[stilz]

Hello,
It's unfortunate: my friend's parent's ID has been stolen and now has a deeply damaged credit score. They found out when taking out a loan to buy a car. It seems that someone used their old address and the parent's name to apply for credit card(s) and never paid for them. They aren't doing too well financially so they can't afford big lawyers and things like that. Please help by providing information like numbers to call, etc. Thanks!

 

[RZetlin]

Have you to talked to the police yet?

If somebody is posing as your parents and taking out money this is fraud.

 

[Coolsvilleman]

Agreed, you need to report it to the police. Besides that how come your parent's didn't notice the bills until they were way to into debt, and if the credit card is still in use it may be possible to trace the user of the card.

 

[stilz]

Whoever stole their identity didn't pose as them to take out money nor used 'their' credit card; the thieves used their identity to apply for credit cards and left a bunch of debt on it, damaging their credit score. Since credit score is not something they'd want to check on a daily basis, they did not find out until they went to take out a loan to purchase a car (and were turned down, of course).

 

[WindHydra]

U CAN APLY FOR A CREDIT CARD WIT ONLY NME AND ADR3S?????!! WTF LOL O TAHT AASY????!!!!??!??!?!!!!!!1 WTF LOL

(just found out (remembered) I have the English to 12 years old AOLer translator on my desktop... couldn't resist)

 

[stilz]

I suppose the thieves were able to obtain the parent's other information as well, somehow. Obviously I do not know how exactly this thing went. What I'd like to know is how they can restore their damaged credit score.
Thanks.

 

[Betamax]

It's scarily simple to do. Hypothetical situation

Eg// say before they moved Mr X had a car boot sale. Obviusly advertised it in the paper. So now they an address and name. They goto that address and go through your rubbish. They find a copy of his paycheck, so now they have his national insurance no, etc. That's enough info generally to apply to get a replacement birth certificate. Once they have that they can get practically anything.

Definately report it to the police, as this is a straight case of fraud, pure and simple. Also never throw out anything with has got personal details on it. Paychecks, bank statements, insurance etc... either keep in in a folder or if it's not longer valid burn it. Also cut any expired credit cards up before throwing them out.

 

[RZetlin]

Whoever stole their identity didn't pose as them to take out money nor used 'their' credit card; the thieves used their identity to apply for credit cards and left a bunch of debt on it, damaging their credit score.

Oh yes, this is fraud. Report it to the police.

The thieves are misrepresenting the information that they have.

Doesn't the bank have a procedure to deal with fraud?

 

[hnayoung]

The police can't do much. You need to call the social security administration and they will most likely have to change their social security numbers. I know this cause I almost had something happen when I gave some shady people my private info like social security number, name, address, birthday, everything...so bad. Afterwards I realized what I did and called my credit card company first, and they told me I should call the social security administration and I called them and they helped me out. Luckily I was so quick about it that nothing happened. I can't remember the phone number but if I do remember I'll post it here.

Here we go I found it, 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338) or check online at http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/idtheft.htm

Hope this helps ya

 

[stilz]

Thanks a lot, I'll forward the information to my friend.