| After
being the victim of identity theft in 2001 I learned quite a bit more about
this rising new form of crime in the course of my attempts to "clear" my
name.
I even tried to interest
The Smithsonian in a full length article about my experience but after
more than 20 weeks I finally received a turn down.
It occurred to me that
there might be a story somewhere in there if I could tweak the truth with
the exercise of a little imagination.
Then I had a cosy little
chat with the Internal Revenue Service about my financial circumstances
during a particularly long (and traumatic) period of unemployment.
The person to whom I
spoke refused to believe that my income was so minimal compared with my
expenses. They kept saying that they couldn't see how I could survive
and I kept resisting the urge to shout "TELL ME ABOUT IT!"
They continually hinted
that I might have a car or two or some land tucked away somewhere, or maybe
a business that I'd forgotten about.
Afterwards I found myself
wishing that I *did* have a secret business tucked away somewhere, and
suddenly a connection was made between that wish and the identity theft
of the year before.
The result is a pitch
for The Business. I think it has possibilities - either as a one-off
story line for a movie or even as a short run TV series. |