Has anyone ever had their identity stolen?

mamarazzi

We discovered a year and a half ago when we were about to close on our current home that someone had been using my SSN to get credit and this name was listed as an "alias" on my credit report.  The guy had a home in default, student loans and lots of credit cards.  We were almost unable to purchase our house, but, thankfully, hadn't relied on both our incomes when figuring out what we could afford and H was able to fully finance it under his name.

I immediately tried to get to the bottom of it.  I started with the mortgage since it was the biggest, most serious debt.  The bank wouldn't talk to me without confirming information, despite having the SSN.  I got transferred eleventy-billion times to their fraud department and thought it was taken care of.  I alerted the credit bureaus.  I thought it was behind us.

We don't use credit, so I hadn't really been concerned about my scores and hadn't checked since all the crap went down.

I just started receiving mail at my current address with my first name and the "alias" last name.  Credit card offers and such.  WTF???

Who do I have to contact to get this resolved?  We can't afford an attorney, but from the looks of it, my credit is SHOT.

Ugh.  I'm so ready for something to just be easy.

JOEBunny

Clark Howard's website has a lot of good info about fixing this.  My DH had someone use his credit to open a hair salon in NYC.  We still have to explain it every time we finance something, but it does not effect his score.  I would immediately freeze your credit, preventing any further accounts from being opened and get to work closing all the fraudulent accounts, and having them removed from all 3 credit agencies. 

Starr57

I worked in an ID theft unit. Have you checked your credit reports? Go to www.annualcreditreport.com. You are entitled to one free credit report a year, and any other site will try to charge you. Also, if you find anything, dispute it directly with the credit bureau, and then follow up with the bank or credit card company.

As far as the mail, you can opt out of offers on on www.optoutprescreen.com. I believe you can fill in your real name and any aliases that come up.

PM me if you have any other questions. ID theft sucks.

Dougsgirl4ever

I had a women trying to open credit cards in my name I got 3 letters that they denied it because her address was different than mine.  BUT she did get one through Costco & they sent it to the address I was at & it even had her picture on the back of it, really weird to be able to "see" who is doing it.  I took all my info the the police & they started a file. I had an alert put on at the credit bureau so if someone was trying to open an account they would call me.  Thankfully she never did get anything or do anything to my credit.  Scary stuff.

AnnapolisLari

My brother, to the tune of $35,000 in fraudulent credit. If I remember correctly it took about 5 years to clear it all up.

Place a fraud alert on all of your accounts, get the credit reports, the usual stuff. There's not really much a lawyer could do other than take money for the same thing you can do for free.

Whether you use credit or not, you should keep tabs on your reports to prevent nasty surprises like the one you got last year. I check ours three times a year. I get the free report from Experian, then 4 months later the one from Equifax and then one from Transunion. That way it's more likely that I would catch anything before it got out of control.

EastCoastBride

I have.  call all the credit card companies and put a fraud alert.  AND, as pointless as it may seem, call the police and file a report!!! 

A woman stole 2 CC's from me and then tried to open 3rd.  In one month, she charged over $17,000.  Luckily, I caught it really quick and wasn't liable for any of it.  BUT the police report was part of the reason why. 

mikeandmonica

Okay, you totally need a break.  Now you are dealing with credit theft?  I have no advice - we haven't had actual ID theft, only people getting our credit card #'s and charging ridiculous things.  But I hope it gets figured out quickly!