About this episode
Brooklyn Lyons shares her harrowing experience with identity theft and the steps she took to reclaim her life.
Identity theft gets talked about a lot, but usually in the abstract: freeze your credit, watch your statements, don't click suspicious links. What doesn't get talked about nearly enough is what it actually feels like when someone isn't just using your card number, but is actively living as you. My guest today is Brooklyn Lyons. She's 25, recently married, and by her own admission, had no particular expertise in fraud or cybersecurity before October of 2024. That changed when her car window was smashed in a parking lot, and her work bag, laptop, wallet, driver's license, and everything was gone by morning. What followed wasn't a quick nightmare with a clean ending. It stretched across months, multiple counties, a jail communication system, the dark web, and a wanted fugitive who dyed her hair to look more like the face on a stolen ID. Brooklyn didn't just sit with it. She pulled criminal records, reverse-searched phone numbers, tracked an inmate's transfers across four facilities, identified a suspect on her own, and eventually filed a civil lawsuit without an attorney. We talk about what it feels like when someone is pretending to be you, not just spending your money, but…
People in this episode
Host: Chris Parker
Guest: Brooklyn Lyons
Topics covered
- identity theft
- personal experience
- cybersecurity
- fraud
- legal action
Keywords
- identity theft
- fraud
- cybersecurity
- civil lawsuit
- dark web
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