Board Members, I need your help please.

You can report this as fraud to the credit bureaus. But be prepared to report your friend, and your friend can get in a LOT of trouble. But my thought is, if he/she was really your friend, they wouldn't have done this to you. REPORT IT!

Have proof prepared that you were out of the country and could not have opened the account. The more info you have about why this is fraud the better.

Wow, a lousy thing to do to a friend. I'm really sorry this happened to you. How could she not know you'd find out? Have you confronted her?
I would think you need to send the validation letter first..Obviously you know it's valid, but in pressing charges you're going to need every miniscule piece of evidence you can so she really gets slapped hard. What about statements...Can you contact the original creditor and get those, they can also get receipts from the transactions she made, with your signature that she forged on it.
Good luck with this, It really sucks that you have to go through it.

First. Call your local Police Department and file a police report. Yeah, you may have to drop the dime on the friend, but she apparently didn't give your well being much though when she stole your Identity.

Second. Call all three credit bureaus and place a Temporary fraud alert on your files. If any one attempts to open any new accounts in your name, they business will have to contact your directly to verify you are the one actually trying to open the account.

Third. Pull your credit reports from all FOUR national credit bureaus. Look them over for ANY accounts you don't recognize and dispute them as being fraudulent. You may need the police report to back up your dispute.

Fourth Sign up for a credit monitoring service. Equifax seems to have the best out there. They charge $129.00 for 12 months, but it would be a worth while investment.

If you don't already have it, check into purchasing Identity theft insurance I know Allstate offers it as a rider on their home owners policies, and maybe on renters policies. Zander Insurance offers a free standing policy very similar to Allstate's for about $70 a year.

Clay's right..If this "friend" was shady enough to get a credit card in your name, who knows what else she's done with your id.

Thank you Jessi, Finsfan and Clay for your response.
I'll definitely take the advice that you guys have given me. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she recieve the summons to go to court. YOu best believe i'll be reporting this to the police. I guess i'll wait first for the CA agency and original creditor to send me some information on this account. In the meantime I will be searching for my passport and other documents that will prove i was out of the country.

I'll keep you guys posted.
P.S. Finsfan, no i didnt confront her about it because I know she will only deny having done so, but the truth will all come out, it may take some time to get everything together to file my case in civil court, but she is going DOWN.

Clay, who is the 4th Reporting agency?

Thank you.

It's amazing what "friends" will do for you...and to you...and by you. Sheesh.

Sorry to hear about your probs with the ID theft, but ya gotta be VERY careful about who gets your information these days. I may be getting hit again, soon, with ppl trying to use my information due to the recent loss of information by the VA. :roll: Oh well, back to the trenches...

Hey John,
thanks for responding to my post. Yes it's amazing what friends can do to you... but they aren't friends to begin with. Don't need ppl like that in my life. Hope no one tries to use your information, do u have the fraud alert set up, so you'll know if someone does?

Yes, I do. I actually use the experian one, and I get the alerts when I need to. Don't necessarily like what I've been seeing, but forewarned is forearmed, yanno?

Uh...Guest above is me...forgot I had to be logged in to reply as myself! *what a knucklehead*

John, contact the bureaus and have them put a fraud alert on your accounts--It will protect you because any time someone wants to open an account in your name, they will contact YOU.

I've had this on my account since March because I'd looked at my reports and there was one for Nebraska Furniture Mart...Problem is, I don't live in Nebraska, and I've never BOUGHT furniture...lol

Hey Jessi, you may want to check and make sure your alert is still there. IF you only placed an intial fraud alert, those drop off after ninety days and have to be renewed.Inital Fraud Alerts are placed when you think you may have been a victim of Identity theft.

The Long Term alert ( I can't rememebr the actaul name) last for 7 years, but you need to document that you actually were a victim of ID Theft.

It's still there, they renewed it for me. I just called and asked them to and they did.