​Lots of people take pride in their allegiance to their credit cards. They think paying the minimum balance (or even the whole balance!) each month makes them good upstanding members of human society. Paying one's debts to the credit card companies becomes almost a matter of morality.

But what do you do when you just can't pay? You've done your best, but your income is not sufficient to make all the minimum payments because somehow and for some reason your balances have, like, exponentially increased and your minimum payments have skyrocketed. It feels like you're in the twilight zone. And you feel guilty, like you really owe something to these legalized loan sharks we call credit card companies.

Let me tell you something. Go ahead and ask a credit card company for a copy of your contract with them to pay back the money they have "loaned" you. Chances are, there is no contract. They might send you a sample contract. That's because credit card companies are always changing the contracts. My opinion: if the credit card company cannot produce a contract, you're under no obligation to pay them back for anything. They just gave you free money. (Caveat: I am not a lawyer or financial advisor. None of this is legal or financial advice. It's just my personal opinion.)

Let's look at how credit works. The credit card company gives you a certain amount of credit to use with the expectation that you will carry a balance. In fact, that's what they want. Because their profit margin comes from interest payments and other fees. The prime objective of the credit card company is to put you into debt and then rely  on the fact that your misguided moral compass will lead you to make monthly payments that count primarily towards interest.

That's why your balance continues to increase and your interest owed increases with it.

The credit card companies, armed with analysts, will extend lines of credit to multiple individuals. Here's the other thing. Chances are the credit card companies aren't really lending you their money. They're lending you money that has been given to them in the form of investments, savings, and checking accounts-presumably for safe-keeping by individuals just like you. So, in essence, the credit card company is extending lines of credit using other people's money and earning pure profit from interest and fees charged to you and merchants. It's a racket.

You give your money to a bank for safekeeping. The bank turns that money into a vehicle to make profits from extending lines of credit to people just like you. In fact, your creditors should be thanking you for putting money in any bank anywhere because they are using your money to make themselves rich.

Your moral compass, that little voice in your head telling you to pay your debts at all costs, just does not realize that the banks are using your hard-earned money to make huge profits from charging high interest rates to people just like you-to you, in fact. If you want to get overly simplistic about it, well, it's almost like you're giving your money to the bank and the bank is lending it back to you and charging you an interest rate to use it.

So, really, the banks should be writing you a thank you note rather than sending you a collection notice. The system is rigged to turn you into a profit center for the banks. And if the banks fail, guess what?

We've seen what happens.

The federal government will use the tax dollars you paid it to bail out the banks.

So if you are up to your ears in debt, don't feel bad about it. If you've put your money in the banks and paid your taxes at any point in your life, then you have already helped the rich get richer. You earn your money through hard work. The banks earn their money through the manipulation of the masses. In fact, your bank probably does not even really have your money. Your money is somewhere else, amassed in a great pool of other people's money, making the bank richer. The banks just rely on you to keep giving them your income and then borrowing money from them at high interest rates.

If everyone went to the bank right now and tried to withdraw the money in their accounts, the whole house of cards would collapse, because the money isn't really there. Even the FDIC does not have enough money to make good on its promise to insure all accounts. But guess what? Even if you tried to withdraw your money, that hard earned cash you've given to the bank for safe-keeping, the chances are that the bank would not allow it. Banks are smart. They establish maximum daily withdrawal limits. In short, once you've given your money to the bank, the bank can take your money and hold it prisoner. How's your moral compass feeling now?

Well, there are some ways you can come out ahead. The first step is recognizing that banks are using you as a profit center both by accepting your income and by extending you lines of credit with high interest rates. If you've put money in a savings account or borrowed money to buy a house, rest easy. You've done due diligence to make the rich richer. And when you can't pay those minimum balances because you lost your job or the payments just got too high, don't feel bad. Feel empowered. If you're practically penniless and living on credit, then you can just think of yourself as enjoying the benefits of having been used as a profit center for most of your life. Don't cower when the debt collectors call. Yell at them. File consumer protection complaints against them. Ask them to prove that you actually owe them the money they're telling you you owe them. Chances are high that they have no signed contracts to prove you owe them anything.

When Citibank once told me I owed them $35,000, I asked them to prove it, and you know what? They could not. Either they lost the original signed contract or there never was one in the first place. Recognize that when you are penniless and up to your ears in debt, you are now also in a position of power. 

There is a little thing we have in America called Chapter 7 bankruptcy which you can declare and which will magically make all of your debts vanish. The banks, as of yet, cannot stop you from washing your hands of unwanted debt, as long as you qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and as long as you got into debt as a kind of honest mistake. Sure, you get punished for a while when you declare bankruptcy. It may take you about a year before you can open up a brand new line of credit and get back in the game. Why are they letting you back in? Because the merry-go-round must keep spinning. We're Americans. We live beyond our means. THE ECONOMY NEEDS US TO BUY THINGS!!!

We are borrowers and buyers. So go merrily into debt if you must and fight back when the debt collectors call! If you are an American, you have most likely paid your dues. Let yourself off the moral hook. You've borrowed money from amoral institutions. Be your own Robin Hood. The financial laws of this free country allow it, just like they allow the banks to screw you over. Debt is fun and it's even more fun when you tell the debt collectors that you're going to stand strong and strike back with a bankruptcy filing. Don't be afraid, and always live richly! 

If you've enjoyed what you've read and you're looking for some more "zany tips" on how to thrive in a mad, mad world of debt and sorrow, you may want to try reading my books, HOW TO BE RICH IN TEN MINUTES, and its companion piece, HOW TO BE HAPPY IN TEN MINUTES. Click on the images below to buy the paperback versions. (Also available on Kindle). 

​Author Dan Sullivan is a writer, storyteller, consultant, and consumer and civil rights advocate. If you need assistance, he can be reached at (202) 340-6724 or dan@dansullivanprojects.com. ​

First off, what is identity theft? First coined in 1964, the term identity theft refers to theft of another person’s “personally identifying information,” which could include name, date of birth, social security number, phone number, driver’s license number, bank account number or credit card numbers, PIN numbers, email passwords, fingerprints, or any other information that can be used by the thief to access financial resources, benefits, or commit other fraudulent activity.
 
When you think of identity theft, you probably are thinking about someone using your credit card number to make online purchases, or using your social security number to take out a fraudulent mortgage loan. But the true face of identity theft is far more complex. A scary variation of traditional identity theft, for example, is what has come to be known as synthetic identity theft.
 
This is where the identity thief might use a real social security number with a different name, date of birth, and address, combining the personally identifying information of real people or slight variations in your actual name to form a new identity. Accounts opened under this new identity would still be attached to the social security number, but these accounts would be in sub-files not available in consumer credit reports.
 
Only some industries that run credit checks, like auto lenders, have the capability of running credit checks that reach into these sub-files. In other words, someone could be using your social security number RIGHT NOW, with a different name, to open accounts. Or someone could be using your name and address in combination with another person’s social security number. This type of identity theft seems particularly creepy, because it is so difficult to detect.

There are various other creepy forms of identity theft. In tax refund identity theft, the thief uses your social security number and a W2 to file taxes electronically to get a refund deposited to an account of his or her choosing. (Did you know the IRS often does not actually verify W2 information before sending out refunds for electronic tax filings? That surprised me! Fake W2s may slip through in an electronic filing.) Another nefarious form of identity theft is criminal identity theft: here the thief uses your personal identifying information, like your fingerprints, to commit a crime. Victims of criminal identity theft may find out they have arrest records or warrants for their arrest for crimes they did not commit. (So next time someone you do not know very well asks you to hold an unmarked package that may contain something illicit or to hold something that could be used as a weapon, like a hammer, for a few minutes, think twice before doing so, because this is an easy way for that person to get your fingerprints on an object that may be associated with a past or future crime.)

In my work, and in my own personal life, I have begun to work on confronting and helping others confront identity theft.  I subscribe to a service called Been Verified. For the most part, I use this service during the course of my investigative work to run background checks on individuals, trace telephone numbers to owners and carriers, and run property reports to determine real estate ownership, etc.  The information yielded by Been Verified is mostly accurate, though additional fact-checking is usually necessary. The primary value of the service is that it digs up information that can be helpful in directing additional investigation of a particular subject matter.

But why do I mention Been Verified here? Well, naturally, I ran a background check on myself, which triggered the Been Verified system to scan the Dark Web for my personal identifying information. Guess what? The scan identified the email address I use in consumer and civil rights advocacy, dan@dansullivanprojects.com, in the Dark Web. (For those who don't know, the Dark Web is a network of sites, commercial and otherwise, where site owners and users can maintain anonymity. It is accessible through special browsers, like one called "Tor," and it can be a venue for political dissidents or for illicit trade. In fact, identity thieves sell Social Security Numbers and other personal identifying information on the Dark Web to individuals who may then use that information to open fraudulent accounts, etc.)

What did I do? I have never been on the Dark Web but I had information that someone might be using a clone of my email address in transactions there. First, I immediately publicized the fact that my identity had been compromised in a post on Facebook. Then I filed an identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at https://www.identitytheft.gov/ and received a recovery plan. This FTC site provides you with steps you can take when your identity has been compromised in any way and offers you form letters to send to businesses and other identities alerting them to the theft of your personal identifying information. 

Right now, I am helping one individual sort through a very complex, multilayered identity theft situation. There are insurance and bank accounts fraudulently opened under his name, email addresses and telephone numbers that are compromised, incorrect contact information in his bank accounts, efforts to obtain fake IDs using his permanent address, fraudulent charges on his credit cards, and more. The FTC resources at https://www.identitytheft.gov/ have been tremendously helpful and we're even beginning to narrow down the list of suspects.

The main takeaways here for the reader, though, are that identity theft has many faces and that it is entirely possible that an identity thief could be using your personal identifying information in fraudulent activities without you even suspecting it. What you want to do, in my opinion, is to keep aware of signs of identity theft, which could just appear to be minor discrepancies or errors in records, and to confront these signs as soon as you notice them. And remember, if someone you just met asks you to hold a heavy candlestick for a minute, you may want to decline, even if it may seem rude, or you may end up being framed as the patsy Colonel Mustard accused of killing Mr. Body with the Candlestick in the Library.

If you are interested in this subject matter, keep an eye out for an upcoming podcast on my platform A Bountiful Life Smorgasbord and a new post on identifying signs that your identity may have been compromised.

Author Dan Sullivan is a writer, storyteller, consultant, and consumer and civil rights advocate. If you need assistance, he can be reached at (202) 340-6724 or dan@dansullivanprojects.com. 

Mark Paul Acesor and Daniel Sullivan have filed a preliminary complaint of discrimination with the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) against Mercedes-Benz of Chicago, a Fletcher Jones Company. IDHR is the state agency responsible for enforcing the Illinois Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on various bases in places of public accommodation.

The complaint alleges that Mercedes-Benz of Chicago discriminated against Mark Paul Acesor (Filipino) on the basis of national origin, disability, and sexual orientation by inflating costs, providing misleading information, and ultimately  refusing to provide repair service to Mr. Acesor's Mercedes convertible even though the repairs were fully covered by Mr. Acesor's insurance policy.

Daniel Sullivan diverted time and resources to investigate this matter and provide advocacy services on Mr. Acesor's behalf during negotiations with Mercedes-Benz of Chicago regarding the refused repairs.  The complaint also alleges that Mercedes-Benz retaliated against Mr. Acesor in response to Mr. Sullivan's statements via email to the company that referenced the need to protect Mr. Acesor's civil and consumer rights.

According to the complaint, Mercedes-Benz of Chicago continues to refuse any business service to Mr. Acesor in direct retaliation to Mr. Acesor's efforts to protect and enjoy his civil and consumer rights. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor will seek compensatory damages and injunctive relief to protect other similarly situated persons from discrimination. 

Daniel Sullivan recently filed a Request for an Investigation of attorney David B. Savitt of the firm Kovitz Shifrin Nesbit for an ethics violation.  The Request was filed with the Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois (ARDC).

The basis of the Request was a letter sent to Mr. Sullivan and his partner Mark Paul Acesor regarding their right to engage in fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities in association with a condominium located at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, IL.

The letter from Mr. Savitt demanded that Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor immediately cease and desist from any fair housing self-advocacy and educational activities with the Condominium Association, and then permanently banned both Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Acesor from condominium grounds on threat of arrest for trespass.

Mr. Acesor was a long-term tenant of 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive who was, according to an allegation of housing discrimination filed this week with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, unlawfully evicted from his unit for discriminatory reasons.

Mr. Sullivan, as Mr. Acesor's partner and fair housing advocate, had been attempting to educate the Condominium Association about its fair housing obligations and to secure an appropriate remedy.

According to the ARDC complaint filed, Mr. Savitt's cease and desist letter, along with its stated policy of permanent banishment, amounts to unlawful threat, intimidation, and harassment under the Fair Housing Act and Illinois Human Rights Act. The banishment is also a retaliatory refusal to rent or sell a unit at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive to both parties, as the refusal to rent or sell is implicit in a policy of permanent banishment.

Mr. Sullivan's ARDC complaint alleges that Mr. Savitt himself has in his letter violated the spirit and letter of the civil rights laws designed to protect us from unlawful housing discrimination. You may review the ARDC Request for an Investigation and supporting documentation at the link below.

ARDC Request for an Investigation

Today, Dan Sullivan and Mark Paul Acesor filed a housing discrimination complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity against various Respondents, including the 3600 Lake shore Drive Condominium Association.

The complaint alleges that the Respondents collaboratively and without legal process wrested control of an apartment leased by Mark Paul Acesor because of national origin, color, and disability, then after banishing him from his leased apartment by official decree proceeded to destroy or dispose of his personal belongings, including designer clothing and family photographs.

Mr. Acesor is dark skinned and of Filipino national origin. He also has disability. The complaint alleges that the Respondents, after unlawfully taking control of Mr. Acesor's leased unit, replaced him with a White, non-disabled occupant.

Mr. Sullivan investigated this matter, diverting substantial personal resources. He also advocated for Mr. Acesor and sought to educate the Respondents about fair housing practices.

As a result of these advocacy efforts on behalf of fair housing principles, the 3600 Condominium Association through an attorney permanently banished both Mr. Acesor and Mr. Sullivan from the condominium property, thus retaliating by ensuring that the Complainants could never rent a unit or purchase a unit at 3600 N. Lake Shore Drive.

​The preliminary complaint documents are available at the links below. Please contact Daniel Sullivan for any additional information at 202-340-6724 or dan@dansullivanprojects.com. 

Housing Discrimination Complaint Form
Narrative Attachments