Finally, after a week, I decided to stop being lazy and actually downgrade back to V2.1 of Wordpress. You’ll notice that my categories are finally back. Amazing. I was starting to get discouraged, but thankfully, it’s now fixed.

Also, if you use Wordpress, I highly recommend the Tiger Administration tool. I gotta’ give it to this guy, he has done a fantastic job of making the wp-admin interface a much, much nicer thing to navigate through. It’s very clean and well designed. I’m impressed.

Let’s see…in other news:

• Finished up Condemned 2: Bloodshot. The game was awesome, although in retrospect, it was a little restrictive in the way you approach how you play. It’s a very linear game, and there are a lot of sequences where you just hit a button and your character  does what he’s supposed to do in a sequence. For example, if you have to climb up something, you don’t actually have to figure out how to do it; rather, you just hit the spot where the sequence is triggered and hit ‘A’, and then he climbs.  However, the experience overall was pretty amazing. It was a great story and is truly one of the creepiest games I think I’ve ever played.
• Picked up Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 and have played through the first mission and a half or so. As with the last one, it’s really great. Not much has changed in the overall mechanic…and really…why should it? The first one was awesome. So far, I’m having fun with it, though I admit that it’s not a shooter for everyone. It’s far more difficult in that you really have to think and use your parters else you get quickly wasted when you go busting through doors. Your character can’t take much damage before he goes down.
•  Evil Andrew tried to open up a new credit card, but he was foiled by the fraud alert I put on my accounts. Stupid bastard. Some guy called me from Capital One and asked if I had tried to open up a credit card anytime recently. The only dissappointing thing is that when I called to update the Las Vegas PD, they didn’t seem to know what was going on (couldn’t find my case) and the guy who would have an idea was, of course, out for the day. That’s my luck though. Oh well; at least this idiot can’t open up any more cards under my name.
• The neighbors continue to get progressively worse…or it’s really just that since I decided to write about it, I’m now even more painfully aware of them. We’re thinking about purchasing scary masks, going down there in the middle of the night and banging on their windows…specifically the kids’ windows. Is that evil…?
• I am addicted to a place called ‘The Pita Pit”. Holy crapola, Batman…it’s so tasty.  Its about 3 blocks up from my new office, and they have some of the most ridiculously good wrap-style food I’ve ever had. I seem to have found a superior combination of flavors in mixing a little bit of wing sauce with tzatziki sauce, the ensuing tastebud effect being a spicy sensation mixed with the mellower cool cucumber taste of the tzatziki. Mmmm…I think I just like using that word…tzatziki…
• I’m gonna’ go see ‘Horton Hears a Who’.  It loos like it’s freakin’ awesome.
• Today I knew I was getting old when I was picking up coffee and the friendly counter girl asked me if I had any weekend plans. I thought for a moment, initially said no, thought more about it, and then decided to say that I had just gotten my “Planet Earth” HD-DVDs (for the bargain basement price of $25.00) and was really looking forward to watching that this weekend. She looked at me as if I had just sprouted a third eye and was getting ready to pour the hot coffee directly into it. I walked away…mildly ashamed…but still oddly excited about watching “Planet Earth”. Screw the Seattle’s Best counter girl. Hmph…
• In the house buying process…or rather…the loan acquiring process. Got a sweet huge packet of junk that we get to fill out so we can get a large sum of cash to fund aforementioned house purchcase. I’m excited about that.
• Deliberating whether or not it’s worth it to purchase an XM Radio subscription. It has been really nice having it since I got my new car, but I don’t know that it’s worth the $13.00 a month for it. There are quite a few awesome channels though…

That’s all I gots. I’m sooooo sweeeepy……..

Friday @ 11:55. Wow. I am  pathetic…

I now have a picture of this total moron. Someone in this whole mess was kind enough to send me a copy of the Oregon driver’s license ‘Evil Andrew’ used to procure the mailbox at the UPS store in Nevada. I’d post it up here, but I think I’d probably get in trouble…and get someone in trouble…if I did. So I’ll wait to do that later.

I will say this: ‘Evil Andrew’ is a pretty fairly ugly dude. How dare he put my good and righteous name to such a foul and ugly mug…

Not only did I get the license, but I got a copy of a Portland State University ID card and a letter that he used to let the UPS Store folks know that ‘Andrew’ was a ‘business partner’ and that he’s authorized to pick up the mail at the box they had rented.

It’s very surreal to see all of these things…things with my name on them…and yet have nothing to do with any of them.

The pieces of the puzzle keep falling into place. The only thing I don’t know at this point is how exactly he got my social security number. And I guess the only person knowing that would be him. I hope they catch him just so I can put that to rest.

Here is what I learned today:

1. On of the Amex cards…the ‘Business Platinum’ card…finally hit collections. It had been sent for processing, but hadn’t gotten there quite yet. So now I have a second person I have to convince that the debt is not mine. However, I’m hoping she can take all of the information I gave the first debt collector and use that. At least it’ll be easier this go-round. Oh yeah, and the damage on this one is much less than the last one, which had a little over 10K on it. This one only has about $3300.00 or so on it.
2. There were two other people that got screwed here too…one Clifford & Marcel Scott. They are married. They spend 1/2 of their time in Vegas and 1/2 of their time in Oregon, and they have a PO box @ the same UPS Store that this happened at. I don’t know exactly how they lost money, but…
3. …I found out that there was a kid working at the UPS Store who got hired in August. One of his jobs was to forward them their mail while they were in Oregon. At one point, Marcel had apparently called to complain that all she was getting was junk mail. It was at that point tha the kid was fired. I’m sure the kid is somehow associated with ‘Evil Andrew’ because ‘Evil Andrew’…if you remember from above…has an Oregon driver’s license. I also know that ‘Evil Andrew’ went to freecreditreport.com and got access to my credit records in August. So…what I think happened is that the kid gave him all of the Marcel’s Oregon info. ‘Evil Andrew’ then made a fake Oregon driver’s license with some of that info and my name on it. By the way, I know the driver’s license is fake because I called the Oregon DMV and asked them to run the number. Not only did they say the license was suspended, but they told me that the name was nowhere even close to ‘Andrew Geonetta’. Neat. With my SS#, the newly minted fake driver’s license, all of my credit info and the Marcel’s perosnal info, Andrew created a nice new life for himself.
4. The name of ‘Evil Andrew’s’ company in the ‘letter’ that was sent from his ‘business partner’ was ‘517 Systems’. I think 517 is some kind of Linux database write error or something. 517 was also the address of the PO box.
5. According to ‘Evil Andrew’s’ student ID, he was a Graduate Assistant in the Applied Physics Lab there.
6. ‘Evil Andrew’ was apparently born on 2/15/65.
7. ‘Evil Andrew’ has apparently moved a little over 50K worth of cash in and out of a USAA bank account.

That’s all I have for now. More updates as they come. I’m waiting for the Las Vegas PD to open up a case and get back to me. My one fear is that ‘Evil Andrew’ is going to feel a disturbance in the force here soon and take off before the Police or FBI have a chance to catch him. It’s taking way too long for a case to be set up…and this idiot could be checking that mailbox anytime.

Must. Catch.  Now.

First, I have to take a moment to say that, sometimes, I really appreciate people. If I’ve learned anything in life, it is that it pays to be nice, gracious and patient when dealing with things like this because you never know who you really might be dealing with.

As you know, ‘Evil Andrew’ went ahead and opened up a checking account with USAA in my name. In order to do that, you have to be in the military, so apparently I am a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force…

But that’s besides the point…

I’ve been in contact with a guy named Damon who is a Fraud Investigator there. After chatting several times, it turns out that Damon is a really cool guy, and seems very interested in helping me out. I mean, sure…it’s in his best interest to do so, seeing that his employer got fraudified (note to self: copyright this word), but really, he has probably gone above and beyond what he normally should be doing. He has given me quite a bit of information and really done a great job of keeping in contact.

For example, in continuing his own investigation, he found out that ‘Evil Andrew’ opened up yet another credit card, this one a Chase business credit card, and has racked up a whopping $23,155.79 on it. I wouldn’t have known this by looking at my credit report because all of these things are not showing up there. Which brings me to a little digression and word of warning to you all…

The way I understand it, you have two different credit reports attached to your name; your personal credit and your business credit. When you go to check your personal credit report, you never see any of the other stuff and (I think) vice versa. In other words, this could have kept going on for quite some time and I would have never known about it until a bunch of debt collectors came knocking at my door. And I would most likely have a very hard time in the future doing anything entreprenuerial that required credit. This is apparently how these guys fly under the radar.

Anyway…back to my original point, which was being nice and gracious to people pays off. So Damon warned me about this card. Then we started talking, and I learn that Damon was in the FBI for 13 years. He then lets me know that the agent who is currently on the case in Nevada is a friend of his, and that he should be able to get information as it comes in pretty quickly. And most importantly, he said his friend feels pretty confident that they’re going to catch this guy.

Now…I could’ve been mad or short or pissy with this guy or any number of the other people I’ve dealt with. In my own humble opinion, I think I probably have every right to be, seeing that everyone was initially expecting me to account for what now amounts to well iver $45K in losses. I’ve also been dealing with more phone calls than you could imagine. I think my cell bill is going to go through the roof. Everytime I’ve had to remind myself that these are people are just doing their jobs…and if I’m just cool and patient and show some appreciation, they’ll be more inclined to believe what I’m telling them. And so far, that policy has paid off. It doesn’t make it any less frustrating, but it has netted me quicker responses and extra information.

Another example was this guy John at the UPS Store in Nevada. Because I treated him with respect and didn’t flip the ‘ef out when he told me that there was nothing he could do about letting me know more information on ‘Evil Andrew’, he ended up being extremely cooperative with an administrative lead rather than an investigator at the Austin Police Department. They told me you’d normally have to get a subpoena to get the information he had on record. He ended up just faxing it over without any questions. Out of all of the people involved in this, John just happened to have the most valuable information, that being a copy of the driver’s license with ‘Evil Andrew’s’ picture on it and a copy of a school ID.

So…in summary…just be nice. Except when the person is ‘Evil Andrew’, and then you can just cap him for me.

.:the plot thickens:.

the ‘wtf, mate’ factor has increased exponentially since my first post.

part of me is pretty fascinated with this in the sense of the process. there are a lot of moving pieces to this whole thing, and so i think the project manager in me is interested in making sure that everything lines up right and the left hand knows what the right hand is doing. for example, the credit collector…who now seems to be on my side/my friend…has to know what USAA bank is doing because ‘evil andrew’ went ahead and opened up a checking account in my name and was trying to pay american express with bad checks from it. ‘evil andrew’ also has a mailbox at a UPS store in las vegas, so in order to get information from the manager there, i had to call a detective at the austin police department who will then pass along everything she finds out to the FBI because, since this is across state lines and involves so much money, it has now become a federal case.

the other part of me is really annoyed that my life has been disturbed in such a way. it’s one thing to have your car broken into or even just a credit card stolen and used…but it’s a whole different ballgame when someone manages to get ahold of your social security number (and i have no idea how this guy did that). it’s bizarre to think that your entire life and everything you are in the system that is the united states of america is based on one 9-digit number.

the good news is that i’m extremely, extremely close to finding out who this guy is. a guy named john at the UPS store in las vegas, NV. has ALL kinds of stuff from ‘evil andrew’, including a copy of his driver’s license…which was an oregon driver’s license and has my name on it. john faxed all of that information over to the austin police department today.

i don’t know why, but i really want to see who this person is. i don’t feel like this is really happening to me, and maybe if i see who is doing this it’ll become more real. it’s something you see and hear about all the time, but…as the cliche goes…you never expect it to happen to you. and when it does, it’s so hard to reconcile in your own head. it becomes even more unreal when you hear someone tells you that they can’t give you information on something that is in your name because you can’t provide them with the correct identifying information. for example, i called up dell financial services because ‘evil andrew’ apparently went ahead and opened up an account with them in december of ‘07. i wanted to make sure that the account could not be accessed, but because i couldn’t tell the guy ‘my mother’s maiden name’ and my ‘correct address’, there wasn’t anything he could do. i had to beg him to put a block on the account so that it couldn’t be accessed. if i wouldn’t have begged him to do this, the account would still be open and at risk…even after i had warned him the account was fraudulent. i still don’t think he believed that it was really me…

so the crazines continues. at least i know now that the case is going to be handled by the FBI. for some reason that makes me think that stuff is gonna’ get done…

.:go get your own damn life:.

Friday, 2.15.08, I learned that I apparently own a business in Las Vegas, NV. called “Quantum, LLC”. I also apparently live there…somewhere like 3157 N. Rainbow Road or something like that. Not a huge deal. You know…I mean…sometimes we forget some periods of time in our lives. Sometimes we forget major events like opening businesses. Or moving to a new and exciting place like Las Vegas.

Sometimes we even forget about opening those two American Express business-class cards and charging on the upwards of 20K between the two of them. And then we do things like write bad checks to pay them, which makes the fine folks at American Express not-so-happy. And then they send friendly people like Angela West from National Credit out to collect that money from you.

Gosh…why can’t people just understand that we forget these things…?

…….

OK. So now that’s out there, I’m going to turn my sarcasm meter into the full ‘off’ position. I am now going to switch on over to my trusty ‘WTF, mate’ meter and turn that up to approximately 11. Out of 10. I’ve found that by adding that extra numeric setting on there, I have plenty of room to manuever in the current state of the world today.

Sometimes you just need that little extra level of ‘WTF’ in your life, you know?

Yeah, all of what I said above about Vegas and about a couple of cards being maxed and in collections is all quite true. And…let’s be clear just in case for some reason someone in the judicial system is looking stuff up on me about this and they could potentially misconstrue what I’m saying as, “Yes, I did this.”

1. No, I did not do this…nor would I ever even think of doing something like this.
2. No, I have never lived in Vegas.
3. No, I do not have 2 Amex business cards that I charged a bunch of money to and failed to pay.
4. No, I do not own any kind of business called ‘Quantum, LLC’.

I just found out about this on Friday morning when Miss West informed me about it. She and I spent about 15 minutes on the phone trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and she said she’d get back to me on Monday (tomorrow, 2.18) to let me know what else she has found out. There were a couple of points during the conversation where she said something about maybe not being able to prove that it wasn’t me, in which case I might end up having to pay it or whatever. Of course, uhh, that was a little bit of a shock. But I’m going to chalk it up to being that since she’s low-lady-on-the-totem-pole, she has no ‘effing clue what she’s talking about.

So I spent the rest of my entire day on Friday…at WORK, mind you…attempting to call everywhere that I needed to call in order to put some order to the madness and ensure that the bleeding of my identity and personal life was staunched as quickly as possible. I called the FTC. I called American Express. I called the credit bureaus. I called the police. I called the Texas DPS. I ordered up my credit reports. I’m praying that all of this work I’ve now done will help put this thing behind me as quickly as humanly possible. Fortunately, none of this has hit my credit record yet, which is a very good thing. But it just sucks because if it does, I’m going to have a heck of a time getting it removed.

But beyond the logistics of all of this, man…I can’t emphasize how crazy it is to know that someone out there actually has my social security number and it can be used pretty easily to do things like this. Just to give you an example of exactly how easy, apparently this fine person decided to open up these two cards on October 12th, 2007. Observe that I just said two cards. American Express allowed this person, without any questions or any type of confirmation, to open up two business class cards…on the exact same day. You would think that when a person tries to open up two cards that some kind of trigger would go off in the system that would enable some extra level of clearance/security/etc. But that isn’t the case.

Yep…that’s my latest excitement. If any of you happen to run into someone claiming they’re me and they work for Quantum Group, LLC…do me a favor. Punch ‘em in the face and call 9-1-1. I’ll give you a nice shiny nickle if you do it…