My hubby received a letter today from a major credit card company regarding the disputes we did during CHOD. They sent him an Affidavit of Fact for a Fraudulent Credit Application which basically says that he has never applied for credit with them and has not given anyone permission to apply for such an account and that he has never benefited in any way from the fraudulent application. Once he fills that out and returns it, it says someone will contact him. Soooo...in short...where to go from here? The account is marked in dispute until he gets back to them, but remains. Should he do it? It isn't even a sworn affidavit. Also, if he does it and they contact him...what are they going to ask or want from him? Thanks! You da man! L
I'm not Lizardking, but I think this is a bad move. Basically they are wanting you to sign a form saying the credit card account you are disputing is fraudulent. Once they have that, then a bunch of bad things could happen, like them placing all kinds of fraud alerts on your credit reports, trying to track down the "fraudulent user" of the card and prosecute (all though that is unlikely) or any host of other things. If you did have to eventually go to court over this for some reason, that form you signed may come back to haunt you. I'll let Lizardking give more specifics, but it is a bad move in my opinion.
Thanks for responding. This isn't a situation where he would have to go to court over it. It is listed as "included in bankruptcy" so regardless of whether it is hubby's or not, the cc co isn't recovering the money. They said they were unable to determine who was responsible for the account. I'm hoping LK sees this post because he has a lot of experience with the fraud affidavits and this type of situation. L
humblemarc, I'm just basing my opinion on my general rule of providing the least amount of information possible to any original creditor or collection agency. I like to let them do the legwork. I also think it is generally better to avoid signing documents that either admit or deny ownership of an account, since this only adds to the paper trail the creditor or CA has against you. I am not basing any of this on personal experience, if that is what you are getting at. Just common sense.
Whyspers, I'm near positive LizardKing as well as the others who've followed the same path as LK, that posted in previous threads about this, all have said fill it out and send it in. It's just required documentation for the creditor. But, there's a big difference, the BK factor. I'm curious still , and previously clarified this with LK for my own path, he was successful with his ID theft claims but he'd never declared BK. Do you think completing a fraud affadavit makes a difference with hubby having filed BK? I think the logical question would be, well why'd you include something in BK that wasn't yours in the first place. The bigger question would be given the purpose of BK, why was a creditor being discharged that wasn't owed at all. Does the filing in some way, on it's surface, acknowledge the account in question. There's all sorts of swearing under oath that goes on with BK proceedings. I suppose you could backtrack, if needed, and claim duress and an inclusion of everything and everybody that was hounding him for money when the BK was filed, and that the validity wasn't questioned at that time because you didn't know it was an option. I'm still curious myself how the BK filing would weigh against signing the affadavit or if it should be weighted at all. Sassy
Sorry Whyspers for the doubling-up, I just thought of something though. He received a fraud affadavit in response to a verification or validation request? Is that their response instead of sending validation as required? If so, that's an easy out for them. Sassy
I sent in disputes to TU, EX, and EQ during CHOD for him and this was one of the accounts that was disputed as "not mine". We haven't heard back from the CRAs yet (results due any time), but just received this letter in the mail today basically saying they couldn't determine responsibility for the account and in the meantime, they would tell the CRA's to mark the account in dispute until further investigations have been made. If he wanted to pursue disputing the account further, he needed to fill out the fraud affidavit, which basically just said what I already posted above. As far as the bk...that is being disputed as "not mine" as well. I'm just trying to think this thing through. I would not have him sign a sworn aff, but in this case, I'm not sure there could be negative ramifications. I am not seeing how there could be a down side to this. L
If the cra's verify, you can just send the letter outlining the part about they can't determine responsibilty. Put the burden on the CRA's
If they can't determine responsibility, I don't know why you have to sign anything at all. However, I'm with you and with LizardKing's previous posts, I think they just need the documentation, I'm not seeing a downside if you've no BK concerns -- even with concerns there are easy ways around those. The documentation makes it easy for them to delete without further work on their part (and without that bogus excuse about deletion being in violation of their contracts with the CRA's). If they were able to prove it, they'd have provided the documentation and verified already. This gets them out of their investigation responsibilities as well and likely covers their butts against future suits for perpetuating ID theft -- shows they did what they were supposed to do. Sassy
If this is First USA, send that affadavit back. LK and I have discussed this. Both of ours were deleted within 10 days from mailing it in. We also have had no other contact from FUsa since.
Justin...you got it in one. LK, I'll tell him to say he has no clue and simply keep repeating it. We move over four years ago and have the old address off the credit report. If this was his account, it was probably opened many, many years ago. Some of those bk accounts were opened 20+ years ago. Not sure if this was one of them or if its even his. He doesn't remember who he had credit cards with as some were closed when he went through his divorce and some new ones were opened. They do ask for address and telephone number on the fraud affidavit. Guess one could leave that part blank, although they obviously have our address or they could not have mailed this to him. Hmmm...wonder if they pulled an inquiry...lmbo. Sassy...I did consider what you said as well. Seems to me that they already gave me the ammo to use by saying they could not determine responsibility for the account. Okay...I'm feeling better about this situation. I'll wait to see what the CRA's say and if they don't delete, I will then send a copy of their letter outlining that they couldn't determine responsibility. If that fails, next step will be sending in the fraud affidavit. Thanks ya'll! L
Whyspers, BK accounts unknown to 20 + years!!!!!!!!! LOL LOL, that answers everything, go Mr. Whyspers Goooooooo! They did give you the ammo, that's why I said I don't know why you need to sign anything at all, if they can't verify it, bzzzzzzzzzz. If they can get you to bite it could get them out of violations, they can't be that smart though, and you'd still get deletion. You have the ball on this one, Whyspers, they already hung themselves. Hmmmmm, Mr. Whyspers BK isn't reporting via pacer is it? I'd bet it's too old. That's truly the only thing I think that could snag up a fraud statement. That's for me though, my stuff is online, list of creditors too. For me, I've only one stubborn OC left, yeahhhhh, and it doesn't say included in bk so I'm sticking with LK's I don't know a damn thing about anything -- nada. Since you've disputed via the CRA's already, maybe they'll make it easy for you to decide, depending on the response. Sassy
That was kind of what I was saying as well. I don't think it is necessary to sign anything for an OC unless it is absolutely in YOUR best interest. From the sounds of things, it doesn't sound as dicey as I thought it would be though. Good luck!
The EXACT same thing happened when I disputed my accounts. Out of 15 disputes for identity theft, First USA was the only one to send me an affadavit. What makes me suspicious is that I already stated in my letter what they want me to attest to in the affadavit. I even sent the CRA's a copy of my driving record where there is a statement from the attorney general's office the my license is flagged for identity theft. So, why would they need the affadavit? Another hoop to jump through? A test to see if you're really willing to attest to identity theft on an official looking form? It may simply be an attempt to get an up to date phone number. It may also absolve them of responsibility of errors that they made, being that the account might indeed not be a result of identity theft, it may be a result of a merged file. On the other hand it may be what their lawyers tell them they need to circumvent their agreements with the CA and CRA's. What strikes me as odd is that First USA is the only one who responded this way. And they reponded to a debt that has been in collections since 1999.
If you're filing bankruptcy, you list everyone that has their hand stuck out. You are simply listing the creditors that are asserting a claim. If its not a zero asset case, the bankruptcy court deals with the validity of the claim. Listing a "debt" on a bankruptcy schedule is in no way an admission of a valid debt.
