I was almost asleep and then remembered that I wanted to get this posted before it slipped my mind completely.

Related to an earlier disaster regarding certain bank accounts, today I uncovered another slightly smaller disaster. During the process of getting things remedied, the customer support representative on the phone needed to verify that I am who I say I am. The bank’s preferred method of doing so, apparently, involves asking a series of multiple choice questions. Today I got the “addresses you’ve used before” quiz set. As this was being explained to me I stated confidently that I’ve only moved twice in the last decade so it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Yep. I opened my big mouth again. You’d think I’d know better by now: The instant I make a definitive statement I’m proven wrong almost immediately.

The first question went back to the heady days of my early marriage. The second question was a trick, as none of the presented multiple-choice options were valid. For the third, they went back to my earliest days as a semi-independent functional adult person. It’s a good thing I remembered the street names or I might’ve had a much more difficult time getting today’s crisis settled!

I hasten to point out, mind you, that I’m very grateful that policies are in place to verify that the person who calls Washington Mutual to monkey around with my account is actually Me and not just some random identity thief who was able to learn my SSN and DOB. I highly approve of this sort of protective policy in general.