Sometimes I find it really challenging to exist in a world where there is so much dishonesty and deception. Sadly, there are probably people out there right now who are scamming to get something out of someone else without them even being aware of it. Unfortunately, I recently discovered that I too fell prey to someone’s else’s fraudulent acts and it made me realize how I was once no different to them.
Given my own addicted-fueled past and my own old fraudulent ways, I truly thought I was protected on every level when it came to scammers. I have multiple passwords and other ID’s that are in place for each of my accounts. I never follow strange links that are sent to me in e-mails. I always discard any other e-mail that indicates I’ve won something, but have to give some form of identification to learn what it is. I never reveal any of my personal information over the phone to a stranger that’s contacted me out of the clear blue. And I even check my financial accounts on a weekly basis to ensure everything is staying intact. But I found out today that there was one area I never would have believed that a fraudulent act could occur in and that was with the IRS.
As most people know, in today’s day and age, tax returns can be submitted electronically, saving time and hassle. What many might not know is that the only thing that’s needed to submit one is a person’s name and their matching social security number (SSN). When my accountant attempted to do just that with my return for this year, it was rejected. It stated that my social security number had already been used to submit a return for the current calendar year. So as not to draw this out into a long story, I spent close to seven hours of time to figure out that someone has been using my SSN for two consecutive years to file illegally with the IRS and receive a money-based return. Thankfully, no other areas of my life seemed to have been affected and I was also not responsible to pay back any of the money that was fraudulently distributed to the scammer. While protection has now been added with the IRS to prevent this from happening in the future, I still feel violated and it’s made me wonder if that’s how everyone used to feel when I did my own versions of scamming others. Did people used to get this angry and be consumed temporarily with darkness because of my old self-seeking behaviors? I’d have to say that my intuition is saying most likely so.
In addition to this realization, I completely forgot to go to my Higher Power in prayer or meditation for help through any of this fraudulent experience when it happened. Instead, I ran headfirst into it, calling one number after another, and getting more heated as the day went on. When I finally slowed down to pray and meditate, I felt a whole lot better.
All of this goes to show that I need to pay a little more attention to some of my own words that I write in here each and every day. That being that the next time something like this happens, I need to take a moment, breathe, and pray to my Higher Power for guidance and direction. I’m positive that if I take a little time to meditate thereafter, I will clearly see all the spiritual lessons I’m meant to learn through it and I’m sure I will remain a lot more calm and serene too.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
