Honestly, I don't trust those programs that keep all of my passwords in some vault. So I change up my passwords in my own unique ways, and I leave myself hints that only I can understand in a spreadsheet. I'm 47 and too old to do all that stuff, though I seriously wished that I could learn the ins and outs of networking and programming so that I'd trust programs like password vaults more. Right now, I don't have enough knowledge to make an informed decision.

Why?

Because this weekend someone used my phone number on their Apple order, and I received a text stating that my order (which I never placed) was ready to be picked up. I contacted the Apple store to indicate that I never placed the order. I contacted the FTC to file a fraud activity that was used with my phone via a text message I had received. I contacted the BBB to inform them that I received various answers from various Apple representatives (one at the store, one online, and one horrible lady in C/S that I was accidentally transferred to), which included one cancelling the order and making the lady reorder the item once she showed up in the store or otherwise, one that stated that the person who used to have my number accidentally used it to place this order (even though Apple, the company, should have validated and verified the number before sending me an unwanted text, if that were truly the case and not some spoofing hoax), and yet another who said that the lady with the old phone number who placed the order was the victim and not me - of which I dissociated and told her where to go before hanging up on her. I also contacted my phone carrier to inform them about the potential fraudulent activities, and how I've been receiving numerous unwanted spam calls and texts, and how the app wasn't working to block them. They finally fixed it, but that took me deleting and then reinstalling the app because of some glitch on their end. The technology is there, but the functionalities are not always on par with user-friendly needs. Ugh - not a simple task at all. Very taxing, stressful, and time-consuming. It took me a few hours (half my day) to complete that because of unwanted texts, which took away from my day and worsened my mental health. It also partly ruined my holiday weekend - as I'm alone anyways, but who needs a retraumatization scare about possible identity theft when I've experienced it as a veteran many times in my past because veterans are often targets of data breaches and the like. I'm sick of having spoofed this, hacked that, money stolen, etc. It's driving me insane, and then to be told by companies covering their asses that I'm wrong in reporting fraud, when that is exactly what is within my rights to do from the FTC, etc. I contacted the BBB to ensure me that the order placed with my phone number was cancelled and that the cancellation wasn't rescinded by that nasty C/S rep I was transferred to in the end.

So a few easy steps took multiple few manageable steps and lots of trauma processing because identity theft is NOT a victimless crime, and it does lead to PTSD or worsening PTSD when being a polyvictim, and blaming victims and victim-shaming only adds to the trauma that I had to experience over the holiday weekend when people politically do their Black Friday shopping, which includes many risks, including identity theft among one of the many environmental pathogens out there based on human behavior and belief systems.

I'm so done being the responsible victim in charge of watching, fighting, protecting, avoiding, etc., etc., etc.

It's not a matter of a few measly steps because it takes an effing lifetime to manage PTSD that never goes away in a cruel world that takes, rapes, and hates.