Do I Have A Case?

They are responsible to the tune of $900 that they lost.

Is information on the account showing up on your credit reports?
Have you filed an id theft complaint with your local police?

 

You are following their path, which they still hope might result in collecting the money from you. They actually have a better chance collecting a debt you do not owe from you, than recovering a dime from the perpetrator, and they know it. It is not really in their interest to recognize this account as fraudulent, or even to make any final determination about it, and it might even be in their interest to quickly sell it off while it is still just a "bad debt", leaving you to deal with a CA later.

A broad study several years ago of CC bad and fraudulent debt, across a couple hundred million accounts with major CC companies, found that 7 out of 8 fraudulent accounts was sold off before the CC company had recognized it was fraudulent. Hence it is likely that most fraudulent "debt" makes it into the debt collection world, and collection is attempted against consumers who do not owe it. The rates of fraudulent activity reported by the CC companies is heavily underreported, due to misclassification of most such accounts ad merely "bad debts".


If you are already willing to file a complaint against your relative if it comes to that, there is no reason to wait in filing the id theft complaint, and taking all other appropriate actions. If you have already determined that the account is NOT yours, and if they claim it is opened with your SSN, that is sufficient to claim "id theft", file your reports, and send copies to both the OC and the CRAs reporting.

This will make the CRAs obligated under FACTA to remove all information on the fraudulent account from your reports. In addition, the OC, on receiving your fraud affidavit and copy of police report, cannot sell the "account".

You need not have actually taken any steps to file complaints against your relative to do the above, and in fact, it is not YOUR decision whether your relative is prosecuted or not, nor does their prosecution have any bearing on whether you can file an id theft complaint and use it to obtain removal of fraudulent accounts from your reports, or ceasing of collection activity against you.

 

First of all, at this point you don't even know whether the account was applied for under your SSN. You only have, presumably, some claim by the OC, or a CA, and only verbal at this point.

If your father applied under his name, address, and DOB, then he arguably applied as himself, and has not hidden that he did so.

If his name is in fact on the account, why are they not dunning him, and why is this on YOUR credit report, and not on his? Do you have the same name, and same address, as your father? What actual documentation, such as a copy of the application, did the OC, or a CA, send to you to indicate that the account was actually opened with your SSN?


It would be fraudulent and deceptive for a CA to claim that your relative opened the account in your name, when that was not the case, but it can be effective in getting payment from you if they believe they cannot get it from him. The dilema you face, whether to turn in a relative or not, is often quite effective in getting consumers to pay debts they do not even owe, that the CA may be fully aware they do not owe, and without you even checking with the relative to see if he had such a debt.

There have been cases of CAs claiming that an account was opened in a consumer's name, or using a consumer's identity, when no such event actually took place. It is easy to lie over the phone, knowing that there is likely no penalty for doing so as long as you provide nothing in writing that might prove the lie, and that if it works, and you get paid, you can use that payment as a defense to any claim of deception.

What type of account is this, what OC, and is there a CA involved?

 

Your father committed id theft, and fraud, against both you, your brother, and Citibank.

The CRAs accept even close matches with errors as legitimate, to allow for variations in names, errors in entering numbers, etc. It looks like your father knew about what would be close enough to get approved. Your last name matched, your SSN matched, so to Citi, and the CRA, the account identity is classified as YOU, and it would end up in YOUR credit file.

 

In order for the balance to be cleared (releasing you from the debt) you will need to have signed the affadavit and it has to be notorized and at that time Citi will begin procedings against your father for Id theft and fraud once you have signed the affadavit and had it notorized its then out of your hands and becomes Citi Banks decision on how they will persue the matter to collect the money owed and filing of charges against your father. Have you notified all 3 major credit bureaus to put a fraud block on your credit reports?

 

It is not even totally Citi's decision.

Presumably, the local DA where your father lived would have to decide to prosecute.

 

Your police dept would be best to advise you on how the charges would be handled. As for how the application was able to be processed with the wrong information it might have been processed systemically through the system or just plain human error. I know that 900.00 is a lot of money but this really could have been a lot worse. Maybe Citi would be willing to work something out (restitution) with your dad to clear the matter up.