I have my credit report, courtesy of a mortgage company. Due to my ex-husband's fraud and stupidity, my credit is shot. My score is 522. I have a foreclosure with a balance on there - which is actually not accurate since I actually redeemed the house and sold it. I have a bankruptcy, because ex ran up my cards and got a car, and I saw no way out. I have collections, from accounts that he started under a fake name... my ssn and he added his first name to my first name. If that makes sense. So now my credit report has me listed as Sarahtoby. It's great. I have lates on a car that I originally leased, but he got Chrysler to let him buy... he signed my name and always pretended to be me on the phone. They refuse to give me a copy of the phone records or anything to prove it wasn't me. He even plated the car in another county, with my name, and I have never lived there. Long story short... I have to get a home loan. The SSA was trying to get me a new SSN for domestic violence, but the mgr guy there just won't return calls and doesn't seem to care. I signed up for Ovation Law's premiere service... but I feel like they are just going to steal my money and not help. Should I cancel since I just signed up an hour ago? Can I even get that foreclosure and collections fixed on my own? Help!
You are a victim of fraud and possibly ID theft. There are laws in place that protect your rights. The first thing to do would be to place a fraud alert with the big three, in order that no additional accounts be opened by this jackass. As far as repair goes, there is very little that a credit repair law firm can do that you can't do on your own. It depends on how much of a pain you want the process to be.
I did file that ID fraud alert thing... I was trying to go the new SSN route because he knows my SSN, DOB and mom's name... so he pulls a report on me whenever he wants to know anything. After calling and pestering the SSA (and running all over getting dr's report and police reports), I have given up on them getting me the new SSN. So I am going to try to fix what I can on my report so that I can get a homeloan. From my readings, and what the mortgage people have said, I need to get rid of the foreclosure ASAP. My house DID go into foreclosure (I took a big paycut at work), but after I filed BK, I redeemed my rights and sold the house. My report shows a balance owed and that it was foreclosed. At the very least, it needs to say zero balance, which I thought I could just show the mortgage people my closing papers on the house... no dice. I have to get it zeroed out. So, I get it zeroed out, but then that means validating the entry and I can't try to say "not mine" later. (such tricky little suckers, aren't they?) The collections are old. Some are in this fake "Sarahtoby" name. Some are years old that they probably can't be verified. The Chrysler thing shows a profit/loss deal on it because I had the truck he bought in my name repo'd and sold at auction. (that was a fun night with the police dept). Chrysler told me he had been calling in and using my SSN, but they won't give the records to me to give to the SSA. The FTC (fed trade commission) gave me a case number, but they didn't help either. I am going it alone. I am afraid Ovation will make my case worse by flagging me with the CRAs or something. Should I cancel my Ovation thing? Will they help or make it worse? I am sorry for being a paranoid crazy person. I just have to get my score up a bit, so I can get a homeloan. Sort of a dire emergency (my ex is a nut).
"Ovation Law's premiere service" Who are they? A credit repair organization? What do they say they can do? You are not dealing with "credit repair". You are dealing with criminal fraud, criminal identity theft, and criminal forgery, connected to the implied or explicit threat of violence. Since you are dealing with both identity theft, fraudulent account, and potential domestic violence, you may need the help of a good attorney, as well as your local DA and or police. An attorney may help you handle the range of problems at arms length, making sure you don't accept the BS from all the parties reporting fraudulent accounts, while maintaining some degree of isolation due to your domestic violence risk. It should be possible to prove at least some of these accounts were fraudulent and resulting from id theft. Filing police reports and fraud affidavits should get them off your reports, as required under FACTA. That should start to establish the pattern of pervasive id theft and fraud, that may help you get assistance from your local DA or police, in getting the CRAs to remove the remainder. It may also help with getting a new SSN to have a series of police id theft reports to document the id theft and fraud by your ex.
"Chrysler told me he had been calling in and using my SSN, but they won't give the records to me to give to the SSA. " Police report and id theft affidavit, with an attorney to press the matter, should get both the records from Chrysler, and the TL removed by the CRA. You may have been dealing with this for some time, but the FACTA amendments to FCRA only recently went into effect, and they place specific requirements on both CRAs and DFs in cases of id theft. Your legal tools to get this fixed may be better now, which gives you the possibility of suing to force removal instead of just depending on the good faith of the DF and CRA. That means that both DF and CRA may be responsible for damages for their failure to remove as required by FACTA, which places time limits on their actions to do so, and they may also end up paying your attorney's fees, which may assist you in getting the legal assistance you need to get this resolved.
I can't really afford an attorney. That sounds expensive. I bet I would have to pay a retainer to get started. I spoke with someone in Chrysler's fraud department and he asked me to fax him some information and he promised to help me. It's been a year later and he never helped. I do have a copy of my closing papers on the house I redeemed and sold. If I called Homecoming and asked them to update it to a zero balance, I wonder it that would actually work.
they are like Lexington. I am looking through oodles of threads about credit repair services and it looks like they might be OK and able to help. Part of my problem is fraud and ID theft. And part is due to me not having the money to pay some things years ago and they are lates or collections. My main problem is the foreclosure showing a balance. A mortgage broker said if I could get my score up by a point and get the foreclosure as a zero balance, he could help me. (at a very high interest rate).
"I can't really afford an attorney. That sounds expensive. I bet I would have to pay a retainer to get started. " You are jumping to conclusions. There may be attorneys willing to take this on contingency. If the DFs and the CRAs have already failed to meet their legal obligations under FACTA, their liability for damages and attorney's fees may be able to cover part or all of your costs. Search for an attorney in your state that handles debt collection litigation. Sometimes attorneys who handle bankruptcies also deal with illegal collection, credit reporting, and id theft litigation. Talk to several, and see how they would handle a mess like this, and how they would be compensated. Handling it yourself, your damages are an on-going cost. When examined as a case that may lead to a settlement, provable damages may be an asset, and their effect in interfering with a home purchase and mortgage may multiply those damages. You are not looking for someone who does not already practice in this area, and you only need to find one. This is not "credit repair". See, for example: www.naca.net
The foreclosure deal really is mine, though. I either want it removed (wishful thinking) or at least updated to show a zero balance (since I sold the house). I am guessing it would be way easier to just try to call Homecoming and have them report it.... if they ever get around to it, anyway.
If they are reporting, they have a legal obligation to report accurately. They have no liability for their error, however, until you bring it to their attention.
So my question is... since the information is not accurate (the balance is wrong - should be $0 and not $212K)... Can I ask they delete the whole entry altogether? Or are they only obligated to correct it to $0? Is it best to send the nasty-gram to the CRAs? If I send it to OC, they will only correct it, not remove it.
If no balance is owed, it should show that no balance is owed. It sounds like, although you might like the account removed, accurate reporting is an acceptable outcome. Although if you dispute thru the CRA, and the OC fails to respond, the CRA should remove, if the OC does respond, they should correct it and that should be reflected in your updated report. For the OC to be liable for erroneous reporting, you need to dispute thru the CRA. If they correct it to accurately reflect $0 balance, it can legally stay. If they ignore your dispute, it should be removed. If they fail to correct in response to your CRA dispute, you may then proceed to sue for erroneous reporting. If time is an issue, you might also dispute directly to the OC, to determine what they are likely to verify, and give them a chance to determine that it is inaccurate more quickly in response to your CRA dispute. But unless they immediately correct, you should still dispute thru the CRA, to pin down their liability for the erroneous TL, since your next step to force the issue is probably in court.
I decided to cancel my service with Ovation. I will try a few letters on my own and see how I fair. I was reading through the nutcase and sample letters, and for some reason, I think I would actually get a sense of accomplishment from doing a few on my own. Then if I get bored of it, I will have Lexington or Ovation take over. I will post in a separate thread what I have to work on, and double-check that I have the right approach! Thank you for your help....
Your mortgage lender has reason to be concerned over all your aliases. You have fraudulently opened accounts sprinkled all over your report. You need to deal with your fraudulently opened accounts. Police reports, fraud affidavits, and the CRAs and DFs have to remove. That is not a matter for a credit repair organization. CROs just dispute, and hope it comes off. You have a number of accounts with stronger legal reasons to remove than dumb luck. Focus on them. Your student loan may be entirely positive, if it includes no negative information. Consumer credit report positive and negative classifications are notoriously unreliable, and FICO only uses the raw information. It could be "negative", only because there is a balance, when in reality it is affecting FICO positively if there is a good payment record. Deal with the items in the order they are likely to pay off. Debts that are legally not yours don't belong on your reports, and if police reports and affidavits are not enough to get them removed, there are attorneys who specialize in doing this, and negotiating settlements from those who fail to comply with the law. Get your name off the card where you are an authorized user. You don't want to be dealing with trying to get an additional Included In Bankruptcy off your reports, or fighting with a CA over a debt you have no responsibility for.
When you cancel anything, follow up with a letter, sent CRRR. On your health club membership cancellation, did you cancel in writing? "Forgetting" to close the account that the consumer requests closed is common in that industry, and it is also consumer fraud. Treat it as such, file a complaint with the district attorney, and a bbb complaint.
For any "Sarahtoby" account, I hope that the fact that my name isn't Sarahtoby is enough for the OC to take it off. I want to deal with the OC more than the CRA. I suppose I can write lawsuit-happy letters to them about them perpuating fraud and whatnot. The CRA, I simply want them to make my name on the report reflect my actual name. I'll send a copy of my DL. As for Chrysler... I will try the fraud department yet again. Give them my FTC case number again... Maybe try a crazy nutcase fax and registered letter to the fraud department. See if the fraud dept guy will help me.
You are still going about this backwards. For fraudulent accounts, you file a police report, fill out and sign a fraud affidavit, and send them to both the CRA reporting, and to the OC, as well as to any CA attempting to collect, or reporting. If you do that, there are specific federal laws under FACTA on how they must handle it, and in what time frame. If you do NOT do that, they can ignore all your letters and claims that it is fraudulent, and continue to try to get you to pay. The law was written that way to distinquish between legitimate claims of fraudulent accounts and id theft, and people who may actually have opened an account and rung up charges who are trying to get out of paying. The threshold for requiring that CRAs and other companies treat a case as id theft or fraud is the filing of a police report, since that act generally has legal penalties for doing so falsely. That is the way the law is written, and if you ignore it you are wasting your time. You are also characterizing yourself, or rather allowing them to characterize you, as possibly falsely claiming it was fraud, or possibly benefitting from the fraud, as long as you fail to make a police report. It is NOT your job to prove it is fraudulent, nor is it your job to catch and prove who did it, or to try to recover their damages from the perpetrator, although if you know or suspect who it is, you will probably be required to disclose that. In our society, law enforcement is responsible for investigating crimes, and crimes against individuals are prosecutable by society. That decision, however, is NOT yours, but up to police and DAs as they decide how to spend their limited budgets, how strong the evidence is, and whether they would likely prevail. An account may in fact be fraudulent, in which case the id theft victim should not be held legally responsible for it, even if the perpetrator is not known, never charged, never convicted, or even acquitted. Keep in mind that any company's fraud department may deal with various types of fraud, but he still works for the company, and his interest is in minimizing their loss, not yours. His chance of getting paid by a fraud victim whose name and SSN is attached to an account is probably better than being paid by an id thief. He does, however, have an obligation to follow and comply with the law. If you want him to follow the law, and treat this as a fraudulent account that you do not owe, you have to do what the law says, also, by filing a complaint with the police, DA, or other law enforcement.
