Mom, You Messed Up My Credit!!

I found out a few years ago that my mother opened a credit card in my name and had been charging. When I spoke to the credit card company they said if I report the account as fraud then my mom could go to jail. I didn’t want that to happened, but is there anyway that I can get this removed from credit report. It’s not fair that I have to live with something that I didn’t even do. Please help.

Tarsha

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Hi Tarsha,

The Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) is a non-profit established in 2004 to help combat “identity theft through victim assistance, research and law enforcement partnerships”.  Their January 29, 2007 report determined that “two out of five identity theft victims surveyed by the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) know how their personal data was stolen”.  The culprit most common was “friends, relatives, in-home employees”.  This then leaves the moral quandary: Do I rat out a loved one?

It’s true that the CRA’s will permanently block all tradelines that are the result of Identity Theft, but the ID Theft Affidavit requires the victim to name the guilty party (if known) and includes the following assertion:

“I understand that knowingly making any false or fraudulent statement or representation to the government may constitute a violation of 18 U.S.C. §1001 or other federal, state, or local criminal statutes, and may result in imposition of a fine or imprisonment or both”.

The good news is your letter states “I spoke to the credit card company” and that tells me that the credit card has not yet been charged off.  I’ll also take the liberty to make the assumption that the account is a derogatory tradeline with some (or many?) late payments.  If that’s the case, then explain your situation to the credit card company again and ask them to give a written confirmation that they will re-age the revolving account so as to drop all of the negative reporting and start the trade anew once three monthly payments have been made.

For all intents and purposes, it does look like it’s your account now and mom should begin paying the payment directly to you each month.  No matter which way it’s figured out and no matter how it’s sliced and diced, it is a credit card and she is your mom. 

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul

P.S. MOM!!!!!

(source=identitytheftassistance.org/resources/ITACNewsRelease-IdentityTheftVictimSurvey1.29.07.pdf)