Prospect, KY (July 20, 2002) - Victims Assistance of America, Inc (VAA)
-- Catherine Hurd relocated to California from Florida to pursue her master's degree in writing from the University of California, Los Angeles. After earning an MFA, Catherine started on a career that included producing a feature film starring Ed Asner and Sharon Gless, associate producing several theatrical presentations, and writing her own material.
Later, Catherine had the misfortune to have her purse stolen from inside the locked trunk of her vehicle while she was rollerblading with her son at a local Los Angeles park. What followed would turn out to be a year long effort to clear her name. From the knowledge gained from this experience, Catherine created the web site, Stolen-Identity.com to help fellow victims. The web site offered free step by step advice on how to beat identity theft. Since starting the site, Stolen-Identity.com has received tens of thousands of visitors, and hundreds of emails from victims. Catherine has been contacted by law enforcement officers about her site, as well as media programs like Inside Edition and The Montel William's show. She has written articles for on line magazines, and conducted several radio interviews.
As we opened, Catherine became involved with Victims Assistance of America. She realized that the goals of VAA and her own were the same, so she donated her web site to VAA and joined our staff as our director for California. She has actually spearheaded the whole California division for VAA. The information that was once offered on stolen-identity.com is now merged with and available to both victims and also those wishing to prevent an identity theft on http://www.victimsassistanceofamerica.org/, the national website for VAA.
We at VAA hope that those in the state of California will recognize the quality of staffing available to them by having Catherine head up their state division as our Director of VAAs California Division. She will not only continue to be available for seminars, talk shows, radio interviews and fundraisers in your area to help keep our program running smoothly for the state, but brings to VAA the same tireless dedication to helping victims of identity theft that she brought to helping those who visited her own site.