John Harrison -- the face of identity theft

By Laura Bruce • Bankrate.com

Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing and least-understood crimes in America. Those who have never been victimized tend to brush it off. No one gets injured, they say, and the victim isn't responsible for the debts anyway.

If it happens, they figure, it'll be a hassle, but an explanation of the situation will solve the problem. The bad debt will come off the credit report; the emptied checking account will be reimbursed by the bank.
John Harrison

But it's not that simple. Through no fault of his own, John Harrison's identity was stolen.

As a result, his credit record was ruined and his productive life thrown into an endless maze of debt collectors, pension pay garnishments, letters and affidavits, phone calls from lawyers, dunning notes from the IRS, frustration and despair.

The problem is compounded by corporations that don't press charges; financial institutions and credit bureaus that spew out credit without adequately checking backgrounds; and police departments and judicial systems, bogged down by violent crime and post-9/11 concerns, that have inadequate resources to stop the crime, help the victim or prosecute the criminal.

On Dec. 11, 2001, in North Carolina, police were called for a domestic dispute. The suspect fled, screaming off into the night on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. A sheriff's deputy caught up with him and asked for his driver's license. He didn't have one, so he handed over a military ID card.

Hundreds of miles away in Connecticut, retired Army Captain John Harrison was awakened at 2 a.m. on Dec. 12 by a phone call from the sheriff's department in Burke County, N.C. It was a call he'd been hoping for.

Harrison had retired from the Army in 1999. Two years later, in July of 2001, Jerry Wayne Phillips, then 21, was issued an active duty military ID card in Harrison's name with Harrison's Social Security number at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Harrison has no idea how.

Phillips wasted no time. By the time he was arrested that December night, he had run up $260,000 in debts in Harrison's name. According to Harrison, Phillips opened four checking and two savings accounts. He also started credit accounts with dozens of companies to fund his spending splurge, which included two motorcycles, the Harley and a Kawasaki; two trucks, a time-share in Hilton Head and a beach-home rental in Virginia Beach.

Burke County investigators say at the time of his arrest they found an estimated $25,000 worth of stolen property "believed to have been obtained using the false identification."

John Harrison's first clue that something was wrong had come in October when a credit union called him about an account. He said he didn't have an account with them and tossed it off as a problem on their end.

But a call the next month from the police department in Beaumont, Texas, couldn't be blown off. The detective was investigating the purchase of a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a check drawn on a Bank of America account. The check was signed Jhon (sic) Harrison.

"The detective knew I was an identity theft victim," Harrison said. "He had seen my credit report. He asked if I knew about identity theft.

"He could see all of these accounts had been opened in just a four-month period and that I had a great credit history before that. Accounts opened in the last 20 years were in good standing and being paid. Then there's this four-month window.

"He asked me to send him an affidavit verifying who I was, that I had retired from the military and lived in Connecticut. He told me to contact the credit bureaus and to look up identity theft on the Federal Trade Commission Web site."

Harrison, who had never even seen his credit report, immediately got busy doing his homework and a month later when Phillips was caught, he was confident it would all be resolved quickly.

"In the beginning, I felt like I'd nip this in the bud. I had the police report, I'd been retired for two years and all these accounts were opened as an active duty military man. I even had articles showing Jerry Phillips in handcuffs and they said he had stolen John Harrison's ID.

"I thought I just needed to be proactive, show the creditors and I'd be straightened out in a few months. That's not the way it went."

Six months later, Harrison's life was upside down. There was so much stress that each morning he was greeted by a sickening tightness in his chest.

"I felt so much anxiety. It was so strong it scared me. Fifteen minutes after I woke up I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I didn't know what to do. There was always this conflict between do I go to work or do I sit down and work on resolving this identity theft? There was always a letter I needed to write or an affidavit I needed to take care of. New problems were showing up on my credit report and I knew there'd be another letter from some debt collector."

Harrison's 20 years in the Army took him from Okinawa, Japan, to the first Gulf War. Halfway through his career he was commissioned as a lieutenant and served with the 3rd Infantry in Germany, the 4th Infantry in Colorado, and the 82nd Airborne in North Carolina. He finished as a captain in Special Operations at Fort Bragg. It was a career, and a credit history, that served Jerry Wayne Phillips very well.

"He was completely living off me," Harrison said. "He was living as me. He never got a job, he didn't have to. He had military uniforms and was doing most of his dirty work near military bases."

Harrison says Phillips opened 61 credit or bank accounts in Harrison's name. He applied for, and received, $7300 in loans from Navy Federal Credit Union. Some of that money was used to fund checking accounts. He wrote nearly $59,000 in bad checks.

"There were 112 checks that I found off those four checking accounts. Every one of those places is essentially a separate account that I have to clear up. I have to wait for it to show up in ChexSystems or until it goes to a debt collector.

Harrison spent so much time trying to clear his name that he lost his job and was unemployed for seven months. Adding insult to injury, the military started garnishing his retirement pay. Phillips had run up a $5,700 debt at the Army-Air Force Exchange Service. Since it was a debt owed to the government, and Harrison was getting a government retirement check, they docked it.

"It's hard to understand this unless it's happened to you. Generally, the first question someone asks me is, 'Do you have to pay back the debts?' When I say 'no' they figure, OK, you just have to write letters. Well, it's not that simple."

Creditors
Throughout his ordeal, Harrison continued paying his own legitimate debts but eventually, as those creditors learned of his problems, they turned on him.

"My own creditors either closed my accounts if I had no balance or lowered my credit limit to where my balance stood. MBNA, they followed it down -- every time I made a payment they lowered my credit limit. The account started with a $9,000 limit. In 2003 they took away $5,000 when my balance was $3,900. Then they took off another $1,100 when my balance got down to $2,700. Citibank closed a $10,000 account. My debt to equity ratio is probably 80 or 90 percent. I'm maxed out because they keep taking my credit away."

Debt collectors
"I didn't make a lot of headway with debt collectors. They're not in the business of resolution. They want their money or don't waste their time.

"I had a debt collector call me. I said I'm an identity theft victim and I've contacted that company. I spent 10 minutes telling him everything I've been through and he was very sympathetic. Then he said, 'Let me tell you what we can do. I have authority to lower this debt if that will help you.'

"It makes your blood boil. Someone hears you and you think they got it, but they don't. Their mission isn't to help you; it's to get money from you.

"Phillips opened an account with Cellular One and the debt collector is still reporting it to Experian (credit bureau.) The first debt collector took it off and now they've come back a second time with a different debt collector. That's what you have to go through. It's the same company and the same dollar amount so I know it's the same debt.

"There are over 30 debt collectors I've dealt with and I don't think a single one ever responded to my letters. The only way to get it resolved is in direct communication with someone who says, 'Here's what we need -- a police report. I need to have you fill out this form and get it notarized and send it back to me. Then we can take care of it.' If you don't, it's sitting in someone's computer and it will come back to you."

Bureaucracy
Harrison says Phillips opened a checking account at a Bank of America branch at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, writing bad checks worth thousands of dollars. Harrison spoke with a vice president at the bank and documented his situation. The vice president sent Harrison a letter verifying that it wasn't his account and that he was squared away with the bank. After Phillips' arrest, a judge granted the bank $6400 in restitution.

"Then I got a letter from the IRS saying that I owed $1900 in back taxes because of a $6400 debt that was forgiven in my name. That's where the emotional distress comes from. You think it's hard dealing with a debt collector; the IRS is worse."

Stress
"I was diagnosed with acute stress disorder. My therapist says I'm a person who likes having a certain amount of structure in his life, having control over things and that identity theft takes that away from you. Things happen whether you do anything or not and that tears up a person like me. While I was unemployed [the therapist] didn't make me pay. She said, 'You'll get through this and then you can pay me.'

If it weren't for that domestic disturbance that fateful December night, Jerry Wayne Phillips might never have been caught. He pleaded guilty to one count of identity theft and was sentenced on Oct. 22, 2002, to 41 months in prison.

John Harrison is still trying to clear his credit record.

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