchases. As soon as I got the bill I demanded my card back from my mother and told her she had to pay it off. She just laughed at me and told me that if I was stupid enough to trust her then my "punishment" would be to pay it off myself, before the credit bureau destroyed my otherwise flawless credit rating. I called Zellers and they told me that the only way to erase the debt would be to register a formal complaint that the card had been stolen, meaning the police would arrest my mother for fraud, identity theft, forgery etc.. Despite what she'd done, I loved my mother, and she already had a record as a convicted child predator (long story) so, reporting her would have irreparably torn my family apart. So, I had to quit college and take on two other part-time jobs (3 in total) to pay it off as quickly as possible, before my credit was ruined. Again, gullible and trusting as I was, I gave my mother about $200 per month in cash to go down to Zellers once a month and pay down the bill. I thought that would be better than sending a cheque in the mail -- I didn't even have a chequing account at the time. Then, about 8 months later, I got an angry phone call from the Zellers credit office asking why I'd only given them $200 of the now $1,800 I owed them (interest, services fees). I was absolutely stunned -- and horrified -- that I'd been duped once again by my mother who, by the way, started laughing when she overheard me on the phone with the person from the credit office as I tried to explain the situation.

I've known all my life that my mother was a skilled grifter, con-artist and shoplifter, but never in a million years did I ever think she'd make me one of her most profitable "marks". I moved out of the house a few weeks after I got that last call from the Zellers credit office and I've only spoken to my mother maybe five times since about 1989. Frankly, I wish she was dead.

KJC