In a rather unusual lawsuit, to say the least, James Leslie Kelly who is serving a ten year sentence for identity theft has filed a civil lawsuit against Verizon Wireless seeking 72 million dollars that he claims is owed him because, he alleges, Verizon Wireless was negligent in failing to recognize that he had stolen the identity of someone with a similar name when Kelly stole $300 worth of products and services from Verizon Wireless using his victim’s name.

Kelly’s self prepared lawsuit most likely will be dismissed without a trial.

TIPS

As outrageous as Kelly’s lawsuit is, there is a lesson to all of us, which is that even if you take all the steps you can to protect yourself from identity theft, you are only as safe as the places that have your personal information and accounts with the weakest security and while I am not passing any judgment on whether Verizon Wireless should have done a better job of protecting the real victim of identity theft in this case, I am telling everyone that, as much as possible, you should limit the places that have your personal information and monitor all of your accounts often in order to recognize when your personal security has been breached.