Filed under: awareness and causes, musings & meanderings | Tags: identity theft
This post is in response to comments and reactions (especially by Twitter) i’ve received recently regarding my identity theft problem. (Thanks guys for taking the time to read my post! May God’s peace and protection be upon you, always.)
I’ve been accessing the internet since 1996, which means i’ve been on the net for more than a decade now. Yes, way back when text browsers are used in order to navigate the world wide web; a decade when facebook, multiply, and friendster are not yet household names.
I’m not a person who will publish things falsely or make conclusions based on feelings or emotions. I do not lack logic; i take great care at doing research and gathering enough evidence, plus scrutizining the facts. Yes, several people do exist with the same name. Er, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure that one out! However, these won’t change the fact that someone has been assuming ‘my identity’ online.
It’s not a matter of ‘Googling’ your name and finding out that you share the same name with three or more people on social networking sites. What i’m saying is, someone assuming your identity will cause you a great deal of problem. So, it’s up to you to find out who these people are, what they’ve been up to, and if they pose as a threat to anyone specially to helpless and clueless minors.
Find out if someone opened a new credit account and charging stuff under your name. Did they take out a loan assuming your identity? A victim of identity theft could end up with serious debt. Did you know how much $$$ lawyers are charging these days for consultation? How many fees will pile up and how much your insurance will shoot up because of this kind of problem?
Identity theft is no laughing matter, so don’t be surprised why i’m so serious about it!
photo credit: the dark knight, warner bros.
Filed under: awareness and causes, daily discoveries, musings & meanderings | Tags: fake friendster accounts, identity theft
My name is Joy Isaguirre and I’ve been a victim of Identity Theft.
A few weeks back, i have noticed that someone opened a Facebook account using my name. Since there was no picture and profile information at the time, i dismissed it (wrong move), thinking it’s best to get on with my life.
Yesterday, as i was going through the perpetrator’s account: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000091552011 (which was recently removed by Facebook, at my request), i found that there are 44 minors connected to the fake Facebook profile. And it did not stop there! The person also opened a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/joyisaguirre) and several Friendster accounts using my name:
http://profiles.friendster.com/101828450
http://profiles.friendster.com/86488412
http://profiles.friendster.com/86005734
http://profiles.friendster.com/85955072
Someone is assuming my identity and the perpetrator is targeting minors on Social Networking sites. This is serious matter. As i was investigating how the thief may have gotten my information online, I noticed a microsite which indicated my name, age, occupation, and other personal information.
These information are easily accessible by anyone on the Internet. Since these information are highly personal in nature and should not be given freely, i immediately emailed and informed someone from the microsite about the matter. I requested that they remove my information or make the page not accessible by the public, as soon as possible.
The reply i received from the microsite was a bit disappointing. Yes, they will help me but i will have to wait until Monday next week before their programmer can remove my information from the microsite.
This incident has caused me a great deal of stress because the person using my identity is targeting minors. Believe me, you don’t want to be a victim of Identity Theft. It will cause you serious $$$ and stress. And yes it could happen to anyone.
So if i were you, i’d be proactive. Do everything you can to protect your identity, before anyone can steal and do some serious damage.
Filed under: musings & meanderings | Tags: 10 lessons by joy isaguirre, lessons learned
They say the most important and often difficult lessons in life are those we learn through the people closest to us, the people that we love the most. If not for them, the lessons will never be as effective nor will it accomplish the very purpose it was intended for.
And so i write, i write about the lessons i’ve learned these past few days about life, people, relationships, and God.
1. When you’re hurt, say it loud and clear. Healing starts the moment you admit you are hurting.
2. Friendship is not a bank where you deposit love and get a guarantee on withdrawal. Friendship is a soil where you sow love and allow the other person to reap so that you can grow.
3. In relationships, there will always be harsh lessons of reality. Don’t fool yourself, open your eyes and see the truth. Don’t cheat yourself out of the lessons that will help you to become strong.
4. You can’t force people to be concerned, instead concern yourself with what is important to them.
5. Never expect friends to act and treat you like family, because if they will then God would’ve given you the same parents.
6. Friends are not family, but family can be your most dependable friends.
7. Hurt will always lead to anger, but never allow anger to lead you to bitterness, unforgiveness, and revenge.
8. If God’s anger lasts for just a moment, don’t you think we should try to have a much shorter deadline?
9. They say, in relationships it’s better to know the truth, atleast you know where to place your cards. I say, a relationship is not a deck of cards you play with a poker face.
10. When pain and anger says, “No more,” allow Love to reign and shout, “Once more!”
Filed under: musings & meanderings, travel & living | Tags: sm north edsa, sm sky garden
When you think about your past, what events and places do you remember? What memories do you allow to play over in your mind? I’m sure some of you can come up with a massive list of memories that you’d want to play over and over, like Friends’ re-runs on a local channel.
Given the same question, i would personally handpick one specific place that i’d like to live in my mind forever.
SM City North Edsa.
As i sit here, i realized how memorable this place has been to me. It brings back a lot of happy moments, not to forget the painful ones. SM City North Edsa is where i usually go whenever i feel something, when i need to take a stroll and ruminate.
It’s a place that helps me sort out my confusions when troubles come my way and problems never seem to end. It somewhat comforts me in a way that only this place know. I find contentment just by seating there, watching people move on to different directions.
I’m a city girl, i was born and raised in Quezon City. Attended church, a private school, college, and got my first job for an American company right in the heart of the city. Every detail about my childhood and teenage years up to this point revolves around the city, and my solace, SM City North.
During elementary years, i had my first taste of the real world. It was the period when we had to go through a great difficulty as a family. It was also the time when my classmates in school started to treat me differently, an outcast. Oblivious to them, we were going through a lot of pain and hardships as a family. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining, and it was during these years that my elder brother and i started to bond.
He would take me to SM North Edsa every Saturday so i can buy books and we’d go for hotdogs and just hang out afterwards. My passion for the written word and my positive outlook on life were weaned through the help of my elder sibling, under the roof of SM City North Edsa.
It sort of reminds me of the time when Mr. Henry Sy started SM City North Edsa back in 1985, it was a year or so after a great political and econonomic turmoil in our country. Mr. Sy did not choose the path of least resistance, he didn’t opt for mediocrity as an answer to the future. Instead, he decided to burst free from the cultural gravitational pull that tells each of us to settle and set our sights low for life. SM City North Edsa was built because people like Mr. Sy decided to pursue life with excellence and the desire to leave a legacy.
Interestingly enough, on Friday, May 29, 2009 SM City North Edsa will formally open its door to the new and innovative part of the mall, the Sky Garden.
I would like to personally invite you to visit my place of solace that will definitely leave a mark on history.
A calloused heart is like a stone. A stone is hard, you can speak to it but it won’t talk back. You can spill water on a stone but it will not absorb it, water will just run through it. Another characteristic of stone is when you get knocked by it, you will definitely get hurt.
Most of us won’t recognize it when we have a calloused heart. So how will we know if we have a heart of stone or a calloused heart? It’s when we exhibit passive or aggressive behavior. Passive behavior makes us feel bad, weak, or stupid. It also leads us to paralysis or nonaction. Agressive behavior makes us angry with other people. Afterwards, it makes us feel guilty or ashamed of ourselves.
Here’s a list of things that will help us determine if we have a heart of stone (calloused heart):
1. We keep people at a distance.
2. We tend to hide or distract people from ourselves.
3. We keep a good front or have a hard time expressing ourselves.
4. We stuff our emotions, instead of allowing ourselves to face it.
5. We are sickly/stressful.
6. Loneliness and/or isolation.
7. Lack of intimacy.
8. Ambivalence.
9. Reluctance and confusion.
10. We would hurt others before they will hurt us.
How do we develop a calloused heart? As we travel this journey called life, we tend to grow layers upon layers of callouse. Callouse is defined as a protective covering. Normally, callouse is found in our feet, but did you know our hearts can also develop this protective covering? It is when we protect ourselves from pain by keeping people away. When we turn our hearts into a castle, pulling up a drawbridge. When we trigger our protective mechanism. A protective mechanism is usually a vow we make (consciously or unconsciously) when we get hurt. A vow never to do this or that again. When we tell ourselves we will never experience pain again. As the days or years go by, we tend to forget the vow we made, but our bodies does not.
So how does a calloused heart gets healed? No amount of spa treatments or special ointments can help heal a calloused heart. Only when we turn over our hearts to God and allow Him to change it into a heart of flesh can we truly get healed. The healing process will startt once we repent of our inner vows, giving ourselves the permission to be vulnerable. Choosing to let it out and let it go. When we choose to forgive the people who hurt us.
God wants us to have sensitive hearts, a heart of flesh that is open to Him so we can clearly hear what He says. And what is He trying to say to us? In Ezekiel 36:26, He tells us, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
A heart of flesh is like a sponge. Unlike a stone (calloused heart), a sponge can absorb water. We should be like a sponge, that even when people squeeeze us, only water (love) will flow.
