Been overseas 7 years, pulled credit reports and...
Zephyrene,Welcome to forums. Certain steps of action are
Zephyrene,
Welcome to forums.
Certain steps of action are there set for the victims of ID Theft. FTC states that as soon as you feel that your identity might be stolen, place a fraud alert on your credit report, file a complaint with local police, inform your creditors and your bank and so on. Have a look-
http://forums.debtcc.com/forums/lost-wallet.html
But yours is a different story. You did not get the chance at all to take these precautions. IMHO, you should contact local police and credit bureaus immediately. Also go to FTC website to get some legal help.
Contact the creditors and explain the situation. It might be difficult to convince them that you are not responsible for these debts. Show the copy of police report to them. Don't forget to carry all the documents that prove you left for abroad 7 years back. I think your marriage registration certificate, passport and visa will help you at this situation. Contacting a lawyer would be of great help.
Hi, I am sorry to hear about this negative turn of events. Af
Hi,
I am sorry to hear about this negative turn of events. After you decided to return to the states, you are confronted with a massive fraud be perpetrated on your credit. You definitely should take action even though some of the activity occurred some years back.
One thing that you might want to do is to contact some of the creditors to see who was actually paying the bills. Find out what address the company was sending the bills to. This might give you some insight into who is the con artist. After you discover that, you should report them to the police.
A police report is definitely a good idea by the way. This will be your evidence that you can present to the credit companies when they try to force you to pay the bills. Some of them may not believe that a fraud occurred so a police report provides them some proof that this fraud actually occurred.
Also, put a fraud alert on your credit file with all credit bureaus. From what I remember there is 2 or 3. The scammer may no be aware that you have returned and they might still be in the process of trying to use your credit for other purposes. So this will put a freeze on that activity.
Thanks for the replies
I got the police report done, and got the forms from the FTC to hand into the credit bureaus. I ordered a police report (still awaiting that) and will be going down tomorrow to the MVD to check my driving record. I'm hoping, hoping that things will work around to pressing charges on someone so I can get my SSN changed.
I have been thinking about going to some of these loan places and asking to see any paperwork associated with them.
I just can't believe how bad things have gotten here in the States since I've been gone. Well, here's to hoping this isn't too painful. I'm hoping I'm not a criminal or anything at this point too.
Thanks again for the advice.
Zephyrene, we all believe that you have not done anything wrong.
Zephyrene, we all believe that you have not done anything wrong.
See the dates of fraudulent activities in your credit report. Match it with those dates when you were in Australia during that time. Everything will be proven legally and you will be declared innocent. Don't worry too much. Everything will be just fine.