journal features

identity theft, episode I

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2011.05.26

I'm the victim of identity theft. I'm not sure how it happened, of course, but my good name and my address are in circulation.

It started today with a phone bill for two smartphone numbers on an account with Virgin Mobile. We don't have an account with that company, nor do we have smartphones. Also, there's a slight error in the address that I find interesting (no apartment number).

No question about it, someone's using my information. Happily, they didn't stick me with a credit card bill, so it seems that they don't have that information at hand. And yet, I think I'll start doing the rounds, making sure that I'm replacing cards and alerting my banks to the fact of this incident. Haven't decided on that score, yet.

I sure hope this ends here.

rand()m quote

For a long time I was very bitter that the people who controlled the means of anybody ever hearing my songs were never gonna play them. They only favored music that I specifically and particularly hated, and I wanted them dead. Suddenly, there was another avenue. I started hearing my stuff coming out of bars and then it started to happen little by little -- a movie song here or a TV ad there.

—Iggy Pop