My mentally ill daugther stole my identidy 3 states away and applied online for a Rooms to Go credit card. They allowed her to purchase over $3000 of furniture online and delivered it to her house. She paid on it for 3 years using her checks and MO's ,(without my knowledge) and then got sick and stopped paying sometime last Summer. Now they track me down, report to my credit address on her address. and call my house 3-4 times a deay demanding money. I sent a letter stating that this account was opened without my knowledge, signature on anything, and to only contact me in writing. I also demanded that they fix my credit reports. I received the green card back and they will NOT stop calling!!! What now? Thanks for any help, Zachdom PS- This account was sold to Citibank sometime 2 years ago.
Since this is identity theft, file a police report with your local police. You can use a copy of that to get this account removed from your credit reports under FACTA, as well as to force any CA or OC to stop handling it as your account. Short of filing a police report, creditors and CAs don't have to take your word that it is identity theft. Since you also may be dealing with harassment, start logging all your calls so you can document that they are harassing you. Get caller id, so you can document the date, time and number of the callers. If your state allows recording with only one party authorization, record the calls. Tell the caller that this is not your account, that you have requested validation which they have not sent, and that you have requested that they not call. Then hang up. You may have to file suit under FDCPA or FACTA to force this to stop. They will probably try to claim that since payments were made for 3 years, that either it is your account, or that you authorized your daughter to use your information. That is why you need a police report, and need to use that to dispute it with the CRAs. Is your police report going to cause your daughter to be prosecuted? Who knows? How much money is involved? Regardless, it is not your decision. It probably wouldn't be up to your police or even your DA to decide, but instead the DA where she is, 3 states away. But either way, from the CA's perspective, you are a better target for collection than she is, whether you opened the account or not. They will likely try to take advantage of that, regardless of the law. If they sold the account to Citi after it went into default, as opposed to Citi serving as the original creditor, then the FDCPA protections come into play. If, after you send them a fraud affidavit and copy of your police report, and they refuse to remove the account from your credit reports, continue to harass you, or sell the account to another CA, contact an attorney.
Who is calling to collect? A CA, or someone from Citi? What letters have they sent you, and who sent them?
