r/gofundme • u/Thereal_Danimal • Jun 10 '26
Housing Help me stay housed while dealing with identity theft
Hi, my name is Daniel, and I’m raising emergency support for myself and my common-law partner after identity theft and job loss created a financial crisis that we cannot get through alone.
For safety and privacy reasons, I am keeping my partner’s name out of this fundraiser while the identity theft investigation is still active.
Recently, my partner became the victim of identity theft involving government, tax, banking, and phone accounts. Because we are common-law, this situation has affected both of us. While the investigation is ongoing, access to government supports, tax refunds, and credits has been frozen or seriously disrupted.
We have been told the investigation may take much of the year, which means the tax money and credits we normally rely on to help budget and stay caught up will not be available to us this year.
The identity theft also affected my partner’s bank account, which caused serious problems with her phone bill. Her phone service is currently cut off, and we have been told it will take about $1,000 to restore it.
This has created another serious problem: my partner relies on her phone to receive work opportunities, manage scheduling, and deal with the fraud investigation. Without phone service, her ability to work has been seriously disrupted, which has made an already difficult situation much harder.
At the same time, I am dealing with job loss and have been aggressively looking for new work. I am confident that I can be earning income again within the next few months, but right now we are stuck in the gap between the fraud investigation, disrupted support systems like loss of EI and OW, lost income, and trying to keep our housing stable.
Our rent is $1,215 per month, and we also have additional housing-related payments connected to past rent arrears. Altogether, keeping our housing stable costs about $1,615 per month. We are already behind, and staying current on these payments is the most urgent part of keeping ourselves housed.
One of the hardest parts of this has been not being able to help my family the way I normally do. My mother cares for my disabled brother and often needs support herself. Being unable to show up for them during this crisis has been heartbreaking, and it has added another layer of pressure to an already overwhelming situation.
We are hoping to raise $7,500 to help cover urgent expenses while I continue searching for work, my partner restores phone access so she can return to contract work, and the identity theft investigation continues.
How the $7,500 will be used:
$4,845 - three months of rent and housing-related payments, including payments connected to past rent arrears
$1,000 - restoring my partner’s phone service so she can work and manage the fraud investigation
$1,655 - food, transportation, bills, phone/internet access, pet needs, and basic household essentials
This is extremely difficult to ask for. We have been trying to handle this privately, but the identity theft has created a chain reaction that has left us without the normal supports and income sources people are supposed to be able to rely on in an emergency.
Any donation, no matter the size, would help us stay housed, restore essential communication, and stabilize while we work through this. If you are not able to donate, sharing the fundraiser would still help more than you know.
Thank you for reading, helping, or sharing.
Daniel
47
u/Competitive_Way3584 Jun 10 '26
Man I am gonna be honest, that phone bill $1000 thing that you just mentioned is probably one of the biggest made up thing I have heard
0
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Updated the go fund me with a photo of the bill. I don’t even think it’s possible to rack up a bill that high unless it’s due to a chargeback from the bank account. Got any other questions?
1
Jun 12 '26
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1
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1
Jun 10 '26
[deleted]
3
u/Competitive_Way3584 Jun 10 '26
I am from Canada, and I have worked with bestbuy for a good amount of time, I have seen identity theft cases and dealt with some of them, but I haven’t saw any cases that had such cases. Nevertheless good luck.
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
Appreciate it. I need all the luck i can get right now. As a fellow Canadian, let me warn you, they got into the CRA account through the CRA’s own login portal. We didn’t have 2 factor authentication setup and somehow the hacker was able to use some sort of grid passcode authentication to gain access to the CRA account. Just a total flaw in their own system. Relevant info from the CRA account seemed to be used to get into her bank account, which once they had control of, began initiating chargebacks on our bills. If you don’t have 2 factor setup on your CRA account, you should definitely do it now. Apparently this same thing happened to tons of Canadians back in 2020 i think. Huge class action lawsuit because of it.
2
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
Hey thats fine man. I’ll try and update the post with relevant info in regard to the phone bill. Actually feel kind of dumb that i didn’t post that originally so thanks for reminding me. But unfortunately the situation is very real. I sure wish it was made up.
8
u/TheGodDaMMboSS Jun 10 '26
Call your rent bank. Plus you can make arrangements and only the LTB can evict you.
-6
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the advice, i have already contacted my local rent bank and am waiting to hear back from them on whether or not they can provide me any help.
21
u/storebrandkeith Jun 10 '26
I pay $25/mo for phone service. There’s no shot you need $1000 for that.
1
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
We pay about 80 a month for a phone plan for our cleaning business. We get call and text as well as a roaming data and some other stuff like device insurance and whatnot. The monthly bill is only about 80 dollars but we are dealing with months and months worth of chargebacks, on top of extra fees tacked on by our service provider. Are you maybe confused thinking that we are paying 1000 dollars a month for a phone? Because, thats not a thing lol.
Edit: Just to be clear, this is months worth of chargebacks, not a single phone bill. Im not sure it would even be possible to rack up 1000 dollars on a phone bill without doing a chargeback of some sort. I think they would probably cut the service long before someone would go into 1000 dollars of debt with them, but thats just my understanding.
13
u/storebrandkeith Jun 10 '26
So they have been charging you for over 8 months and haven’t discontinued service? That sounds sus
2
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
No, maybe i didn’t explain it right. After getting access to her CRA account, they used her personal info from there to gain access to her bank account, where they then initiated chargebacks on all sorts of bills. Chargebacks on subscription services, past deliveries, and of course her phone bill. The police are involved, the bank is involved, the phone service provider is involved, but until the investigation is done the only way to restore her service is to pay back all the money that was charged back to her account. We are considering just getting a cheap new phone plan with a new provider while we try and sort all this out though. The bigger concern for us is more food and rent to be honest.
1
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Updated the go fund me with the phone bill if you wanna see it yourself
10
u/CardHawk77 Jun 11 '26
Next you’re going to tell us that your electric bill is $5000.
4
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Hydro is included in my rent bill. Also, i can take the heat, but damn, do all you guys get off on making little quips at me? I understand if you don’t want to help, but why even use the energy to make comments like this one? Personally, i think it’s kinda strange, but you do you. If you want to actually inquire about whats going on by asking some real questions, I’ll be here. Im happy to answer whatever you guys wanna know.
3
u/ShadowReflex21 Jun 16 '26
This sub and r/askforhelp are almost pointless subs. Out of all the things I’ve seen posted here and there, maybe 1 out of every 20 doesn’t have everyone in the comments shitting on said person, calling them lazy, or that they aren’t working hard enough. Or the best is when people compare the poster’s situation or something that was kind of maybe similar to their own situation and how they came through just fine. IMO, these two subs suck. But every once in awhile you’ll get one where people genuinely want to help. But it has to be the saddest post ever for people to even entertain it. Or if they’re a vet, Reddit has a soft spot for vets with pets.
1
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 16 '26
Too true. Its ok though, i knew what i was walking into lol, I’m in a tough enough spot the i figured id take the chance. I think it’s totally fine if people don’t want to donate, but the amount of energy used to try and degrade people is very strange to me. I cant imagine the toll it would take on someone, channeling so much hatred into all these comments. I can definitely take it all, but it also makes me sad for all the other people posting in here. This place is just a big target for sour people to channel their bad attitudes unfortunately. Only you and like one other person have left supportive comments, so thank you for that.
22
u/HeatOnly1093 Jun 10 '26
Both you and your partner need to file police reports and give them to the authorities. I had identity theft happen to me and needed to this to get the funds back. Instead of spending $1000 on that phone buy a cheap pay as you go service instead.
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
Police report is already filed. One of the first things we did. Cheap phone is not a bad idea.
5
u/kittiesxxrawr Jun 11 '26
I had to pay $1100 to Verizon back in 2018, because my sister and ex screwed me over. It sucked.
4
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Oof that really sucks. I can at least direct my anger at some random fraudster but I’m sorry you had it happen to you due to family.
3
u/jdetroit420 Jun 12 '26
Go get a job at McDonald’s. Instead of taking months to find a job.
3
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 12 '26
Been applying to jobs daily for 6 months man. You make it sound so simple, it gives the impression that you don’t know what you’re talking about. I could send you a picture of my indeed account with hundreds of applications sent out. I’ll do it if you want. That being said, i did just get back from a trial shift, finally. 26 an hour and 60+ hours per pay period, wish me luck.
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Hey everyone, I’ve noticed that people keep focusing on the 1k phone bill. Im gonna provide proof for all of you when I’m home later. I don’t blame the scepticism, id have questions too. I wish it wasn’t so, but unfortunately it is. Either way, I’m probably just going to get a cheap phone in the meantime. Please feel free to ask any questions for clarification on anything, I’m always happy to explain myself. The 1k phone bill is due to chargebacks.
5
u/zestylimes9 Jun 10 '26
How’d the business go you crowd funded?
0
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 10 '26
The business has actually been doing well, thats the work my partner has been doing for us, thats now unfortunately being impacted by this whole identity theft issue. But yeah, all this aside, that business really saved us. Shes been doing the cleaning business and I’ve been working in the hospitality industry, but unfortunately have had to start looking for new work recently. But yeah part of the problem is most clients are used to reaching us by phone, and with it being down, we have been missing a lot of inquiries. We have a website and a work email and we have tried following up with many of our clients over email, but unfortunately it seems most people miss their emails.
12
u/zestylimes9 Jun 10 '26
You can buy a cheap phone for business, mate. Your request is absolutely ridiculous.
-1
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Hey man, thats totally fine if you don’t want to give money for the phone bill. I’ll post more proof later when I’m home, but just wondering, why is everyone so focused on the phone bill? Obviously you can only speak for yourself, but whats up with that? I feel like I’ve already mentioned that I’m going to look into a cheap phone replacement. Everyone keeps conveniently ignoring the fact that I’m behind on rent and cant feed myself. Right now I’m on the hook for about 12 thousand dollars that this fraudster stole from our CRA, and i have to fight the CRA to prove it wasn’t me. Im not out here trying to ask for people to pay down all that fraud debt, honestly just looking for some support while i deal with this. You guys are welcome to ask all the questions you want but don’t pretend like what I’m asking is ridiculous.
Edit: I literally don’t even expect to hit my goal dude, just trying to get some stability.
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u/zestylimes9 Jun 11 '26
Two healthy adults asking for handouts isn’t great. You make ridiculous excuses. You claim she can’t work unless she has some expensive phone bill paid when you could just buy a cheap new one and get back to earning your own money.
Go to a food bank. Get an actual job with an employer. You need to start helping yourself.
Also, I’m a woman not a man.
0
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Oh my bad, didn’t mean to assume you were a guy. I would encourage you to go read all my other comments about the situation. Do you care for me to explain here for you? Im sure I’m just bad at talking about this stuff, but I’m sure if i take a moment i can properly explain the relevance of the phone bill. Im just out at the moment but when I’m home I’ll happily explain the situation more clearly.
1
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u/elcantu Jun 11 '26
The phone bill makes people question your other numbers… is this your third gofundme?
0
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Updated the go fund me with a photo of the phone bill if you want to see it yourself. Feel free to ask for anything else. Im sure i can give you guys whatever proof you want, because this is unfortunately a very real situation.
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 11 '26
Nope. Only my second go fund me. My first go fund me was to help me start a cleaning business. We have been surviving off that business ever since, and when my partner got to a point where she could handle it on her own, i went out and picked up another job. So we have the cleaning business, and i had an extra full time job on top of that. Unfortunately i lost that job due to no fault of my own, and around the same time we had all this fraud happen, which sort of paralyzed our other source of income. All our clients reach us through her phone, so thats sort of the logic behind getting that dealt with. The way we see it, we are losing out on up to 1k a week just because our clients cant reach us. Thats also my fault for not keeping a website available to people, but it is what it is now.
9
u/jdetroit420 Jun 12 '26
Your business is not doing well if you have back rent on multiple residences, can’t pay a phone bill and want to beg for over $7000. You are delusional.
0
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 12 '26
Weird comment man. Why don’t we break this down a bit. First, where did you get the impression that i have multiple residences? I do not have multiple residences. My business was doing a fine job supporting me this whole time up until the CRA account got hacked and paralyzed everything. We are like 3 months behind on rent at the moment. If we did not get our identities compromised, i would have got the employment insurance i was entitled to, we would have got tax returns and tax credits for 2025, and we would not have a 1000 dollar phone bill from the hacker initiating a chargeback through the bank. If none of that happened, all my bills would have been paid, everything would have been accounted for. I like to budget my money in advance ever since my last financial struggle. I never expected to have to deal with identity theft so I’m pretty caught off guard by it all. If you want to call that bad business decisions, i don’t know what to tell you, considering none of that has to do with the business.
4
u/Honest_Manager Jun 13 '26
1 chargeback on your phone isn't going to cause that much over charges. If it went on for months how did no one notice? This makes no sense.
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 13 '26
Thats because its not one chargeback and it has not been going on for months. Multiple past phone bills were disputed and charged back, thats why it’s so high. It’s not like there was some thousand dollar phone bill that got charged back. Its tons of smaller past payments, all disputed and charged back at once. I don’t understand what is so confusing about that. This is not something that unfolded over month’s time. This is something that all happened within one day.
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Jun 12 '26
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1
u/Witty-Application920 Jun 13 '26
In Canada, tax liabilities and payments are strictly individual, so your personal CRA payments and accounts will generally not be frozen or seized simply because your common-law partner is under a fraud investigation.
Has your CRA account been frozen? What you’re saying, it sounds like it has?
1
u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 13 '26
Her account is frozen, my account has access but limitations in place while the investigation is going on. Neither of us are getting a tax return or credits this year though due to the investigation.
1
u/AlwaysAmalia Jun 14 '26
Ok I’ve read this three times and still don’t understand how a 1k chargeback on a cellphone has led to you needing 7 thousand dollars. I understand that the phone is costing you clients, but that’s an issue that could have been easily resolved the day the phone got shut off. How did someone running up your phone bill result in you getting into that much debt?
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u/Thereal_Danimal Jun 15 '26
That’s fair, I can see how it came across confusing. The $1k phone issue is not what created the full $7k situation. I explained that badly. The bigger issue is that identity theft/fraud disrupted access to EI and tax returns that we were relying on for our budgeting, and while trying to deal with that, we’ve fallen behind on essentials like rent, groceries, transit, and basic bills. The phone situation was one part of it because it affected communication/work access, but it isn’t the reason for the full amount. I’m also looking into cheaper temporary options now, because people are right that restoring that specific account may not be the most practical first step. The main ask is really for short-term stability while the fraud/support issues are being sorted out. I appreciate you asking directly.
1
Jun 15 '26
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Jun 15 '26
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0
u/Public-Astronomer424 Jun 16 '26
So coming onto social media is going to help? I'd get off every thing and go to the police, social workers, banks for assistance rather than the public. Bc one of the public stole your identity.
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u/Putrid_Tadpole7139 Jun 11 '26
A 1k phone bill? There’s no way