Do or Don't

First thing I would do is send a validation letter. They need to prove that this debt is yours. Send everything Certified Return Receipt and keep the green cards. This way you can prove that you sent the letters.

Next, dispute with the CRA's that are reporting it.

Sample letters are in the sample letter section. Good luck.

 

JMAC, for what it's worth, the CRAs usually delete 2 months prior to the full 7 years. (With Equifax, that's their stated policy, in fact.) So you'll see this come off in May 2002 -- 7 quick months from now. A repossession can be tough to remove (well, tougher than, say, a single 30-day late, lol), so if you're not up for the fight, you may consider letting the darn thing fall off. (I'm surprised you didn't have some collection activity against you and registered on your reports during the intervening years, by the way.) Others may disagree and/or actually have something far more insightful to say about this than I've provided. Interesting question, though. Incidentally, welcome to CreditNet!

Doc

 

Not yours? Why wouldn't you dispute it.... No matter when it comes off....

 

That is what I said.

 

You have been getting some pretty good advice from others, so I won't add any more along the same lines they have been offering.

But what hasn't been considered is that since you were denied auto financing because of a debt that was not yours, you have been damaged and you might want to think about a lawsuit.

You should be able to collect some heavy damage awards. I'd contact a good lawyer who works with that kind of problem on a fee contingency basis like David Szwak or other good one.

There are several good ones out there on the internet and some of them have been recommended on this board and you can find most or all of them by doing some searching on the search engine at the bottom of this page.

 

This situation is really wierd. In Virginia, you have to show your driver's license (picture ID) to buy a car.

 

Breeze - Is VA still using your SSN as your driver's license number?

 

JMAC:

Well, you have a 50-50 chance disputing with the credit bureaus. Either it comes off or it don't. Of course, that's exactly the same odds you have of making it through the day or breaking a leg. (LOL)

Who has exactly the same odds of winning the case. Either he does or he don't. But it wouldn't be a fraud case.

I'd tend to think that more than likely a good attorney would want to go for defamation of character as well as some FTC charges.

 

Yes, Virginia is still using your social security number as your driver's license number.

But, if you do not have a social security number, or if you don't want your social security number displayed on your license, DMV will issue an alternate number for your use.

 

In the name of good statistics, I couldn't let that one slip by. Bill, as much as I've seen you analyze numbers here on occasion, and to a fairly sophisticated degree, I know that you know that just because a situation only has two possible outcomes, that does not mean they are equally likely. The next time I drive my daughter to school, either we'll get in a wreck or we won't. If we do, we'll either be killed or we won't. Do you think for a minute that if I thought there was only a fifty-fifty chance of getting my daughter to school unharmed, with a twenty five percent chance she might not survive the trip, that I would still go for it? I don't think so. Can you imagine what my insurance rates would be? Fifty percent of the cost of replacing my car plus some unknown amount for injuries, deaths, mutilations, and mayhem (all of which will either happen or they won't), that I might cause on each trip. So, something well above $50000 would have to be paid each time I go to start the car, which, BTW, will either start or it won't, right? This, of course, would reduce my insurance costs by fifty percent, while making for astronomical costs for car repair, which of course, on each occasion, will either fix the problem, or it won't. LOL

Statistically Yours (or maybe not),

 

Yes, what Kate said.

 

My point is, that a picture ID is required. So if Suzie FraudPerp wants to use my credit to get a car and financing, she better have my ID with her picture on it. That's a felony.

I've written auto policies for dealerships and most are reasonably diligent to make sure the customer is who he/she says. The dealer can lose their license here if they don't check ID.

 

Quixote:

Of course, there is a big difference between possibility and probability. My 50-50 theory only takes the former into account, not the latter. Probability is a much more complicated set of equations.

That's why I adhere to the KISS theory. Anything else is too complicated for my brain cell.

 

IT'S LOGICAL TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE POSITIVE OF THE CORRECT NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE SELLING THE CAR TO...

If I pay cash, or check, they ain't gettin' my SS#!!!!!

 

I imagine all states have the same or similar laws. I just can't imagine how someone got away with using someone else's credit information. They would have to have doctored a driver's license.

 

Breeze:
It's easy to manufacture your own drivers license with any picture and information you want on it. Your picture and somebody else's personal info. Make it look exactly like the original issued by the state.

They even make green cards for the illegals coming from Mexico and other parts of the world. They are perfect if the right person does it, and there are websites advertising those products and they are sold on the street in places like Los Angeles and many other parts of the country.

And there are websites that tell you exactly how to do it and they are not too hard to find.

I was so amazed with the blatency with which they advertise such illegal products and how to make them that I once printed out a whole set of instructions telling people exactly how to do it, and mostly right on your home computer.

Then a little laminating machine you can buy "anywhere" for about $20 and you got a professional looking ID card for the kids to buy cigarettes or beer or whatever.

They even advertise the green cards and how to put the little thread in the cards so when they are held up to the light the thread will show exactly like the real ones do.
Unbelieveable but true