On August 14, 2013, I received a call from the Citibank fraud department, asking if I had authorized anyone from Lockheart, Texas to be an “authorized user” on my Citi credit card account. Apparently, the last name of the erstatz authorized user was “Lopez.” I told them that I had not authorized anyone to use my credit card account. The people at Citi were great, actually, and helped me report the identity theft to the three credit bureaus, who put an extra layer of security on my account.

It appears that my personal information is in the possession of several fraudsters. Citibank contacted me on August 23 and told me that someone attempted to open a Wyndham Rewards credit card with Barclay bank. I contact Barclay, and they sent me the application. The person who attempted to open the Wyndham card would have added “Barbara Crislip” as an authorized user on the fraudulent account. I’m not saying that Ms. Crislip is the identity thief–for all I know it is a fake name or Ms. Crislip is somehow an unwitting victim as well. The IP address on the application indicates that applicant was using America Online, and likely in the North Dakota/Kansas area.

If anyone has any more information on Barbara Crislip, I’d love to hear it. A google search did not turn up anything beyond a couple of facebook accounts of middle-aged women.