Welcome To A Road Less Traveled

Well it finally happened!! I was the victim of identity theft. It did not take me long to figure out who did it. Very few have my cell phone and very few have my physical address. My cell phone, my old name and my address were used with this fiasco. And out of the very few who had this combination of information, only one had access to my PayPal information. I was foolish enough to trust my in home care worker and left the card on my counter in my kitchen.

Courtney, the in-home care worker and I had to part company two and a half weeks before the identity theft happened. She worked so slow that it was like watching her in slow motion. Even then, the quality of work was poor. Finally she took the garbage out and put it in the recycling container instead of the garbage container. Waste management would not pick it up. I asked her to move it to the garbage container and she got prissy and refused to do it. There was no spoiled food or anything messy for her to deal with. It was all bagged and it would have been nothing for her to do it. I guess she felt it was beneath her.

Well she was supposed to go in the service and I had been just riding it out as that seemed easier than dealing with her being late all the time, texting, doing a poor job, and not correcting her mistakes when she made them. Additionally, she knew the list of things she is supposed to do, but would not lift a finger to do any of it unless you told her to each and every time; it was definately draining. When she announced she would not be going into the service in March, I told her some things were going to have to change if she was going to stay.

Well when I told her she needed to start being on time, do a good job, correct her mistakes, and work at a reasonable pace, she said this was not working out and gave me notice.

Sooo, February 18th, from the hours of midnight PST until 6:00 AM, she used my PayPal all over the Internet. Then she proceeded to go fill out forms all over the Internet and schools, repair companies, and various other companies started calling my home by 8:00 AM on Saturday on the 18th as well. I am sure that was done to mess up my minutes on my cell phone. Clearly, before she left she wrote down the PayPal number, the exp date, and the code on the back.

Of course, taking legal action is not as easy as it sounds as the police departments are strapped financially at this point. There is one thing knowing someone has committed a crime against you, but it is yet another thing for the police to prove it. I was able to secure the IP Address which was used across the board and I was able to secure the email address (not mine) which was used across the board.

I don't know if she realizes the level of trouble she will eventually get in doing these types of things. It is pretty scary to know one of her clients is wheel chair bound and she is their provider.

I guess the best thing I can do for myself is to let this go, but it sure has been a pain getting everything squared away. I am a cancer survivor with upper limb limitations as a result of the bone cancer. This actually kept me from being able to pick up my prescriptions as I had to cancel all of my bank cards and have new ones issued. I did without my medications for over two weeks. I am sure glad I don't have a heart condition or I would have been in serious trouble. This was bad enough as the most important medication I needed I was out of.

I felt very violated by this. It is truly going to take me a long time to trust again.

Anyway, she is 21 years old. Her name is Courtney and she is Filipino. She graduated from Caplan. She is cute and very clean cut looking. She services the Lodi and Stockton area. If anyone should run across this and is considering an in home care provider, please contact me and I will confirm if it is she or not. Meanwhile I am going to take my time and be a lot more careful before hiring an in home care person if this next one does not work out.

This was a huge lesson in keeping things on a professional level and not cutting these workers any slack. It was also a good lesson to not be so foolish as to leave my banking information laying around. Where I used to live, all of us used to give the worker our bank cards to do our grocery shopping for us. Never again will I be that trusting. If there was any way I could keep up with myself and my home without help, I would never allow anyone in my home again. I have hired someone from my church and I feel a lot more secure with that. Even then I am leery now.

All of this because she is so full of herself she is angry that I expected her to do a good job. Sheeesh. I am done with the Princess mentality for sure!