How bad can ID theft get? Bad enough to force you to change your name, Social Security number and the name of your established business. That’s been the experience of Marcoos Tyrell, from Birmingham, Alabama.

Born Marcoos Thomas, Tyrell, now 38, started his own business when he was only 17. But in 2008, after 20 years of teaching piano classes through his business, The Thomas Keyboard Club, identity theft changed everything.

Tyrell learned of the ID theft the way many victims do: the bill collectors began calling. At first it was “just” credit card bills. Then it was traffic tickets. And then things got really bad.

“I later found out that others had bought four houses in my name—in Gadsden County, Florida, and Dothan and Montgomery, Alabama,” Tyrell said. “I’d never even been to those places.”

Tyrell finally hired an attorney who advised him of the drastic measures he’d have to take to separate himself from the debt, financial ruin and criminal activity that was taking over his life.

So, at 38, Marcoos Thomas became Marcoos Tyrell, and The Thomas Keyboard Club became Piano Lessons on Wheels. He said it’s been hard to get things back on track after running a business under one name for 20 years

“It was frustrating at first because I built Piano Lessons on Wheels under my old name, and I had put so much into it, and people didn’t know me as Marcoos Tyrell,” he said.

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