Unauthorized charges by friend in 2002-2003

D. Nguyen,

There are certain steps that one should follow when ID Theft occurs. But in this case, you authorized your friend to use this card. Since this is a joint account, apparently both of you are responsible to pay it back.

Can you prove anyway that the cost incurred was not done by you? Your friend cannot run away from his responsibility. You should consult a lawyer to inquire the laws related with joint account fraud.

Also keep us posted on what is going on at your end.

Let me correct myself here. He was never authorized nor is it a joint account. And yes I can prove that he used my information for unauthorized charges.
Thanks.

D.Nguyen

You're most likely going to have to give up this friendship. You're next step would be to file a police report, and take him to court. If he wasn't authorized and gained your information without your knowledge, that is considered theft. Please let us know if we can help any further. If you didn't know the identity of the person charging items to your card, you would just simply make the police report, and contact the creditors customer service department.

Regards-
Mike

Mike has said it nicely. You have to file a police report.

Since the intention of this person is not well, you should be aware of an ID theft too. Don't forget he has got your SS # and DOB! Please go through this thread and figure out what you should do next.

http://forums.debtcc.com/forums/lost-wallet.html

You can also find some useful tips on ID theft at:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/

So this week I will be trying to get a hold of him. By next week if this isnt any luck file police report and take him to court....dollar-wise is about 5gs (on the store card). So small claims court is out of the picture. Anyone have an idea what this would cost me? ball park numbers so I can prepare myself.

-->creditors have been contacted and what is sad is the CC company isnt going to do jack about it b/c it was in 2003. ID theft affidavit is done as well.

Wish me luck everyone

It will be better if you can call a lawyer to inquire about the costs involved with court activities. I have no doubt that you will win the case because you never did anything wrong. Best of luck.

Also don't forget to keep us updated on this topic.

I assume you've read the comment about how you're going to have to give up on the friendship. Anyone who's willing to take advantage of your generosity that way is certainly not your friend.

I have some suggestions, which can be implemented simultaneously. The big hurdle to get past is the fact that you authorized the initial charge. People will jump to the conclusion, without thinking about it logically, that you gave a blanket authorization to use your credit card. Even people who ought to know better, cops and folks at the credit card companies will do that. That's just sloppy thinking. Legally, each of the subsequent charges was fraudulent, because the "friend" exceeded the authorization you gave.

Now, people will lie under oath, particularly people who feel on the defensive, and I would expect your "friend" to lie, and say that you gave total carte blanche to run up as big a bill as he wanted. Anticipating that, you have a choice: simply don't mention that first charge when you complain, or plan on an uphill battle. There's an old saying, "tell the truth, but don't blab it." It's not legally relevant that the first charge was authorized, if none of the others were. So don't initiate a battle over the question of authorization: don't mention the first charge in making your complaints. If it comes up, then you can say you didn't mention it precisely because that charge was not fraudulent, it was a loan from you to the "friend". That's the truth, right?

1) I'm assuming you've cancelled the credit card already, right? You really need to do that to stabilize the situation. The credit card co. will probably issue a new card if you ask them, so that the only thing that will happen is an interruption in the access by people who aren't supposed to have access. For reasons stated below, you need a final statement that tells exactly how much money you're out, total, because of the fraud.

2) Have the credit card company send you a form for an affidavit of fraudulent use. You can write your own description on separate paper if you want, and simply reference it as an attachment in the affidavit form (e.g., "the attached written description is incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein."). Don't sign the form until you're actually sitting down with a notary; the signature does need to be notarized, and you have to swear that what you're saying is true. That's why a notary is needed because a notary is an official appointed by the state to administer oaths. Tell the truth but don't blab it. Identify the fraudulent transactions by date and transaction identifier, and state who, to the best of your knowledge, committed the fraud. You are making this statement under penalty of perjury, so don't exaggerate. A short, simple statement will suffice. That way, your exposure may be limited to $50.00 (if they say they're not going to do that, because of your negligence in handing out the credit card info, there's not much you can do about that, but I'd try anyway. - remember, you're not liable for perjury for what you didn't say, only for outright lies under oath. "I did not have **** with that woman." -- William Jefferson Clinton.)

3) As others pointed out, what happened there is a criminal offense, and should be prosecuted as such. The crime, however, is probably not identity theft unless the "friend" is posing as you in obtaining new credit. Rather, the complaint should be credit card fraud. If the amount of money taken exceeds the threshold for felony prosecution, the "friend" is probably looking at 5 to 20 years in prison. Your best bet is to get the prosecutor to do a plea agreement that provides for an order of restitution to you of the money taken (include all interest, fees and penalties) in exchange for a partially suspended sentence. That's the closest thing there is to debtor's prison in the U.S., because if a person doesn't obey the conditions of probation, including payment of restitution, he will go to jail and may serve the entire sentence as originally stated. If you filed the affidavit of fraudulent use with the credit card co., they may have already initiated the prosecution, but I wouldn't wait on them, if I were you. And by the time the case gets to trial, the question of who's supposed to be paid the restitution will have been settled.

4) File a civil suit against the "friend" for repayment of the money you're out as a result of the fraud. The technical term for what the "friend" did is "conversion" (he converted it from yours to his). It's classified as an "intentional tort" - a willfully wrongful act other than a breach of contract.

These things are not mutually exclusive. You can do some or all, your choice.

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]