My husband’s credit score fell from 810 to 575 overnight. A week later, the dentures bill arrived.
Three maxed-out credit cards. A $250,000 mortgage application. And a full set of dentures in Florida, ordered by a woman using Barry’s name. He did nothing wrong. It still took months to undo. Here is exactly what we did, in order.
🤯 WOW! My husband’s credit score dropped from 810 to 575 in one night with no warning. Then came three maxed-out credit cards, a $250,000 mortgage application and a bill for a full set of dentures in Florida, ordered by a woman using his name. He never clicked a thing.
📖 Read time: 3 minutes
ChatGPT/Kim Komando
Your identity is always at risk, and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Take action now to protect yourself. Learn more at Coveron.com/Kim.
July 25, 2026
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Barry’s credit score fell from 810 to 575 overnight. No warning. No phone call. His number dropped through the floor while he slept.
He had no idea why. Neither did I, and I do this for a living.
A week later, the mail started. Three new credit cards, all maxed out. A mortgage application for $250,000. And my personal favorite, a bill for a full set of dentures in Florida, ordered by a 56-year-old woman using my husband’s name.
Picture that intake form. Hi, my name is Barry.
🦷 What it takes to unwind this
Months. Not an afternoon on the phone. Affidavits, police reports, disputes with three credit bureaus, letters to companies we never did business with.
Here’s the part nobody warns you about: The whole burden lands on you. The banks collected. The dentist collected. Barry got homework.
He was not careless. He clicked no bad link and gave his Social Security number to nobody. His file walked out of a breach he’d never heard of. That is how it happens.
The FTC logged 1.1 million identity theft reports in one year, and the Identity Theft Resource Center counted 3,322 U.S. data breaches in 2025.
You cannot out-careful a database.
🔒 What we did the day the bills showed up
- Froze all four credit files at Equifax, Experian, TransUnion and Innovis. Free by law, and it stops new accounts cold. Freeze your spouse’s credit, too. Here’s how.
- Filed at IdentityTheft.gov. It generates the FTC Identity Theft Report and recovery plan that force disputes through.
- Pulled every credit report and read each line. Free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Added identity theft monitoring. A freeze slams the door, but it never tells you when your name surfaces somewhere new. Somebody has to watch the windows.
We had LifeLock for years. The renewal price kept climbing, so I went shopping. I switched to NordProtect, now called Coveron. Same company, new name. My bill dropped roughly 75% a year, and my coverage went up.
Coveron, a sponsor of my show, watches for your information turning up where it should not, alerts you when something moves on your credit and helps you claw it back if somebody opens an account in your name. Barry knew he’d been robbed. The dentures bill told him. He needed help fixing it.
Barry got his score back. He never did get the dentures.
✅ Right now, you can get 66% off, which works out to $4.74 a month.*
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