MONEY DIARIES: Mopping Up After Identity Theft

Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yr

Let's get into it.

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 back to another one of our shop backed money diaries where we get to talk to one of our incredibly amazing She's on the Money community members. Let's jump straight in. We got a message this week and it read like this. In first year UNI, I had my identity stolen. They waited a year before using my identity to commit other crimes. I had no idea anything was amiss until the police

Thank you, thanks so much for having me.

Oh my gosh, your I don't even want to get into it too quickly because I'll just spoil all of the questions that we've got. But that sounds absolutely crazy, And I'm assuming you're okay now, right.

Yes, I still check my credit or for all the time. Just makes all things are good.

I would too, Like I would just download it on a weekly basis and just be like just checking, just checking. It's me high echoifax in me again, bye, Like they would know me by name. All right, let's get into it. The first question I always like to ask is can you tell us a little bit more about your money story.

Yes, so, I guess like I'm pretty fortunate to come from a relatively well off family, not like crazy rich or anything, but we definitely never went with that.

You know, like private schools, all.

The extra curriculus that we could want to do that Mum allowed with time, work and everything, and like the odd overseas troop here and there, that sort of thing.

But money wasn't really ever us something that we talked about, at.

Least not while we're still young and growing up. I remember asking Dad what he earned once when I was in like breath and he just like looked at me.

It was like enough and that was it? Right?

They were like no, did Dad?

No?

Did? Yeah?

Okay, cool, thanks and then yeah.

As I grew up, had like a pretty positive relationship with money, never really thought about it aside from like, you know, have money, spend money, get things. But that all sort of changed in my younger Sistar Wars diagnosed with anorexia. My parents like mostly tried to keep me out of it as much as they could, but there are always loads of appointments to pay for, like nutrition, as pediatrician, dietrician, psychologists like.

You know, whatever you can think of, you name it. It was hard to be paid for.

And as you know, as much as my parents wanted to keep me out of it, there's always comments like oh my gosh, like this is so expensive that sort of thing, not that you know, like we went without or anything. I guess it just like was a bit of a financial strain for them, and that sort of flowed down. I just sort of retained that past that point. I was about in year nine when that, or my sister I was only in year six, which is something like twelve, which was very young.

But yeah, after that.

I just really didn't want to be a burden or my family financially or otherwise. And I guess that's like led me to be like super independent and I really value living out of home and paying for things on my own, having everything, and it's being like mine that I've paid for and that I don't owe anyone anything. But yeah, I really like that. It's taken a while to get to the point where I sort of feel more open to help.

From my parents.

I guess when I needed or want it, I like later on I needed my own psychologist to help me sort of work through everything that happened with my sister. And I refused to talk to my parents about it. I didn't want them knowing that I was going to seek a psychologist. I thought would just be like a bit much after everything that had happened with my sister. But like, after a couple of sessions and my Joyen's always been like very supportive about all of this stuff.

Yeah. Wow. And then growing up a little bit more, you ended up having your identity stolen? How did that impact you financially?

Fortunately it didn't impact me financially, Like none of my own money was taken or anything. So it was all just like credit in my name, which all got removed. And because I was so young, I wasn't like applying for credit cards or mortgages or anything, so like otherwise I literally wouldn't have known for years if the plan sat at home email Dad to ask and step the whole thing rolling.

I guess.

So the police just literally emailed you died and we're like, hey, yeah, just FYI, we think your daughter's a criminal XO.

Like yes, it was so random.

The guy the constable that email Dad, he had like a very unique name that I have never heard before and have never heard ever again. So we were like, oh, like is this some sort of like Nigerian prince kind of scam?

Yeah, yeah, scam scam. You just need to transfer X amount of money and I'll return you a million.

And then Dad's like texted me. I was at Uni at the time, and Dad's like, what has he done?

I was like anything, I swear, I swear.

So you got arrested for it and ended did you ended up in jangle for this and you didn't do anything?

Well?

Yeah, I mean it's a whole long process, but basically at least what they said, was in order to interview me, which they had to do to rule me out as a suspect.

Like part of the procedure is like.

Arresting, so they didn't put like handcuffs on me or anything, but I had to get the police station in the middle of the night because the guy was working night shifts.

And then they were like, you're under arrest.

Anything you can do you know, oh, that's steel, and then took me into the interview room.

This is arguably hilarious because obviously this is anonymous, but like I can tell you right now, our money diarist does not look like the type of person that would do very well in the jail. Sorry, money Diarists love you, We'll come back to this. Not my thing, no, no, no no. I just think you look too sweet, and you look like you're probably like the same height as me, which is standing really taller, like maybe five five one.

So, yes, my I literally just started my PhD like two weeks ago.

Congrat that's so exciting.

Yeah, thank you. I'm super excited about it.

But yeah, so that's my primary source of income, I guess, yeah, so PhD student. I'm pretty lucky to have that stipend as well as the fees offset, so I don't pay any fees or get any x or anything, and I get the stipend, which is thirty K a year index tax.

Free as living allowance, which.

Like luckily covers all my basics like rent and you know, bills and all that sort of thing.

But yeah, it.

Doesn't leave much for most, say things after that, so I work outside of.

This as well.

I do nanny and babysitting and coaching where I can fit it in. Yeah, so like nanning, I well, it depends on the week, but usually have a couple of afternoons a week and be earning as of next year three hundred and sixty dollars a week. But at the moment, because I'm still tying up a few things that I was doing earlier in the year, it's more like six hundred or so. And then coaching is like pretty variable. It changes a lot. Yeah, Diving coaching very variable and

So that's between all of that.

My approximate annual income is probably around fifty nine K.

That's not too bad for a PhD student at this point, but do you think that that is going to be maintainable given you've just started your PhD. I feel like every friend that has ever done a PhD kind of ends up pulling out their hair, So do you think that that's reality.

I'm hoping you'll stay like at least around fifty K a year, but I guess, like you know, I'm still waiting to see how to go at the moment because I've just started. It's mainly just like admin and getting everything set up, so there hasn't been too much on my plate right now. And two of my families that I have for nanny I'll give up next year, which is why it'll go down to three hundred and sixty dollars a week because that's just like three afternoons for.

A couple of hours. Yeah wow, yeah, so I guess we'll see.

But fortunately, stuff like coaching that's usually in the morning or after school and it's usually only for like an hour tops, but you get paid for two hours every time you go in anyway, so that like that sort of helps because you don't have to work as much and you still get paid.

That's a bit of a money win, but also really niche, Like it's not something where I go, oh my gosh, you're at UNI. You could absolutely pick up another barista shift, like you're like, hey, I am actually a diving coach. Yeah, that's quite niche. Is that because you grew up diving? Yeah?

Yeah, well I started off swimming. I guess like everyone's parents.

Chucked them in swimming lessons and the swimming pool that I was learning to swim, I had a diving book next certain least to beg mom every session.

Mom, Mom, I want to do that. Please please let me do that. And Mom's like really risk averse and she's like, no way, you can do yeah, not until you're at least squad level. Swimming. I was like, oh, like, okay, so I worked really hard to get out to that point in swimming.

They finally got to do diving us thrilled.

Oh my gosh, and now you're literally a coach. That is so cool as somebody who also did squad swimming. And you know what, I really didn't appreciate my parents when I was in high school. Those like literal four thirty am starts are not for the faint hearted, and I used to hate it. Oh one out of ten cannot recommend, but I'm impressed that you've stayed committed.

Yeah, we're diving.

Fortunately used to be like more late night sessions, so I v six to eight pm instead of the early ones because the swimmers would have to fall in the morning.

Yeah that's fair, that's very fair, smart from you, But there's no chance you would get me to jump off that thing on a consistent basis. Not how many all right, money in forest? I want to know what is currently your big money goal. What are we working towards?

Slowly but surely I'm working towards saving out for a house deposit, so obviously I've still got to you know, see how everything goes with the PhD. But assuming that I can do like a couple of afternoons a week of nanny like you know, I think that's maybe ten hours across the whole week, and like a coaching here and there. I should be able to save up and up by the time that I've finished my PhD and done like a full year of work, so I'll be off probation after that period.

So that's what my goal is.

I suppose I'm aiming for like eighty to one hundred as a deposit.

We'll see.

Oh my gosh, that's so clear. How did you come to the conclusion that eighty tw one hundred thousand dollars was the deposit you wanted.

I guess I'm just really interested in real estate.

Like I love going on real estate dot com and going through the domain on the weekends and having a look at everything. And like with the first home buyer, I don't know, the one where you don't.

Have to pay stamp. Dude, I forget which ones they're all called.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, one of the schemes.

Yeah, with one of the schemes, like you can get a house in quotations, because six hundred and fifty K does not far your house in most capital cities around Australia. But that's sort of what I was looking at, like a two bedroom apartment in Capital City and then i'd probably need around eighty to one hundred if not more than that. Yeah, we'll just see how it goes, but that's sort of what I'm working towards.

Wow, I love this. I'm so excited to see you do that. Next question I have for you is you're young, you're doing your PhD. But do you have any investments? Yes?

I do.

Actually, of course she does. She's too planned. I love this.

So through my online broker, which is Steak. But I've got twenty five thousand invested in there.

Wait twenty five thousand at twenty three are you kidding me?

There's been a bit of help.

I'm not going to lie, so okay, but like that's a lot.

Yeah, I try and can spit like five grand a year, but I have to tence.

That's really good.

Yeah, I'm really excited about it. I like seeing how it all goes up and down and everything. Yeah, and I've got some money invested in raised not heat's like four hundred and twenty five dollars. I think they've got a notification today and I just like put five dollars a week in their Emerald portfolio. I think so, just again, I like to see how the markets work, I suppose, and it's a lower risk, well not a lower risk, but like a smaller amount of money to play within.

There. Love good work, all right. Next question I have for you is do you have any debts? If so, what are they?

Just my HEX step at the moment.

So I checked today, that's about forty three K so my undergrad with my honest degree, which is like, oh fine, you know I won't get anything more from my PhD, which is really great, and I don't think I've started paying the hex back yet.

Oh my gosh. That's so exciting though. And I think a lot of people don't know this, but if you go to do postgraduates, they can be really really expensive. Like when I was looking at doing my MBA, which is a Master's of Business Administration, it can sit anywhere between seventy and one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to do that degree. However, if you went and did a PhD, that's usually supported and you literally get paid to do it. So not only are you going to get to call

I was tossing up between Masters of public health versus doing a PhD in public health stuff, and that was.

One of the factors.

I was like, well, get like a higher qualification in quotations, but I won't have to pay for it, so might do that.

Yeah, money, money win, I love it all right. Next question I've got for you does relate to a money win as well, and it is do you use shopback?

Yes? I do?

Oh my gosh, what do you buy?

Honestly, mostly it's a gift for other people that I do line shopping for, so like you know, birthdays, Christmas, et cetera. I love the Iconic in particular, I love when they have their upsized cash backs. But yeah, I usually just anything that I'm buying online, I check to

Get dechlorination shampoo. So like OZ Hair.

And Beauty is one of the places on shot back, and they like frequently have upsides, so I usually wait for them to have it like a seventeen percent cash back and then I'll stock up smart.

That's a lot back. And I know, having done a bit of swimming in my time, I know it doesn't look like it, guys, but having done a little bit of swimming all my time, that de chlorination shampoos really expensive and it doesn't even feel as nice as it could.

I know. It's like fifty dollars for two bottles kills me.

And it doesn't even smell that nice. What the heck?

No, I usually use that and then a different one.

Yeah, smart, Smart, All right, Next question I've got, I want to know what is your best money habit?

Probably budgeting.

I love setting up my spreadsheets and like having all my different incomes from different areas and breaking all the numbers down.

And I have one friend who's let me do it for her as well, so that was fun too.

Oh I love that. So you're you're me, You're like can I do your budget.

Yeah, a less qualified like, don't hate me for this budget.

No, no, it doesn't matter, Like budgeting is fun. Let me at it with a spreadsheet. How fun. How did that conversation come up?

Well, she actually listens to she's on the money as well, so sometimes we talk about it and I lent her my books, like of your books, I guess, and yeah, we're talking about it, and I was talking about like doing my budget because she's my boyfriend's sister. They're twins, so we're all sort of friends together. So I was doing his budget and then I was like, oh, like, if you want me to do yours?

Oh yeah, so I've done them all.

That is literally my favorite thing I've heard a week. That is the best. All right. I want to know next, though, what is your worst money habit.

I'm really good at saving up for things right off until I have to pay for something expensive.

So like last week, I had to get three new tires on my car, which is like a nightmare.

I broke down in the middle of the Westgate Freeway at five point thirty on the way to the airport.

It was like a disaster. I thought I was going to die.

And then you can't get out of the car, and you've got to stay in the car, and you're like getting stressed. No, no, that sounds terrible. I'm getting secondary anxiety for you.

It was up there with.

The worst experiences of my life. But after that, like you know, that tie obviously needed to be replaced, and then the other ties were old too, so we just got.

All of them.

And then I'm like, oh, I've spent this much money, it may as well.

May as well bleed some more cash.

Exactly what's it going to do now? Like on, No, that's probably my worst money.

That's not the worst money habit. But I do think you deserved that in that moment. I feel like after that traumatic experience, you definitely deserve to pick me up. Look, I feel like it would take years off mine as well. All right, next question before we go to a quick break, I want to know what grade would you give your money habits if we forced you to give yourself a grade?

I reckon like a low A, but a better A.

If I couldn't get on top of spending all my money as soon as I have to buy.

Something, yeah, fair, And then what is there anything else you'd have to change? To get to an A plus.

I'd like to in best more, I guess, but I'm focusing on saving my money from my house deposit eventually, so I guess, like that's more what I'm focusing on, and trying to stick to the budgets that I make because I know they work. I've crunched the numbers, but sometimes I'm like, well, or maybe I need a bit more.

Oh my gosh, all right, I want to get into the nitty gritty of how you literally got arrested when your identity got stolen. So guys, don't go anywhere. We'll be back after this really quick break. All right, money diarist, we are back. You got arrested for things you didn't do. You got your identity stolen, and it literally took a year before anything actually happened. And for the person who

Well, at the.

Time, I was like first year UNI obviously, you know, like going out with friends and like just doing random things all the time, I guess, and not really keeping enough attention to where my wallet was. And so over the course of first year UNI, I lost my walt three times, so I really had it coming.

Oh my gosh, you was setting yourself up for.

This, yeah, m hmm. Absolutely.

But the time that I think was when they stole my identity. We were literally just sitting at dinner and I had my of wallet on the table, I think, and.

This is in Melbourne, right, this isn't somewhere Yeah, in Melbourne, completely like random.

In Ligon Street, Oh gosh.

Yeah, So sitting out on Lagan Street and I was like, are with a couple of friends after UNI, just grabbing like a bite to eat. And I didn't know this at all, but I think someone rubbed my wallet because then I like went to go meet my family for dinner because family friends were over from the States and they were going out to dinner somewhere close by. So I went to go and meet them, and when I got there, I realized that I didn't have my wallet.

I was like, what on earth? I'm sure I had it with me, like it was on the table.

I would have brought it with me, and I thought maybe I'd left it on the trainer and an I brought something and I was calling everyone.

I was like, I don't know where it is, and it just like never turned up.

But obviously at this point, I've done this twice that year already, so I was like, oh, whatever, cancel the cards, order the new ones, so and so on. Life goes on sort of thing.

She has a process, she'd done this, she's been here for.

This, practiced. Yeah.

So then nothing happened until halfway through second year. So this is halfway through twenty nineteen, towards the end of first semester, and then my dad got an email from the policeman the constable.

Which still shocks me that they're just chill. That's ridiculous, Like, no call, they didn't even try and call you, They just email you, Dad, And like, by the way, no, I was shocked your daughter as a criminal kiss kiss.

At that point, I was nearly twenty.

Yeah, I hope this email finds you well.

Genuinely, I was like, why aren't they contacting me? Like I'm an adult. This is so weird.

I feel like this is some level of breach of privacy from big police. Like I don't know, but I'd be pretty mad if they were calling my parents about something i'd been doing what if you had been doing it and they just outed you to your parents and they're not the person that you would call it baile you out.

Like jeez, thank you constable. Yeah no, And so Dad like chexts me with a screen shot. Well I'm in class, and he's like, you know, like what have you done? I was like, oh my god, like I have not done anything. I have no idea what's going on. And he's like, oh what.

And then everyone was freaking out and mom and dad were like, oh, we got to.

Talk to a lawyer, like so on and so forth, because, as I said earlier, like we we thought it was like a scam to start with, because it was like quite a unique name that again never heard before.

I don't think I'll ever hear it again.

And we're like, yeah, he's listening to it now, and he's like, hey, I'm not a scammer. I'm just a friendly cop who's just trying to dub on you to your dad exactly exactly. So what then happened? You literally ended up getting arrested so that you could be formally interviewed by police. You clearly got let go, which is a win, a money win, they could say, but how much money or how much debt had they racked up? Because we talked about credit history before, like what were

They had done a whole bunch of different things.

Obviously there was it was mainly like fast loan kind of things.

I forget what they were all called.

I think the most like well known of those would have been Latitude.

They spent the most money there, I think, But.

Overall it was like I think somewhere between forty and sixty thousand dollars in credit.

Wow.

From memory, I think one of them was like like they have hired out a boat.

Or something and didn't return it. There's some weird things in there.

What on ear So they've got like a lot of fast credit, which kind of makes sense for identity theft purely because fast cash. We all lack some fast cash, especially if it is stolen. But a boat, what were they doing just having a good boat weekend?

I don't know.

It was weird because like when you're cleaning up the credit record, you have to go through and like call in all of the individual companies and send them like the stat deck and the police report and all this other stuff.

And you know, prove that you're right. D's changed off, Like there's just so much stuff you have to do. And yeah, I was calling that one and they weren't like a like a credit.

Place, and I was like, this is weird, okay, And yeah they took it off my record.

Yeah, hello, sorry about your bouch. I wish I had a bouche. I don't have a bow. Oh my gosh, that is so bizarre.

I know.

Do we have an update on this case? Have they found the person who did it? Are they in trouble? Is this just something that can happen and you just wipe it off like you're giving me anxiety?

I think they had found the person, So I suppose back to earlier how it all came up was because this woman who'd taken my identity had used my identity and then stolen this other guy's cards and was buying things with his cards in my name, if that makes sense.

Yeah, okay, so they thought you were being dodgy.

Yeah, so they I think it was like culture Kings or something she was doing clicking collects in my name but like not paying.

I can't quite remember how all.

Panned out, but they had her on security footage, so in the eMate, well, in the subsequent emails to.

My dad, they were like, oh, can you just like send us.

A photo of your daughter and we'll just like rule her out as long as she doesn't look like this person that we're chasing down. But then Dad like emailed a photo of me and they're like, oh, no, actually they look kind of similar. Did she come in please, because obviously, like she's got my like driver's license, so she you know, changed her hand and like whatever, so she looked like obviously, if I was looking at the photo,

I needed to check.

Yeah, Dad didn't even like ask my advice on the phone. I said, come on.

Anyway, Oh so you didn't even send a good picture of you. No one out of ten, dad, one. So very strange for the cops to just email you and be like, hello, kind sir, please send a high RESK picture of your.

Daughter to ask we'd like to rule her out from a crime. Thanks, Like that is guinely.

Look, I have absolutely no doubt that you're telling the truth. Sometimes the truth is more bizarre than a lie or a story.

It's too ridiculous to not be true.

Yeah, it's a lot. What does your dad think of that? Now? Is this something that just comes up at family Christmas? Like you're the family criminal?

Now?

Is that how this works?

No, it's just like funny.

All my friends and everyone knows about it, and it's all just like the biggest gag. It's like whenever you know, on the old occasion like never have I ever or like someone's like, oh, like never ever been arrested?

I was like I remember that time. Oh no, yes, that sort of thing.

To be honest, it sounds like this has actually worked out really nicely. Yeah, because a lot of people who go through processes like this don't end up in as lucky as circumstances. So I kind of want to know because we've had someone on the podcast before where, you know, completely different situation. It was actually a partner who had racked up a whole heap of debt in there name what did you do to get out of that? So you spoke to a lawyer through your family, and then

So after like I'd had the interview with the police, and they were like, is this your email?

And I was like, no, is this your phone number? No, so and so forth, because obviously this person made all these documents in my name.

Then they were like right, you know, like you're free to go, but i'd have mugshots and fingerprints so they get rid of They destroy them as long as you haven't been linked to a crime, like within six months of them collecting them, and I was like, oh, yeah, okay, no.

I kind of want them to keep that. The idea that I have a mug shot on file definitely gives me more street credit.

I know, like if I ever went missing, it would come out. I'm sure, but.

Don't go missing. We don't want to see those I know.

After that, because they like cleared me of being involved with it, I suppose they wrote me like a police report with the whole situation, did a stat deck for me, which was really helpful because then I just took those documents to like all the different credit providers and I was like, here's the police support, here's the stat deck,

And like call the cops, ask them.

Yeah, listally and they're like, oh well if and you're like, oh my gosh, come on, just take it off, would you.

Like it was ridiculous.

And this all happened right before, like within a month of me leaving to go on exchange take Canada for six months. So I was like desperately trying to get it all done. And then I sort of left and I was like, oh well, whatever, I'm in another country now. And then I got back and checked and then went through the whole proce again with the people.

That hadn't changed it yet. So yeah, after you know, eight months later, it's finally sought.

That's crazy. I feel like that story actually gives me a little bit of hope though that obviously you were quite confident. You're like, I didn't do this. There was not a lot of trauma involved in the circumstances, so you're probably very confident picking up the phone being like

Yeah, exactly.

The most difficult part for me was contacting Equifax because at that age and I suppose of it now, like I've never had any credit in my own name, so they didn't actually have like a credit file for me.

So this woman, because like you.

Know, your license has like your first name, the first an issue of your middle name and your last name, this person like made up a middle name for me which was not my middle name. So when I was trying to like prove us to Equifax, they were like, oh, well that's not your middle name, and they'd like made up all this like employment history as well that i'd like worked at Telshi stuff.

I was like, oh, good boy, congratulations on the promotions.

Yeah, thanks, thanks.

No, but when I was trying to, you know, prove my identity to them, they were like, oh, well, that's not your middle name, that's not your work history, that's not like your credit blah blah. So that was like so frustrating because it took a while to even be able to access the credit report, and I couldn't block more credit until I could access it in the first place.

Yeah, so it was just like a nightmare.

But once I finally got the Equifax identity sorted, then they've blocked it and I had enough time to remove everything.

That is terrifying. And the idea that they potentially came to your family home and went through your mail and stole the ones that they needed, Oh.

Yeah, because they've got your address and they know, yeah, it's really ridiculous.

You know what. That's the part that makes me feel really gross. Yeah, no, that is very unsettling. Oh my gosh, Money dires. This has been a pleasure having a chat with you. I feel like we are already best friends, but unfortunately that is all we have time for today. So thank you so much for joining us, no.

Problem, Thanks so much for having me. It's been so lovely to chat to you.

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 financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDA TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards