She's On The Money - MONEY DIARIES: Identity theft and fraud

Episode Date: December 13, 2021

This week on Money Diaries, Jess and V chat to a money diarist who had her identity stolen! She's back on track now (thankfully!) but does have a few tips and tricks to share with us!The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. Welcome to a Shopback Money Diary Monday. We love these. We have a chat with one of our diarists and Victoria, I feel like this is one of your favorite episodes to record. It is always my favorite episode to record. One, I get to hang out with people from our community. Two, I get to learn about money diaries. And three, like, is it not the best getting to know

the pervy details of people's lives and being like, hey, what do you earn? What do you spend? Oh, how old's your partner? What do they do? How does this? Oh, it's the best. It's honestly my favorite. Well, I think you're really going to like this week's one because it's a super interesting topic. She went through a really tough situation a few years ago and she had her identity stolen. Oh, all right. Well, Jess, can you read out this week's Money Dice email for me and we'll jump right in. I sure can. She said after a scary brush with identity theft and fraud, I found she's on the money in 2021 and I'm working towards creating a solid emergency fund and growing my small investment portfolio while starting a career in the ever uncertain health

industry. How terrifying. Identity theft is literally my biggest nightmare. As always, we have our money diarist on the line. Hello, money diarist, and thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. Oh my gosh, I'm literally so excited about this. Identity theft, is that not terrifying? Were you terrified? Yeah, it was pretty rough, actually. The first couple of days after I'd found out was a bit of a whirlwind, but no, it was, yeah, we got through it. I'm going to ask you about it now, even though I really, really want to, because as always, you know that we have to get through our structured questions and then we can have a really good chat at the end. So to dive headfirst straight in, Money Diarist, what is your attitude

towards money? I have had a pretty good attitude towards money, I would say, apart from obviously the scary side of it, which we'll get into later. But growing up, mum and dad were really savvy. We never went without anything. It was always, you know, if we wanted to do an extracurricular activity, that was fine. Holidays on the school holidays, all that kind of thing. I even remember sitting in their financial advisor's office when I was really young and just um oh my god yeah so we used to go and see them so they've had quite a big experience um with investing and they taught me a bit about that when I was older um which was really good so yeah I guess growing up it was quite a comfortable experience with money um and then I moved out

of home at the age of 18 and then that was a whole other um ballpark of it it was a whole learning how to budget and learning um you know where my money had to go and you know while still being able to enjoy life so yeah we're getting there we're getting there definitely I feel like that is such a shock when you move out and I was exactly the same like we didn't grow up like super wealthy or anything like that but you just don't realize how expensive it is to live on your own like paper towel what do you mean you have to pay for paper towel dishwashing liquid dishwashing tablets those things are so expensive and especially if you want like the eco-friendly ones when you're trying to do the right thing but you're like life is expensive what do you mean I

have to spend my money on that instead of the things I love I know what on earth anyway next question money diarist is what do you do for work and how much money do you earn uh so I'm currently working as a registered nurse in an emergency department oh I love that you must be a very special human she's fancy um yes so i started that job in february of this year um so i'm classed as a graduate nurse congrats thank you um my base salary um on the hours that i'm contracted to work is about 55 000 a year um but with overtime and penalties and all of that i'm tracking for about 75 000 oh my gosh you must have done a lot of overtime this year i feel like how are you holding up it's it's intense um i'm actually in queensland so we are have been

very fortunate um our friends down south have had it a bit uh rough in comparison to us i have a lot of friends who are now working in new south wales so some of the stories are a bit harrowing um but yeah no it's been it's been from basically from week one, we were always asked, want to do overtime? Want to do a double? And you're like, yes, please. Give me the money. I don't like how I feel after 16 hours in this place. But I do like the pay. But you do have to make sure you balance that well, right? Like I have a fair few clients who are nurses and are doctors and do overtime. And in the first few years of your career, I feel like you take on lots of overtime because the money's so good and it's so exciting, but you

have to be really careful of burnout and taking on too much so I think you need to really remember that there's a balance and how is your mental health going and how's your work-life balance going because you nurses and doctors and any type of healthcare professionals are so special we can't have you burning out we need you look after yourselves please yeah that was a really interesting um interesting conversation actually I didn't think the word burnout would come up so quickly in my career um but yeah no after um I took some I took some leave in October so about six months after I started and um yeah that was very well needed actually so so yeah no it's um it's it's really good the um they they do consider our work-life balance and our mental health

yeah I'm glad to hear you're looking after yourself next question my friend is what is your big money goal so at the moment um it's working towards rebuilding my emergency fund there's been we had a couple of uh fur baby um emergencies and this year worst emergency unfortunately so I was really lucky I had my emergency fund there um so we were able to make some decisions that I probably wouldn't have made a couple years ago if we had you know not that buffer sitting in my account. So, I'm looking at building that one up now. And then we, yeah, that's about it for the moment. We've got lots of other things we want to do, but I'm a little bit on edge without that buffer. So, I'd like to try and get that one up before I try and think about

any of the bigger ones at the moment. So, yeah. Yeah. I feel like once you've had an emergency fund or once you have an emergency fund, the level of security that you get from that, you go, hold up like I don't want to not ever have this like this is such a security blanket for me now it is something that makes me feel so calm and so at ease that when it dwindles down for good reason like a fur baby emergency is a very important emergency but you go oh like I've really got to build that back up I totally get it. Money Diarist before you said something you said we who is um my I live with my partner so um my partner and I we've been together for nearly four years now um so we've lived together for most of that which has been its own challenges

but um yeah we we have a mortgage as well so that was something that I was very fortunate when I when I met him he was in the position to pretty much be able to buy um and then very shortly after because we happen to have two incomes we just decided to do it and move in together so we moved in together not six months after we met oh my gosh when you know you know mummy diarist for a little 19 year old that was probably not the smartest idea but we're very happy that it's worked out well so yeah we um that's our situation so us and our two little fur babies at the moment. Oh my gosh. So how old are you and your partner now? So I'm 22 and he is 24. Oh my gosh. 22, 24, mortgage, two fur babies. You are set. What? That's actually so impressive

at your age. You're like a grandma sometimes, but that's okay. Yeah, we're very happy. No, I love that. And what are the fur babies? I'm like totally off track of the money, go but i'm like what are your pets got two dogs um they're both sitting out in the aircon at the moment in the uh living room because queensland it's like 28 degrees or something at 9 a.m so i know everyone at home will ask as well are they okay after the emergency are they doing all good so unfortunately we lost one of our boys um earlier this year yeah so we have a new this is pumpkin pumpkin oh my gosh they're frenchies everyone at home pumpkin is freaking adorable and pumpkin is gorgeous and that patch is our um rspca rescue we got her oh i love you patch

no one can see these pictures but i promise you they are gorgeous so let's move on because i feel like I could talk about pets literally all day. Oh, don't get me started. Marnie and Dyrus, do you have any investments? I do. So, apart from my super. Who is she? She's 22, Jess. You're doing much better than I was at 22, that is for sure. Much better than I was at 22. I was backwards at 22. I was in debt. And that's not a bad thing. We're all on our own journeys, but just like looking at it, you go, wow, that's so impressive to have your stuff together so early. It doesn't feel like it, but I guess when you kind of write it all down it's like oh I'm actually a little bit you know better off than I thought

yeah no so it's nice it's nice to think that but um thankfully mum and dad were pretty on the ball with the whole investing thing so um I had obviously my super which Victoria taught me that that was an investment so and working for the government as well that's a nice little um accumulating nice and quickly in my account um and then I have uh about five thousand dollars in a CommSec share portfolio, just a couple of different ones. Oh, exciting. Yes. And then I've got a Raise account with just under $1,000 in it.

I started that after I found She's On The Money this year. And I have a Superhero account, which I am using for some US shares. So I've got about $500 US in that one too. Oh, so what's the plan with your investments long term? I think because I had the CommSec ones first, and I've had those for just over 12 months now. Um, I'd like to, I'd like to kind of find some way to merge them all maybe in one kind of platform or not. Cause yeah, it's having them, having them in separate places is, is interesting as well. Um, but I'd like to be able to regularly

invest too. And just, um, you know, that nice early retirement feeling is the goal at the moment. Um, so. Sounds like you're on track, my friend. Like I have no doubt you'll achieve it. Yeah. So, just try and find, try and budget and put even just a small amount of every paycheck into my superhero account to try and build that up. And yeah, that's the goal at the moment. Yeah. Wow. So, next question for you is, do you have any debts? If so, what are they? I do as well. So, I've got my HECS debt, which is sitting over about $30,000, I think. I have a dual degree and I have a actually how I found out about my whole identity fraud I was applying for my car loan so I have a novated lease um with my um like a salary sacrifice salary package my

novated lease for my car so I got my new car earlier this year and then just the mortgage so those ones there exciting how much impact does debt have on your life when we look at you know repayments you've got the car you've got the house like what does that look like when it comes to budgeting cash flow for you um we've set it up pretty well so um every it's really quite good my partner and I get paid on alternate fortnights so um yeah it works out really well money all the time yes yes so we have a we have some joint accounts together that we have set amounts that we just both put into when we get paid and it's almost like it just doesn't exist um so my car loan comes out of my pay before I even see it, which I account into every fortnight. So basically

I just, I don't count that as what I've earned. It just goes to my car. It all gets paid. It covers my insurance and my rego and my fuel for that as well. Such a good money win. Yeah, it is a pretty good money win actually, especially when petrol prices are horrible at the moment. I don't really have to think about it. We were talking about this the other day on Friday drinks. They are so expensive. I think it's also really important when we talk about novated leases to only take on things that we actually need. And when it comes to a car, absolutely. But I think some people also go a little bit overboard because they're, oh my gosh, it's novated. And somehow people equate that to being in their minds free. When it's not, it is coming out of your money. Yes, it is pre-tax

income, which is a really big money win, but we don't get a novated lease just because you're like, I really want a new car. As long as it's in line with your goals and your values, then it's not going to put you behind, you're still taking less money home each and every single week to achieve your goals and achieve what you want to do with your budget and cash flow. So I do think it's really important to go, you know what, is that actually going to work for me? But in your situation, I know it makes a lot of sense because you're like, well, I need a car and if it can come out of my income before tax, money win. Yeah. In all honesty, if I had been listening to you, I probably would have done it differently to start with.

Really? Yes. Why? I guess just the fact that there is interest on that loan regardless. Like it doesn't matter if it's coming out of my pay, you know, pre-tax, I'm still paying more for the car than I would have if I'd bought it outright. And my parents have done it. They're both government employees as well.

They've both done the novated leasing thing ever since I can remember. I can't remember a time when they weren't doing it. and it's been a really good tool for them in terms of they would upgrade their cars every couple of years and you know pay out the balloon and sell them and just they they were quite they're quite smart people um i have them to thank for kind of that mindset i heard they had a financial advisor so that's helpful so i guess i would have probably just saved up and then purchased something outright and my car is new as well um i had my little trusty old little barina from when I got my license um it had no air con oh in Queensland that's a toughie um and it had broken

locks and all of that and um we I just kind of decided that when I had got my big girl job when I got my full-time job that I the car was like my first priority and I think for me um having access to that novated leasing meant I could get it sooner so that was where my mind was at when I am when I got that earlier this year, but yeah. I think it's not too bad. And I know that there is a lot to take into consideration and I haven't sat down and analyzed your loan, but I think when we look at it in the grand scheme of things, even though you are paying interest on that, I'm going to assume that the interest is not more than how much tax you would have paid on that taxable income. So I think it all does work out in the end, but at the same

time, we really have to make sure that we're making decisions that are actually in line with our values and actually in line with what we're doing instead of getting caught up in it and going, new car, I've just graduated. I deserve it. And I totally get that because I really wanted one and I did that. And I was carrying some debt when I had my first graduate job for a car. I think I paid $14,000 for my first car. That was not the car that I had when I learned to drive. And at that point in time, that was so much money. And if I look back, I'm like, Victoria, you didn't need that. You really didn't need it. But at the same time, I felt really proud of that purchase and I felt really proud driving it and I wouldn't change it. But would I want a little bit more education

around making that decision? Of course. So, I think we can't hold ourselves to the standard of what we knew when we didn't have the education. But at the same time, we're always learning. So, maybe next time you won't do it or you will or you'll look at the tax rates and the novated lease options and make a decision that you're like, nope, this is the right one for me so that we're super confident always. And I bet you feel pretty good driving around in the Queensland with aircon now as well. I feel really good. Trust me. It's sometimes it's better to be in my car than it is to be on the street. So that's a lot better for me. No more windows down and sweat beads on my forehead. Such a win. Next question is, do you shop back? I do. It was

actually the Life Uncut Girls that got me on to shop back a little while ago. Yes. So that was good. I got their little cheeky sign up bonus. Money win. And then, yes, it was a big money win. And I've had a couple of referrals now. So, more money wins. Who is she? Yes. I feel like that's such a big win that we don't talk about enough is if you do use Shopback, if you sign up, you can obviously use the She's on the Money code SOTM. It'll give you, I think it's $10 when you sign up completely free. And we don't get anything from that too. Sorry to butt in there, Jess. referrals happen for you guys, not for us. So, if you use our code, I don't make any money from that. That's literally so that you guys have a bit of a money win. But if you send it to your

friends and they sign up, you get money for that too. Exactly right. I got 40. So, it was my little sister. I referred her when it was a double referral deal or something. So, it's normally $20 for a referral, but it was a double. So I got, we both got $40 for the referral. Shopback's not going to like me saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway. Ask a pal for their shopback code so that you are making money for your friends, as opposed to us who doesn't make any money from our referral. Money win. Genius. Shopback are going to be like, Victoria, stop that. Little Chrome extension. I use the app. I actually booked flights with my ShopBack dollars the other day.

Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so on the app on my phone, I was booking through Jetstar and you can buy Jetstar gift vouchers. Yep. Another hack, get money back on the gift voucher and if you've got any pending, like, withdrawal cash, you can actually just use that and then pay the difference. Oh, my God.

So that's the system, I don't know. She's a genius. I didn't know until recently you could do the gift card thing. Genius. Genius. Everybody's just like hacking everything. I love it. Good work legend. Next question. It might be that, that might be your best money habit, but I'm going to ask anyway, money Doris, what is your best money habit? I very, very, very rarely pay full price for anything.

We love this. Tell us your hacks. To the point of sometimes it's a problem. Not a thing. My dad was like this too. When we go to Woolworths, you all know the little yellow stickers on the wallets thing so sometimes it would be so much of a problem that I have to eat my entire grocery haul within two days because they'd all be going out of date no no I just think um yeah I I like to try and find a sale try and find a bargain get the best price for everything when all my insurances come around I'm always trying to find new quotes and we did it last night for my partner's car actually just I think we saved four hundred dollars on his car just by like doing another quote and all of that like so I think yeah that's probably my best

money habit I'd I'd shop around I'd get a good deal that's a great one yeah yeah I love that and it's obviously really important to do but so many of us like oh I can't be bothered but it doesn't take long does it no not at all I think we ended up getting four quotes last night and yeah I think it took about 10-15 minutes to get a couple quotes and yeah it was a $400 saving so that's a you know money win there that's such a money win and I think that we don't see how important that is you don't want to look at it but if you said to me hey Victoria do you want to make 400 bucks in half an hour I'd be like yes like you're literally doing that for yourselves by doing it so start seeing it that way and I promise you you'll be like I just made 400 bucks

no honestly so good and even just we went in there thinking we'd pop it on our um our joint account and just take it out monthly but then we saw you know the monthly versus yearly savings yeah you get a pretty good $200 as well just by paying it you know in one go instead of instead of over 12 months so yeah no it was really good yeah which is a really good thing to be able to do but I think it's also worthy of note that some people just don't have that capacity and that's why it's so important to get your budget and cash flow in order so that you not only are able to budget and understand what's coming in and out of your account but you'll start to have amounts of money set aside so that you can then save more money in the long term by making decisions like that

because if you're not on top of your budget and cash flow and don't have savings you'll be like oh my god I could save another 200 bucks if I paid for it outright I don't have the cash though so that's not an option but if you start to actually save and put money aside and understand your money you're going to be able to put yourself in a position where you end up saving even more and that it feels like you're being shot in the foot because you're like what are you saying I can only save if I save but yeah sometimes that's the case yeah no it's good to see all right next question I don't know if you have any but what is your worst money habit oh I can be very impulsive with my purchases 100% you're like the yellow sticker I might be saving yeah but did I really

need that chocolate mousse this week or did I really need six yogurts like I'm not gonna eat yes you did you did yeah I think sometimes it's you know I try and put money aside for certain things like I'll have a look at the fortnight ahead when I get paid and try and be like you know I've got this this and this coming up this week so I've got to put money aside but I don't factor in like a friend's message to go out for brunch like there's you know $30 that's coming out that I haven't thought of or you know oh there's a really cute dress I walked past when I was out shopping and then I just think I don't quite process it in due time it's like after the purchase it's almost like a little bit of guilt after the purchase too I guess the the impulsivity

and then the guilt kind of go hand in hand with me so I'm trying to be trying to put a little bit of fun money aside as well to just but staying within those parameters I guess is just something I'm trying to work on so yeah yeah yeah having your fun money is really important being able to do those little things like the brunch I think without feeling guilty and being like I've allocated money for this and it's okay if something comes up to spend on it I am someone who used to struggle with that and building it into my budget Victoria like how you taught me just made such a big difference you shouldn't feel guilty about this stuff yeah like it's life life happens a budget shouldn't be this perfect thing that you go oh my gosh I'm an absolute legend because I

don't spend any money on these things. I'm like, sorry, that's not reasonable to expect you guys to not want to go out for breakfast with your friends. Why can't we build it in? So yeah, sometimes you do have to say no, cause you can't do it every single day of the week, but at least you'd go, ah, I've already done that. I don't feel like I'm missing out. Like the diet analogy, when someone is on a diet and they're super, super strict, and then you have one slip up and then it's the rest of the day. I feel like sometimes it's like that with spending for me too. Like if I have one slip up, then it's like, oh, well, budget's blown this fortnight like may as well may as well have fun with it so I guess it's just trying to

learn how to yeah like you said Victoria have the fun money enjoy it but in you know in my means in moderation yeah everything in moderation just like a diet everything in moderation we don't want to be restrictive and we also don't want to binge but at the same time sometimes we fall into those things and it just happens and that's okay but we need to know our money story and our personalities well enough so that we can correct it and go, oh, that's what I'm doing. I'm a bit cheeky when it comes to that. Or, oh my gosh, no, that's actually not a muck up. Yeah, I overspent on brunch, but that doesn't mean the rest of the fortnight is completely written off. So I think we need to be a little kinder on ourselves, but the way to be kinder on ourselves is to be planned

and know where to be kind. Muttony Diarist, the last question before we get to ask about all this fraud stuff, which I have been raring to ask about, is what grade would you give yourself if we forced you to grade your money habits? I'm thinking a B plus. Oh, really? Yeah. I'm happy with where I'm at, but I know I've got quite a bit to go in terms of just feeling comfortable myself. So, like I said, my emergency fund's a little bit low at the moment and I'm not investing as regularly as I would like to be. So, I think once I can get those two things kind of on track, I'd like to think that I could give myself an A. I think you are absolutely on the right path. Like the fact

you are 22, have a mortgage, you're all on top of it. Oh, you are absolutely killing it. I can't wait to ask more questions about that and all the fraud stuff right after this very quick break. Let's jump straight back into it, Money Diarist. We heard it in your email, your identity was stolen is that correct yes can you tell us what happened how it happened and oh we want all the juicy and interesting details yeah so um it was a bit bit of a scary time actually my um my handbag got stolen um yeah the day I moved out of home when I was 18 um oh my god yeah that was that was pretty rough so I was moving my stuff into my new house with my dad um and left my handbag on the seat of his car I came back and it was gone no that's so bold

to take it from a car in the middle of the day out the front of somebody's house yeah it was it was at night so I guess there was a bit more um like coverage of yeah anyway that was a very interesting night that one um but yeah so it was it was only probably like a 30 second window where dad and I were both away from the car 30 second window the time it took for us to carry like a set of drawers between the car and the front door of the house that was that was it the audacity yeah so it was obviously a bit of a planned thing by the seams of it it was um pretty scary to think um so I didn't realize until we were driving home yeah that's terrifying that means that they were watching you and knew that you were gonna leave the car and oh that gives me the heebie-jeebies

yeah it was pretty rough um so my handbag had my life in it it had my my car keys because we were in dad's car so it had my car keys and my uh work keys my house keys um my purse which obviously has everything in it my license my medicare card um all my debit cards and stuff like that my diary which had several pay slips in the front of it yeah from that year and then just a bunch of like really inconvenient things like my reading glasses and my just like oh yeah all the annoying stuff your favorite lip balm I'm assuming was also in there just like really inconvenient I think anyone who's lost or had a handbag stolen knows how frustrating it is to have to replace all of that and my of course the frames of my glasses were discontinued so I couldn't get the same

glasses like it's just like oh my god really really inconvenient things um so the next day I went to my bank as I was sitting in my bank I was watching them use my debit card so no yeah just like really stupid things like vending machines and smoke marts and stuff like that so um I watched them as I was sitting with this beautiful bank person he was tears streaming down my face he was really yeah it was pretty like yeah pretty rough I just moved out of home I'd saved up to move out all my like all of that stuff I was like terrified so thankfully I was able to cancel my cards I think I put a 30-day lock or something we did what the bank's process was and I thought that was it um over the next couple of months I kept getting calls from the

police saying they'd found certain things in certain places so my medicare card was found in a completely different suburb my license was found over like the other side of Brisbane like just a lot of things turning up so I got a couple calls and then I kind of just forgot about it like I replaced my license I paid you know the license fee which is also very inconvenient yeah annoying I think it's $80 to replace a license in Queensland and they don't care if it was stolen or not I still had to pay it so yeah so that was pretty rough so I kind of forgot about it and then the start of this year was the first time that I had gone to apply for any kind of loan so maybe three and a half years later close to four years later this had all happened

And I went through all my, you know, my innovated leasing company, did the applications, put in all my details, how much I was earning. I had no debts. I've never had a credit card. I've never had any kind of debt prior to my car loan now. And I went through the process and he got back to me and said, your application's been declined. There's two and a half thousand dollars of unpaid telephone bills to your name. What? Yeah.

And a bunch of. And you're like, no, there's not. I've never even had a mobile phone plan. I've paid for my plans. I have prepaid plans. I pay for my phones outright. I've never had like, I don't have a phone bill ever. I was like, that can't have happened.

So I felt a bit yuck after that phone call. I would have felt physically sick. Yeah. And he emailed me just kind of like a breakdown of why they declined the application as well. So I just kind of Googled what to do. I was like, Oh, I didn't really know what to do here. So someone told me to get my credit report from Equifax. So that was my next step. And that was a, that was a terrifying experience on my lunch break at work. I logged on, made an account and there was pages and pages and pages of credit

inquiries with my name on them. And you were like, I did not do this. Yeah. None of them. I'd actually, I put two and two together a bit later. I'd been declined for power a couple of years earlier. I didn't kind of, I didn't really click why I was like, Oh, maybe it's because I have no credit history i'm a young girl like whatever so we just put it in think about it partner's name so didn't even think about it but that inquiry was on there and then there was inquiries for credit cards up to the value of twenty thousand dollars and personal loans and other mobile phone bills they were all just inquiries which i'm very thankful that they didn't get through but then there was this bill this two and a half grand um voter phone bill

and I was like oh right okay and I went into it and it's not an easy process to dispute those so no it's really not so it was a couple of months it took me to dispute those thankfully because I'd done all the right things at the time I had police report numbers from the night that it was stolen I had correspondence back and forth from a couple of like the banks and stuff saying my card had been listed as stolen and stuff like that and then I had to I had to do so many stat deaths like so many lines at the JP how frustrating it really did consume my life for a couple of weeks um and then just kind of following up after the fact of everything was kind of uploaded it was it was intense and not knowing whether that debt would be wiped like no one had given me any

inclination they all made me feel everyone I spoke to I know they were just doing their job but they made me feel quite horrible like it was my fault and it was my debt and I had yeah it was really hard I went through a couple of channels with the because it had gone from the phone company to a credit company to a debt collector so there was a couple different channels I had to go through and obviously they didn't have my phone number they didn't have my correct address nothing was coming to me they had an email account that looked like it could have been me So someone had made an email account with my name, um, with different numbers in it. And obviously I didn't have access to that.

So I wasn't getting any correspondence. You're like, that's not my email. That's not my phone number. That's not my email. Yes, that's my birth date, but they had four different documents on, like on them with my birth date on it. They had, you know, sorry, it was pretty frustrating to kind of try and get around all of that. So I think it was a couple months after I finally got the, we're wiping this debt.

thank you um email so that was that was a bit of a weight off my shoulders there thank god that's terrifying though to have to go through all of that and imagine if you'd lost it and not reported it or you'd lost it and not gone through all of those processes to prove it you would have been lumped with that yeah and i think it's a big it's a big kind of wake-up call to you know maybe once a year just check your credit just check your credit report check check just have a literally just jump on log on it's free you get a free one I think it's every 12 months you can get a free one or if anything changes so yeah so jump on and if you're not on top of that like at the same time you might not be saving for a house and you're like I don't need debt it doesn't matter but what

if someone's got debt in your name what if it is something that you need to be on top of and you've just left it for too long it can actually destroy your credit rating but also you might end up having to pay that because you've got no way of proving it wasn't you how awful is that it's like guilty until proven innocent instead of innocent until proven guilty yeah which is really rough and I was really lucky because um our mortgage is just in my in my partner's name but we were looking at buying another house this year and if I had not gone through that process earlier this year and then we'd gone to apply for another loan in joint names and this had come up then yeah would have been declined if it was a house we wanted it would have been and they wouldn't

have even said anything they would have just been straight declined they wouldn't have spoken to you about it they would have just said sorry can't get the loan and you would have been like what maybe we haven't saved enough or maybe I don't earn enough like like that would I wouldn't have ever thought about it so I it's it was a blessing in disguise but it was also a very big hassle so if you can avoid going through it that'd be yeah that'd be the best thing so it's always that it's always that thought that oh it won't happen to me but it did happen to me so it does happen to people so unassumingly and especially in the world that we live in today with everything online and you put your credit card details in every website to make your online purchases and do

all this and you're uploading documents to left right and center because obviously we're in a very virtual world at the moment you can't you know go into places and you know even applying for jobs and stuff like that I'm uploading copies of passports and IDs and you do it every day right like you don't it's not even a question it's kind of like a given you have to do that to get through life how could I know that obviously you can't avoid having it stolen obviously a really big thing is don't leave your handbag on the dead end in the car but was there any way you could have avoided any of this happening in the first place? I found out afterwards. If I had a look at the dates on all of the transactions and inquiries, they all happened within six months of my handbag

being stolen. I just didn't find out about them until three years later. There's actually something you can do to your credit where you can block any kind of credit applications. Victoria, do you know the days how many days I think it's 30 days or 90 days I can't remember how many days it is but you can block it so any credit inquiry is flagged and it won't actually go through so you kind of have blocked it in the same way that you could block a debit card but it's interesting because people like oh you can't do that they'll go to any bank yes but it's all the same credit report so if you block your credit report it doesn't matter if they were going for Westpac or ANZ or you know a bank randomly regionally they just wouldn't be able to get the credit and it would

be bounced back not only would it be bounced back but it would be flagged as fraudulent which is genius but nobody knows that right nobody told me either so um nobody told me I feel like that's on your bank a little bit yeah I mean to have brought it should have been a part of that process because you contacted them right you did all the right things surely someone out there should have said to you, hey, like here's how you put yourself in the best position to protect your identity. Because if someone steals that bank card, I mean, you're blocking the card so they can't take your money. But if they're prepared to do that, it's highly probable that they're prepared to do all of these other things, right? Yeah. And it was, I got quite frustrated

when I was going through all of this because my bank, I was with a bank at the time. I went into them I did the whole blocking thing that was all good I got a new debit card still kept my accounts with them they were actually one of the accounts that had a credit inquiry on them oh no what and I looked into it I spoke with a really lovely guy on the phone and he was able to give me all the details that this person used to apply for the credit card um an email account that definitely did not match my email account and they didn't even cross check it I was a customer I was a customer with them they had I was getting my you know bank statements in the mail I had my address they had my parents address where I used to live like this address did not match anything that's

um the email address was some completely other female name like not even close to my name um their phone number wasn't mine so and like the so my um employer on my credit report I'd never worked for them before because someone's applied for this you know these credit cards and put their employer or something like that on there and now it's on my credit history that I've worked that that was my employer when it was never the case so I was very frustrated in that system in the fact that I was a customer with them you didn't feel protected you didn't feel supported like you would have thought that if you were a customer of that bank at least they couldn't get it at that bank right because they'd know they'd look after you or they would have told me like

send me an email audacity hey your name's been used you're like you know your license has been use to apply for this loan is it you no it's not me is it safe to say that you're not a customer at that bank anymore who would have guessed so talk to me about that process of finding out so you found out that it wasn't you you reported it to the police did that person get caught have they been followed up like do we know who did this I actually so after I found out about the credit reporting I made another report um I the name of it will um go over my head at the moment but there's another there's an online like cyber crime reporting thing I did as well and I was followed up by my local police station and the um the officer who was um investigating it she said

she had some kind of lead asked me to give a statement so I did give quite a lengthy statement um all of the I'm quite a record keeper myself you sound very organized I'm not gonna lie you're very organized i love it yes i had all the details i had all the police report numbers i had pretty much a like a play-by-play of what happened back in 2018 it was and i was able to provide them all the information so i haven't had any follow-up unfortunately but yeah the even just the name of the person from that i got from that um the bank they told me so yeah like fingers crossed how disgusting yeah at the end of the day uh my mom works in um in law enforcement as well and she said unfortunately at the end of the day like that's criminal activity that's that's that's

planned that's targeted that's not just someone being a little bit cheeky that's actually someone being real nasty and nine times out of ten they get away with it because of um because of the way it works in terms of you can't really prove who's made that application if it's your name and your photo on it so yeah unfortunately so I think prevention is better than a cure in the case of identity fraud so yeah that is horrendous and I'm glad you're talking about it with us because I think so many people would go oh I lost my wallet on a night out and yes you lost a lot more so I guess they were able to do more but you don't actually need someone's entire handbag to take their ID you just need a few things yeah and I have no idea if they even use the pay slips that

were in there like I don't know what they've actually needed to get this but it was a phone so I don't know what they've needed to get this phone but I don't like I've never applied for a phone myself so I don't really know but like a name and a date of birth and a license like it's actually not that hard and it's all online these days that's what they ask for online yeah and that's what's so heartbreaking about it and you know when you go out on a night out you actually have to take your ID to get in anywhere you have to take a bank card because you're going to pay for some things so I think we just need to be super vigilant about carrying our stuff around because even if you leave it in a bar or, you know, on the bathroom stall, like I know a million

people who have lost their wallets. And thankfully, most times it works out fine. You just cancel your card, work it all out. Maybe it'll turn up again. Your wallet might turn up and might just not have the cash in it and that's all right. But sinister things can happen. And there are people out there who do plan to do this. And as you learned, Money Diarist, they planned it. They used that window. they got it and they have been able to do a lot with it but I've heard of situations as well where people have had mortgages taken out they have had massive personal loans taken out and I mean there's a whole business in it isn't there yeah I'm really fortunate that it was just that one line of credit that I had to deal with because it was a simple I wouldn't call it simple um but it

was just one I had to clear I'd probably still be going if there was more than one yeah so yeah I'm I'm fortunate in a fact that it's been a wake-up call and I was able to get rid of it but I know some people aren't as lucky and do end up with those debts so yeah well thank you for raising awareness and sharing your story with us in our community because yeah as you say it's one of those things that you always think that it's going to be someone else you never think that it's going to be you but it just goes to show how easy it is and we're so happy that you know as hard as it was for you at that time that you're able to bounce back and hopefully you can get that second property that you're saving for and that everything works out and we know she will Jess I mean look the way

you're going I can't see how they could say no call to action for everybody listening though friends check your credit score every single year if you lose your wallet don't just cancel your cards put a block on your credit history to make sure that people can't apply for credit it is not hard to do quickly google it but we'll also make sure that there are links in the show notes this week so that you can click through. And we'll obviously follow up with some more content over the next month or so of maybe a blog post of what to do when you've lost your wallet. Because I think that people just don't think it's as serious as it is. And that's really nice because I think people just assume that everybody's super kind, but that's not the case and not everybody is.

But Money Rise, thank you so much for joining us. I am so grateful for you sharing this with our community as always i do think that is all we have time for today but just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the lands the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay our respect to elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness the advice shared on she's on the money is generally nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make

an investment or a financial decision and we promise victoria divine is an authorized representative of australia pacific funds management proprietary limited abm 34132463257 afsl 339151 see you next week guys Thank you.