Advice Needed - Fraud, Stolen Identity

4/28/03

[IFly4Him]

I recently went through a credit check in preparation for a house purchase. It revealed a telephone or cell phone account that was in collection. After contacting the vendor and determining the collection agency, it was clearly not me who opened the account. In fact, the account was opened in GA - I have resided in VA since the age of eight. I have also ruled out family, friends etc. No one I know lives or works where the perp claimed when securing my credit.

I've contacted the collection agency 3 times - finally got a fraud package. After dispensing with the forms, I am going to go back on the vendor (the package revealed more account details that I didn't know) to try and get this cleared up.

Have any of you been through this before? Do you know of any laws, consumer protections etc. that I could use in expediting the return of my previously perfect credit? I am told that resolution can take 2 months even after you prove your "innocence". It doesn't seem right that a vendor can do a sloppy job of verifying soemone's creditworthiness and then stick someone else with the cleanup duty. I'm sure others out there would benefit from the discussion (esp. re: prevention).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[martin_fierro]

I don't have any personal experience with identity theft, but check out the websites for your state's Attorney General and that of the state where the false account was created.

And be prepared for a looong, hard battle. You're gonna hve to be the squeaky wheel to get results.

[IFly4Him]

Maybe I missed a posting step...

I thought selecting "vanities" would post this somewhere other than News. Please move this post out of the forum if necessary. Sorry.

[jude24]

Get a lawyer....

[IFly4Him]

Get a lawyer....

I thought of that, but for a $200 account, I'm not so sure. It would be better just to pay it, but I would rather not if I can get it done in the next month. I figured out after dealing with the collection agency that they have no incentive to help. They get 60 to 80 cents on the dollar for a collection. Yikes!

[Mark]

What a coincidence. I just read about this subject in our local paper today. Good tips. Here is the link:
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20950~1354493,00.html

[IFly4Him]

Thanks...

[Not Insane]

If the rest of your credit is good, and this is only $200, I would simply write a letter to whoever is thinking of giving you the loan. Explain that you are not paying this $200 due to the principle of the thing. That is very effective.

The key is that this is a small dollar amount and it is the ONLY "hit" on your credit. These lenders are people too.

[jude24]

Get a lawyer anyway.

If he had enough info for the $200 account, who knows what else he might have done -- credit cards, etc.

Hiring a lawyer for 5-6 hrs work at $120 an hour might be the best $1,000 you could spend.

[IFly4Him]

That link was perfect... Now I have a chamber full of rounds :)

[IFly4Him]

Good idea, but I was already told that wouldn't work in this case - stipulation on this particular loan.

[BlackVeil]

Thanks for that link. It is a growing problem in Australia, too.

[IFly4Him]

Good point. Thanks.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Send a Cease and Desist letter to the collection agency by certified mail with return receipt. You don't have to deal with them. Deal only with the outfit that claims you owe them money.

More information on FDCPA and bogus debts can be found here. You may be able to handle it without hiring a shyster.

[foto]

GO to the credit reporting agency that reported the problem and tell them what happened and ask for an investigation. Send written reuqests and keep copies and use registered return receipt for everything you send them. Fair credit reporting act requires them to investigate within a reasonable period of time and if they don't it gets wiped. Usually thirty days or so. See what they can do for you and definitely deny you owe anything. If you end up paying the bill, even a reduced amount you are basically admitting you owed the money and the mark against you can stand. Hope it helps. As someone earlier said, your local attorney general or consumer affairs division can give you your best advice. May also want to pick up a credit repair kit from officemax/staples in their do it yourself legal form section, includes form letters, addresses etc and basic info on cleaning up credit.

[Rum Tum Tugger]

You don't need a lawyer.

Virtually the same thing happened to me about six months ago.

I decided to refinance my home mortgage. The mortgage company ran a credit check on my wife and I and found two accounts for local and long distance telephone service in collection in a city that my wife had lived in when we met 12 years ago.

We believe that my wife's social security number was stolen by a sales clerk at a department store when my wife visited that city about 3 years ago and reactivated her credit card at that store. About 4 months after reactivating the credit card, someone got local and long distance telephone service using my wife's social security number. The total amount in collection was about $1,000.

I reported the identity theft to the police in the city where the telephone service had been installed.

I contacted the collection agencies and got the fraud package as you have done.

I completed the fraud package in detail with ample proof that my wife had been living in Florida for the last 12 years. I also sent copies of the fraud package to the three major credit reporting agencies.

It took about two months for the whole thing to be cleared up and for the credit reporting agencies to correct their records.

While talking to the collection agencies and the police, I got the impression that this sort of thing is rampant. The bottom feeders in our society are very active.

Just do what I did and you should be OK.

BTW, because our credit was otherwise impecable, the mortgage company went ahead with the refinancing before the collection agencies had acted on our fraud package submission.

[Not Insane]

To this day I owe ATT $150. They said they would sue me for it. I said "go ahead." They said I made a long distance call from my home phone. Problem is, you can't make a long distance call from my home phone - we requested that the capability be removed, due to teens and "internet porno."

Anyway, they never sent me an itemized bill or anything else. They just called and said I owed it and I had better pay. Can you imagine Joes auto repair doing that?

My credit rating is not relevant to me - I don't need it. 'Course, I'm not trying to buy a house.

[Johnny Crab]

You may want to check here:

http://www.law.uh.edu/peopleslawyer/

I had "problems" that needed correction and got excellent advice. A co-worker has had your misfortune with a cell phone fraud and has also seen a few other "selfs" pop up in Texas...good luck.

[arjay]

Go to www.clarkhoward.com. He says on his radio show that he has information on what to do.

[SCalGal]

Another source is the FBI's Bunko Unit