Has anyone here dealt with identity theft?

ashonkwiler09 · January 2011

My husband and I review our credit reports every January. I pulled his up yesterday and there was an account in collections for close to $3000. We pay all of our bills on time so I knew right away something was up. I called the collections agency and the account is with AT&T and was opened in February of 2010. I told him that this was not my husband. He has never been an AT&T customer. Those collections people are such scumbags. He told me it was too late to file a dispute. WTF? and that we would be stuck paying the debt. I refuse to believe this is true. The report we pulled up was through Equifax and I am going to file a dispute. My questions is do I need to pull up credit reports through Trans Union and Experian to? I know all three credit bureaus can have different information and I want to make sure that this will be removed by all three credit bureaus. I'm so confused. I really hate that I have to deal with all this crap becuase I know it's going to be a pain in the butt. Apparently I need to keep a closer eye on our credit reports. Anyone have any advice or experience with this?

amberleeb · January 2011

So sorry, that totally sucks! I have no experience with it but I just want to say I love your new siggy pic, Brady is so adorable!

roaringrock · January 2011

I had my identity stolen WAY before it was cool. trying to clear my name was a full-time job -- seriously! it honestly took about 2 years to have the credit reports back to "normal(?)"

start by filing a police report. and yes, you have to contact all 3 agencies. document EVERYTHING - phone calls, letters etc.) I also suggest having the fraud alert with the agencies. I actually renewed my fraud alert today. how strange is that?!

good luck. the whole thing sucks.

nolachick11 · January 2011

Yikes...so sorry that happened to you. I would pull the other 2 just to make sure. You are allowed 1 free each year from each of the 3 by going to annual credit report dot com. (if you want the score you just have to pay for it) I also check ours every year and had a discrepancy once.

SweetBijou · January 2011

My identity was stolen over 10 years ago when I was mugged, and I'm STILL feeling the ramifications. The thief set up fake accounts under my name for a fake address in Brooklyn with Verizon, Dell and some others. Everyone once in a while something new pops up. Yes--check the other two credit reports as well and put the fraud alerts with all three. You will get the fraudulent charges removed, but it is a huge PITA and you have to keep a good eye on all of your reports in the future. I'm sorry you have to deal with this!

Also, do not let the collection agency bully you. There are laws that protect you. They can only call within specific hours and they cannot threaten you. You should get in contact with all three agencies today.

ALY1981 · January 2011

Oh hun I'm so sorry

We've had fraudulent charges on our accounts from time to time but never a new account opened. I'm so sorry--good luck, hope they can fix things.

alchris · January 2011

roaringrock:
I had my identity stolen WAY before it was cool. trying to clear my name was a full-time job -- seriously! it honestly took about 2 years to have the credit reports back to "normal(?)"
start by filing a police report. and yes, you have to contact all 3 agencies. document EVERYTHING - phone calls, letters etc.) I also suggest having the fraud alert with the agencies. I actually renewed my fraud alert today. how strange is that?!
good luck. the whole thing sucks.

It happened to me in 2008 and I posted about it here. It sucks. Ditto everything RR said. (Well, I didn't update my alert today, but it's good for 7-10 years!) I'm SO sorry!

browneyedgrl4282 · January 2011

My father went through this a few years ago. Someone opened amex card at Costco using brooklyn address as well. He only found out when he starting getting two amex bills (one which he used and paid off every month and the stolen account) they racked up well over 5K in various stores. It appeared the person was purchasing items (tv's, dvd players, and large ticket items) and selling them.

My father had to file police report and it was later discovered the person who stole his his information was actually the person at Costco who he opened his own account.

I would first contact all the credit reporting agencies, send a letter in writing to the collections company and directly to At&T, and file a police report.

EastCoastBride · January 2011

roaringrock:

start by filing a police report. and yes, you have to contact all 3 agencies. document EVERYTHING - phone calls, letters etc.) I also suggest having the fraud alert with the agencies. I actually renewed my fraud alert today. how strange is that?!

Ditto this 100%, especially the police report. I filed one luckily. 6 months later, one of the credit cards (my thief opened 2 cards in my name and charged over $17k in one month) called me claiming I owed them. The woman, who was NASTY to me, said I had to have a police report. I said I did but I didn't have the information w/ me. she very snottily was like "Well, if you file one tonight, that isn't going to work.". I was SO calm and deliberate when I said "I don't have to. I filed one 6 months ago when it happened.".

I called her back, left a message w/ the report #, and never heard from her again.

But seriously- having the police report saved my butt.

And document, document, document. This was over 10 years ago and I still have the entire folder of every.last.thing I had to do!

roaringrock · January 2011

EastCoastBride:
And document, document, document. This was over 10 years ago and I still have the entire folder of every.last.thing I had to do!

my folder is HUGE!

and be prepared to deal with A LOT of attitude. these "credit people" are not the friendliest bunch. they deal with liars and scumbags daily so why would they believe your story? the whole thing is a royal PITA. I'm sorry you have to go through this. bummer.

ashonkwiler09 · January 2011

Thanks ladies! This is a total PITA!

sescms2004 · January 2011

UGH. Yes, I lived through this hell a few years ago. My situation was a nightmare. I think it happened when I went to a Quest lab to have blood drawn (thanks again, IF!), b/c the lady behind the counter at this particular shady lab location was eyeing me the whole time I was there. My form had my SSN and 3 weeks later all hell broke loose. THat's my theory, anyway. I realized what had happened when I started getting credit cards in the mail that I had not applied for. Someone had taken my SSN, address, DOB, and had a fake Driver's License made. Then they went to Verizon and opened up a cell phone acct in my name. Then, they went to Nordstrom, opened an acct, and spent $10k on jewelery. From there, they went to Ultimate Electronics and spent $15k, including a anti-theft system for their car. Then they went to Home Depot and tried to open a card, but were apparently missing a piece of info and got declined. They also went to the post office and filled out a freaking change of address in MY NAME!! I was livid!! I had already filed a police report, but once I got the post office change of address notification in the mail, it became a federal offense and the FBI got involved. They opened up a PO Box at a smoke shop place, and we even staked it out one day trying to catch them ourselves. As soon as I realized what happened, we instantly had my credit files FROZEN. ***This is key. DO NOT just put a fraud alert on your files - many stores/credit cards ignore this and open credit for ppl anyway. Once you've been a victim of ID theft you can have your files frozen for free. It is a PITA b/c once they are frozen, you have to call ahead of time to have them unlocked, anytime you need to open credit or have it run. But, it is the ONLY way to truly lock up your account. And yes, you do need to check your reports w/ all 3 bureaus. You can get a free report b/c of the ID theft, also. Some credit card agencies only go thru one particular bureau. So, there could be other fraudulent accts on your other files. It took over two years for me to get everything resolved and cleaned up. Needless to say, the police were worthless and no help. The people never got caught. I'm so sorry you're going through this.

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