Is this considered AGING?

In what manner is it fraudulent?
Is it, or is it not, your account?

If you didn't open the account, and it was fraudulently opened in your name, treat it as such, and don't just nit-pick about when it should fall off. File a police report, and send a copy of that, along with a fraud affidavit, to the CRA to get it removed, and to the OC, so their records also reflect that it is fraud.

Even accounts that fall off can come back to bite you if they get sold to some new CA, re-aged, and re-reported at a bad time, such as when you are trying to close on a mortgage. If it is fraud, report, get it removed, and keep the documentation in case it comes back. Deal with it when it is ONLY a bad TL.

 

How could you have known what to do years ago? Most id theft victims still don't know where to even begin. Back then law enforcement couldn't even agree on whether they had to even take a report if it wasn't worth it for them to investigate, or which jurisdiction should do it. Some id theft victims ended up trying to get multiple fraudulent accounts reported in each jurisdiction where a fraud occurred, a real nightmare. FACTA didn't even exist in 2000. Now it does, and the CRAs have specific legal requirements to follow, and specified time periods to meet them. FTC has now published guidelines and comments on handling reporting of id theft and fraudulent accounts.

Past SOL is just a defense you can use in court if a creditor sues. You would still be better off if they sued to claim it is fraudulent, and for that you would still want a police report. Since it is fraudulent, and isn't your account, you don't even know all the details to ensure you could win on SOL. Nor should you have to.

You're better off if it doesn't even get that far. Would you rather pay several hundred dollars to "win" and not pay a debt you don't owe, or would you rather avoid the problem in the first place by notifying the OC, CRAs, and any CAs collecting on it that the account is fraudulent, thereby invoking the requirements under FACTA that they all are responsible for removing the account, not reporting it in the future, and not selling it?

Play your strongest hand, especially if it is fraudulent. Call it what it is. The law is then on your side.

Otherwise, you fall in the hands of the collection crooks who will claim you owe it anyway since your name is on it, and it is your problem to catch the thief and prove it is not your debt.

 

New report. This crime is "id theft", the unauthorized opening and use of a fraudulent account using your identification information. You couldn't even know it was about to occur when your handbag was originally stolen.

You should probably disclose all information you know about the crime, including that your handbag was stolen in 1993, which may have resulted in your identification information ending up in the hands of a thief, and indicate that you made a police report on that incident at the time, if that is the case.

If the police want to dig out the original theft report, they can, but that may take some time. There is no reason to delay your report of the fraudulent account for however long it might take to find the earlier report, if it can even be found.

More likely, they could confirm the fraudulent nature of the account by other means, such as obtaining information from the OC or CRA showing that the account address is one you never lived at, that identifying information was only partially correct, or that it fit the pattern of many fraudulent accounts, opened with the card sent to some address different than yours, quickly run up to a high balance with purchases of easily fenced consumer goods, and no payments made, or minimum payments only made by non-traceable funds to string the account along.

If this has only recently shown up on your report, it may mean that some JDB has purchased this "bad debt", and is about to resume collection activities against you. They may in fact also be deliberately "re-aging", although your strongest case for removal is still that the account is in fact fraudulent, since that places immediate legal obligations on the CRA, regardless of whether the JDB complies in response to any dispute short of suing.

You want to stomp on this as quickly as you can, with police and fraud reports to the CRA reporting, and to the JDB should they contact you, before they succeed in trashing your existing credit relationships. Also, be prepared to sue if they cause any trouble. You should be able to find an attorney to take it on contingency, and paying attorney's fees on top of damages was not what any JDB had in mind when they bought the account for a few pennies on the dollar.