Axton Betts-Hamilton grew up an only child in the small town of Portland, Indiana. Her father was a department manager for a regional grocery store chain and her mother was an accountant with her own business preparing people's taxes. Axton describes her childhood as pretty idyllic and laid back. In 1993, when she was 11 years old, pieces of the family's mail gradually began to disappear.
When Axton Betz-Hamilton was 11 years old, her parents' identities were stolen. At that time, in the early 90s, consumer protection services for identity theft victims were basically non-existent. So the family dealt with the consequences as best they could. But when Axton Betz-Hamilton got to college, she realized that her identity had been stolen, too. In fact, her credit score was in the lowest 2%. As she was working to restore her credit, she inadvertently discovered who had stolen the family's identity: a woman named Pam Elliot. And knowing it was Pam Elliot would change everything for Axton Betz-Hamilton.
View the photograph Axton describes here.
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