Stolen Identity

I bet you thought I fell off the face of this Earth with hardly any blog posts.  Trust me, I did fall off the face of this Earth.  Literally!

Over the past few months, or technically since I have submitted my tax returns, someone has been seriously messing with my identity.  Annette Kniola is no longer a safe name.  I have bent over backwards and still do to this day to clear my name up.  It has started with a someone using my name and submitting "my" own 2014 tax returns before I got a chance to submit my own.  One thing I have learned is a big red flag goes up at the IRS if you have filed joint for many many years, then one year you file single.  Right there was a flag for "both" of my tax returns.  Luckily for that, I suppose.  But the audacity for someone to use my name, social security, address, and trying to submit one child as a write off still blows my mind!

Thankfully, when I did got the letter from the IRS back in April that I needed to proving who I am, I have since been verified up until just a month ago or so.  But it has not stopped there.  Now the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), seems to think I too am not the real Annette Kniola requesting this scholarship for my college ready son.  And trust me, I need it!  I can't afford to send my kids to college, I could use a little help here.  It's tough being a single mother of four boys, and it's even more tough having to constantly battle my name with everyone!  So as of today, I am submitting paper after paper, w2-s, verifications, and my blood next I'm sure, to the university itself.  So this scholarship I was hoping to get for my son is simply not happening as of yet, so I ended up forking out the first semester for him.  I will say this, with or without any scholarships for my kids and their future, I am bound and determined they get an education.  In this day and age, it's a must.  I may end up flat broke but they are worth it.  And every one of my boys know that one day they may just have to step up to the plate for me when I need it.  So far they all have.  :)

With that put aside, I have since gone on to websites and emails, changed my passwords to no avail. Sure enough, while I was on vacation in July, someone hacked into my LinkedIN account and sent
 out almost 2000 emails to my colleagues on behalf of some sort of scam.  It read;

Annette Kniola Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Hello,I am reaching out to my all my connection network to share a unique opportunity with Sassie & wecheckservice , a marketing services company that specializes in retail merchandising, channel and back office corporate programs in (USA). This company is looking for outstanding shoppers to help evaluate united state postal service {USPS} customer service and sales efforts in your demography for their misconduct, irregularity sales of postal material.I think this could an opportunity for my connection network to make some money because I and four of my connection have been working with the part-time job and it has been good and highly worth doing. Do not miss out.No payment required for you to begin No stressful interview or paper work required You will receive $250 commission per the Apple store completed assignment You can make up to $1960 in a month with multiple assignments. Each assignment is less than or approximately 1 hour. I give you 100% guarantee of their legitimacy because i have done several assignments successfully and without payment delay. Send further emails to Tim email address if interested or visit http://form.jotformeu.com/form/52113401369345 to read and apply Contact Personnel: Tim Michael timtechcenter98@gmail.com http://form.jotformeu.com/form/52113401369345 Regards -Annette Kniola Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services

Imagine that mess I've had to deal with.  Not only did I have calls at my home, but emails and Facebook messages pertaining to the exact same letter.  This person not only went in to my LinkedIn account and sent this scam, which by the way, some people actually fell for, but deleted my whole account thereafter!

Either way,  I guess I am simply out there too much and must be an easy target.  Since then, thankfully LinkedIN security has been kick butt and found the culprit who hacked into my account and also have retrieved my old account and I am back up and running.  I've been building that account with contacts for years. I would have been crushed if I did not get it back.  With that said, everyone who does have a LinkedIn account, go on to your settings and check your primary email addresses and phone numbers.  And by God I have learned not to put my email address out there any more!  The spam I get on my aol account is utterly ridiculous!  I will be changing over to another account soon, but I sure as hell ain't telling you!  Lol!

Wish me luck!