Was the notice sent through U.S. Mail, or was it an email? My first concern would be that this is a scam designed to get you to click on some link and input your credit card data supposedly to "protect" it, but what you'd really be doing is putting it into a thief's website. If you have not done so yet, call Countrywide and verify that this is actually something which has occurred. Do not click on any links in email messages you may have received, and do not call the numbers written on the notice you got. Call Countrywide at a customer service number printed on your statement or somewhere else that you can be sure that you're really calling them and not someone else. My concern arises from the fact that, if this did occur, I would think they would suggest a very definite course of action, and would assign someone to work with you on it. I do not think an acceptable solution would be to offer you free "credit watch" protection when one of their own employees has stolen your personal data. If you find that this really did occur, go to Annualcreditreport.com (link below) and pull your three credit reports right away. Contact your credit card issuers and advise them of what has happened; they will probably cancel your current cards and issue new ones with new numbers. In addition, save all correspondence related to this in case legal action is required later. Here is a link that might be useful: AnnualCreditReport.com

I really enjoyed it too. Brought a smile to my face. I sort of have an imposter here. My Manx walks and runs much like a rabbit at times and with that stumpy tail, she looks rabbitish from the south side. She's been unusually affectionate lately. Hanging SUPER close. Got me wondering if she's one of those "death predicting" critters.... sooooo if I'm not back, you'll know who predicted it! :)

It may be identity theft but it could also be the doctor's office not entering the correct insurance number. Several insurance companies are interconnected and only use the insurance number to find addresses in their systems. If the insurance number keyed to your name and address the computer would fill in the blanks using your information. I had this happen a couple of years ago. Insurance system at that time read the card but the receptionist had to rekey the number to verify it. Both names and numbers were on the card but she picked up my husband's number. I had a hard time correcting.

I'm sorry you're dealing with all of that. It's a royal pain and you're right - it takes hours and hours and lots of fortitude to deal with it. So far we haven't had identity theft of that magnitude. But I just put a freeze on my credit with the 3 credit bureaus. I needed to have my middle name added to my SS card because NJ Motor Vehicle wants it match my driver's license. SS wouldn't do it over the phone so I made an appt at our local agency. That was the easy part and the agent said I would get a new card within 2 weeks. Well it never arrived. SS verified that it had been mailed to the correct address and said they'd send another one. But it's not very reassuring to know that my SS card is floating around somewhere in the mail or even worse delivered to the wrong address. Hopefully you caught it in time and you won't have any more problems. Maire