Victim of identity theft in 1997, Asset Acceptance in 2005!

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Hi confused-in-LA,

Welcome to the debt consolidation care forum.

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Thank you for your replies.

I found some documents from HH bank, last correspondence from them (in Sep 98) was a request to submit a statement of non-responsibility. I found an old credit report and it says the account is charged off as of Nov 1998. So does the SOL comes into effect as of this date?

As I did not hear from HH Bank after submitting the affidavit, I assumed everything is settled. Sigh, back then, there weren't many guidelines on what to do after being a victim of identity theft. For this account, the police did not file a report for me as the frauded amount was less than $5000, but I remember the detective giving me his contact number which I gave to HH bank just in case they wanted to talk to him. The police told me that there is nothing much they can do except to advise me to change my mailbox lock and buy a shredder :(

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i was wondering about all this identity theft, i have checked out 15+ apartments in mass. and i have given them my SSN# with all my info. can they use that against me if they choose?

Yes they can easily do that puchodog1977. Since you had given out your
SSN (Social security number) you are very much vulnerable of being an identity theft victim. Please go through this site before something bad happens.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/about183.html

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/about184.html

All the best,
Simon

Hi, just popped in here through a random link. Cool site, keep this good work up :-)

Hi Casinos en ligne,

Welcome to the debt consolidation care forum.


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Casinos en ligne wrote:

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I wanted to share a story with you about my identity being stolen. I am extremely excited about our new Identity Theft Shield, and what it means to consumers.

In 1986 I received a phone call at my office. A gentleman told me I was behind on my watch payment at his jewelry store. I explained to him that I had never bought jewelry from his store; more-or-less financed anything at his store. He asked if the social security number they had was mine, I verified it was. He told me I must be the one that owed them the money. I hung up and ignored the call.

Two days later, I received a phone call from [an automobile dealership], stating I was behind on my Cadillac payment. I informed them that I did not own a personal vehicle, and that all I had was a company car. They asked me if the social security number they had on file was mine, and I confirmed that it was. He told me that I was the one who purchased the car, and that I either needed to bring the note current or they would pick up the car. I gave them my address and told them to feel free to pick up the car that I did not buy.

It just so happened that the owner of the company I worked for was an attorney by profession. I told him about this and he told me to go to the credit bureau and look at my credit report. I did this only to find out that there were numerous bad debts, charge offs, etc., on my report. I told the person at the credit bureau about the two situations above. They told me they were going to do some research and would call me back. They called me back a couple of days later and asked me to come back down to the bureau at a specific time so they could review my file again.

I went to the credit bureau, Chilton at the time, now Experian. I walked into the meeting room and there were nine people in the room. They asked me to be seated and the gentleman across the table from me proceeded to tell me things about my life that I was shocked at. I had never been in trouble with the law or anything like that, but was amazed at how much this gentleman knew. It got so intimidating, that I stood up and told the gentleman that the meeting was over. He asked me to sit back down and handed me his business card. He was with the Secret Service. He proceeded to tell me that they had checked me out ???top to bottom' and that I was ???clean'. He informed me that my identity had been stolen.

He explained how it happened. There was another ???Larry Smith' who was a credit bureau member and he had somehow gotten my information through the bureau. He started applying for a series of loans, using my social security number. He also showed my current address as his previous address on the loan applications.

Due to my good credit, these institutions approved the loans. He had a Cadillac, jewelry, a sailboat, and other loans. He did not stay current with the loans. Therefore, all of these bad debts were reflected on my credit report. However, [the gentleman from the Secret Service] did not inform me, nor did I know, that there were two other credit bureaus called Equifax and TransUnion. These two reports were never corrected. Each time I applied for credit, I had to give my password to the people I was applying for credit with. This way they could access my file. At this time, the 1980's, Equifax and TransUnion, were not key players in the business. Not that many companies used these two resources, so my loans were approved.

The Secret Service did inform me that the person who stole my identity had been found, and that he was a key executive (white collar) in a water purification company in Plano, Texas. They arrested him and put him in prison for fraud.

At the end of two years, the credit bureau, now TRW, ???un-vaulted' my file. The three credit bureaus started exchanging information, and before I knew it, my three credit reports were an absolute disaster! I no longer had the business card of the gentleman from the Secret Service, as two years had passed.

I contacted TRW and explained what happened. They told me the process I needed to go through to correct the matters. For the next six years of my life I was miserable. I did everything the credit bureau told me to do, to no avail. I was paying interest rates on my mortgage at 9.25% when the market was at 7%. I was overpaying on everything I had. I was being declined credit, etc. I spent countless thousands of dollars because I was portrayed as somebody I wasn't.

The beginning of my second year in Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., I was sharing this story with the managing partner of ???our provider law firm here in Denver. He had me sign over power of attorney and took a personal interest in the matter. Within 90 days, my three credit reports were the way they should have always been, and there were fraud alerts on all of them.

Today my mortgage is at 4.25%.

As a victim of identity theft, I am acutely aware of the hardships that can be caused when a person's identity is stolen. The addition of the Identity Theft Shield is just another example of Pre-Paid Legal's commitment to stay in front of the trends.

Larry Smith Colorado

[quote=confused-in-LA]Thank you for your replies.

I found some documents from HH bank, last correspondence from them (in Sep 98) was a request to submit a statement of non-responsibility. I found an old credit report and it says the account is charged off as of Nov 1998. So does the SOL comes into effect as of this date?

As I did not hear from HH Bank after submitting the affidavit, I assumed everything is settled. Sigh, back then, there weren't many guidelines on what to do after being a victim of identity theft. For this account, the police did not file a report for me as the frauded amount was less than $5000, but I remember the detective giving me his contact number which I gave to HH bank just in case they wanted to talk to him. The police told me that there is nothing much they can do except to advise me to change my mailbox lock and buy a shredder :([/quote]

Congratulations on dealing with this incident of identity theft. I am glad that you were able to take it on and have a successful outcome. Even though some damage was done, you were able to establish your innocence and convince that you should not be responsible.

Cleaning up the mess is usually the hardest part and the par that contributes to the most damage to your credit. So I am glad that you were able to clean this mess up before it got out of control.

You were definitely on the early frontlines of fighting identity theft. Because there weren't the same safeguards available to you in 1997 compared to what we have now. So i applaud your vigilance in dealing with this problem.

And after reading this post, I will also consider purchasing a shredder.

[quote=jeferrer]I wanted to share a story with you about my identity being stolen. I am extremely excited about our new Identity Theft Shield, and what it means to consumers.

In 1986 I received a phone call at my office. A gentleman told me I was behind on my watch payment at his jewelry store. I explained to him that I had never bought jewelry from his store; more-or-less financed anything at his store. He asked if the social security number they had was mine, I verified it was. He told me I must be the one that owed them the money. I hung up and ignored the call.

Two days later, I received a phone call from [an automobile dealership], stating I was behind on my Cadillac payment. I informed them that I did not own a personal vehicle, and that all I had was a company car. They asked me if the social security number they had on file was mine, and I confirmed that it was. He told me that I was the one who purchased the car, and that I either needed to bring the note current or they would pick up the car. I gave them my address and told them to feel free to pick up the car that I did not buy.

It just so happened that the owner of the company I worked for was an attorney by profession. I told him about this and he told me to go to the credit bureau and look at my credit report. I did this only to find out that there were numerous bad debts, charge offs, etc., on my report. I told the person at the credit bureau about the two situations above. They told me they were going to do some research and would call me back. They called me back a couple of days later and asked me to come back down to the bureau at a specific time so they could review my file again.

I went to the credit bureau, Chilton at the time, now Experian. I walked into the meeting room and there were nine people in the room. They asked me to be seated and the gentleman across the table from me proceeded to tell me things about my life that I was shocked at. I had never been in trouble with the law or anything like that, but was amazed at how much this gentleman knew. It got so intimidating, that I stood up and told the gentleman that the meeting was over. He asked me to sit back down and handed me his business card. He was with the Secret Service. He proceeded to tell me that they had checked me out ???top to bottom' and that I was ???clean'. He informed me that my identity had been stolen.

He explained how it happened. There was another ???Larry Smith' who was a credit bureau member and he had somehow gotten my information through the bureau. He started applying for a series of loans, using my social security number. He also showed my current address as his previous address on the loan applications.

Due to my good credit, these institutions approved the loans. He had a Cadillac, jewelry, a sailboat, and other loans. He did not stay current with the loans. Therefore, all of these bad debts were reflected on my credit report. However, [the gentleman from the Secret Service] did not inform me, nor did I know, that there were two other credit bureaus called Equifax and TransUnion. These two reports were never corrected. Each time I applied for credit, I had to give my password to the people I was applying for credit with. This way they could access my file. At this time, the 1980's, Equifax and TransUnion, were not key players in the business. Not that many companies used these two resources, so my loans were approved.

The Secret Service did inform me that the person who stole my identity had been found, and that he was a key executive (white collar) in a water purification company in Plano, Texas. They arrested him and put him in prison for fraud.

At the end of two years, the credit bureau, now TRW, ???un-vaulted' my file. The three credit bureaus started exchanging information, and before I knew it, my three credit reports were an absolute disaster! I no longer had the business card of the gentleman from the Secret Service, as two years had passed.

I contacted TRW and explained what happened. They told me the process I needed to go through to correct the matters. For the next six years of my life I was miserable. I did everything the credit bureau told me to do, to no avail. I was paying interest rates on my mortgage at 9.25% when the market was at 7%. I was overpaying on everything I had. I was being declined credit, etc. I spent countless thousands of dollars because I was portrayed as somebody I wasn't.

The beginning of my second year in Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., I was sharing this story with the managing partner of ???our provider law firm here in Denver. He had me sign over power of attorney and took a personal interest in the matter. Within 90 days, my three credit reports were the way they should have always been, and there were fraud alerts on all of them.

Today my mortgage is at 4.25%.

As a victim of identity theft, I am acutely aware of the hardships that can be caused when a person's identity is stolen. The addition of the Identity Theft Shield is just another example of Pre-Paid Legal's commitment to stay in front of the trends.

Larry Smith Colorado[/quote]

That was an amazing story. it is crazy how these identity thieves think that they could just steal someone's credit and go on these ridiculous shopping sprees. So he tried to buy jewelry and a car? How could those material items be worth spending a few years in jail. These people are crazy.

You are definitely a strong person. i could imagine myself sitting through that meeting with those secret service agents. I would feel as if I was in the twilight zone. So i admire your resolve while dealing with these unusual yet distressing ordeals in your life.

It is great that they found him and charged him with fraud. Hopefully he will get a lot of jail time. You say he was white collar? Given the corporate scandals in recent years, part of me is not surprised by this. But you are lucky that they actually found your identity thief. Because most go undetected and unpunished. So congratulations on taking on these identity thieves-and winning.

Hi jeferrer

I read your story and also appreciate the will power that you have shown to prove yourself innocent. Keeping in mind the increase of such thefts at an alarming rate, we should be very particular about giving our personal information to anybody.

However, if it ever happens that we become a victim, we should take immediate steps to save ourselves, otherwise things will really take the worst shape. You were lucky enough that you had a narrow escape.

Today, when I read the other articles on this subject, I realize that we need to have a strong computerized system to detect the illegal activities. May be a lot of suffering can be prevented which sometimes have no cure.

Regards
Roxette