My wallet was stolen in late November. I first realized something was going on in mid-January, when I got a bunch of mail congratulating me on my new checking and savings accounts with Bank of America and Wells Fargo, and getting alerts from my free credit monitoring that there were new inquiries on my report.

In retrospect, I should have frozen my credit when my wallet was stolen. Really, I should have left it frozen all the time (and so should you, and everyone else reading this). But I had no idea what people could do with a wallet that only had my driver's license, a couple credit cards and some gift cards and a couple bucks in cash in it. I didn't realize how vulnerable I was, and that even though I'm financially conscientious and tech-savvy, anyone can be a victim with the way our systems exist now.

If I had frozen my credit before the thieves got their hands on my wallet, they probably would have had trouble opening those checking accounts. Because I used free credit monitoring and acted quickly once I realized what was going on, they weren't able to take out any credit cards in my name (though they sure tried! a lot!). They still would have been able to use my driver’s license to steal the car and various other crimes, because California does not flag licenses that have been reported stolen to banks or law enforcement. There was no single thing I personally could have done to stop everything they did.

*edit - typo