Damn it, Jim

I got the official word today. My social security number, birth date and email address were indeed stolen. Obviously, the email address isn't a big deal -- spammers have been spamming that address since I got it way back in the paleolithic days of the Internet. But someone out there is running around with BOTH my SSN and birth date -- which is bad in so many ways.

They think the theft was around April 11th, but I didn't receive preliminary notification until the 23rd. And now it's well into the first week of May. ::sigh:: I've already put the fraud alerts on my accounts, and now I'm waiting for the complimentary copies of my credit report to arrive. The question is, how long do I have to monitor my accounts? Do identity theft thieves wait for the 90 days for fraud alerts to expire and *then* hawk the SSNs and birth dates?

The thing that gets me, that REALLY gets me, is that database that was broken into? It's from my life five years ago. FIVE YEARS AGO. And I had that one and only contact FIVE YEARS AGO. What the hell are they still doing with my information? And btw, this is their SECOND break-in in several years, so obviously, their security leaves much to be desired. I'm already a nervous wreck when things are going well, and I'm paranoid under the best of circumstances. So to say I'm unhappy and upset about this latest turn of events would be an understatement.