Why fraud and identity theft?

Before I became a senior Wealth Manager advising millionaires on tax minimization and wealth maximization strategies, I was an entry level financial advisor.  I worked in a cubicle farm inbound call center taking calls all day every day.  When you start in that role, the people you work with don’t have much money.  I would spend my day trying to talk them into opening a money market savings account and funding it with the minimum $20 a month to get it opened and going.  When they weren’t in a position to save, the discussion was often on credit scores and debt management.  How do I fix my credit score? How do I raise my credit score?  What the fuck IS a credit score?  Needless to say I became an expert in how credit scores work and how the different major credit bureaus calculate your actual number.  I would walk people that had never accessed their scores before through the process of how to obtain that information online.  I had full access to all of their private and secure information and again, being on lots of Adderall I became very proficient in workarounds and troubleshooting when they had trouble accessing their full report.

Fast forward about 10 years.  I was starting to run low on my half of the divorce money.  When I divorced, deep inside, a part of me knew what I was doing was very, VERY, wrong. I somehow also knew that I was in past the point of no return and was going to go all the way.  I split off financially and mentally as much as possible.  I didn’t even hire a divorce attorney. I didn’t care what I got, I just wanted some cash quick and continue my dive off the deep end.  I signed whatever papers she placed in front of me having never read them.  All I remember is that I gave her the house and some of the cash and non-retirement mutual funds.  I took my 401k and the individual stocks and a little cash.  Approximately $200,000.  I immediately started selling and converting all of my assets to cash.  Along with renting a lavish bachelor pad, I also launched an illegal underground gambling game room in south Houston (I’ll save that for another post.)  When the money eventually started to get low I started maxing out my credit cards.  When I split I had a 740 credit score and multiple credit cards with $25,000 limits.  I maxed the cash advances and found a meth dealer that would take PayPal payments for twice the typical cost for an ounce of meth ($900 instead of $450ish.)

Here’s some snapshots of my current consumer debt…yikes.  On a quick side note, I’m also into the IRS for over $40,000 in backtaxes from withdrawing my 401(k) before I turned 59 1/2.  I have found it better to try and not dwell on these ludicrous but certain obligations.  If I think about them too much I start to lose my sanity. 

As my cash got low and cards neared their limits I felt the end of the party was near.  In retrospect, I think it’s telling that I never slowed down my spending.  Like I didn’t spend less on shit thinking I was getting low on resources.  My last credit card charge was for an expensive dinner at a sushi restaurant.  I didn’t care. I figured at that point, well I have come this far, might as well go all the way.  At this point I was also dealing.  One day when I was almost maxed out, this girl ordered some shit from me and I went to her hotel to drop it off.  There was another guy with her, “Phil.”

I dropped off the shit and stayed to smoke a bowl with them.  Phil had gotten out of jail a few months prior after serving a two year stint in TDC (Texas Department of Corrections/prison.)  We started talking and I immediately noticed this guy was not my typical meth-buying clientele.  He was well-spoken, same age as me, and had nice shit. Two iPhone Pluses and a $2,200 Dell laptop with the fingerprint scan and shit.  It’s not often you run into tweakers with nice equipment like that.  Most of them end up pawning whatever nice shit they have.  The girl that introduced us, “Janna,” had wanted us to meet and was kind of playing matchmaker.  As we talked, I noticed a stack of IDs and credit cards on the desk and asked what was up with those.  He handed them to me.  It was about 15-20 Texas Drivers Licenses all with his picture and all with different names.  These weren’t fucked off IDs though.  They were legit.  They had holograms and immediately caught my attention.  

Phil had gone to prison for some fraud shit and was back out and back in the fast life.  Janna knew I used to be in personal finance and she had shared that with him.  Phil and I immediately clicked.  He liked that I was an educated and well spoken dealer. I also liked that he was well spoken and had some nice gear, but more importantly, I liked his IDs.  As we talked I discovered he came from a good family just as I had.  Grew up privileged and with parents that were very loving and caring.  His two younger brothers were in college and doing better than average. Parents were still married and lived in an affluent suburb of Houston in the same nice house he grew up in.  He went to Penn State on a golf scholarship and did OK until he came home for summer and got hooked on meth.  He never looked back.  From my run in the streets I met two individuals that I clicked with off the rip.  One was Phil, the other was Sawyer (he’s the one that got us the private jets, I’ll save that for another post.)  After meeting and talking with Phil about his scams and schemes he had cooking I knew right away that he was going to be my ticket to keep the high going.  I knew that his knowledge combined with my knowledge was going to be mutually beneficial to keep things going for me.