Posted: 3/12/2011 11:01:12 AM EDT
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I had trouble about a year and a half ago with someone in Minnesota using my social security number to sign up for DirectTV service:
http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=945679 Today, I found a letter in the mail addressed to that person but with my address. It is from a collection agency stating that he owes $419.54 to Qwest. A Google search indicates that Qwest offers internet services as well as DirectTV service. How they tied my address to all of this is a mystery. Opinions on how I should handle this? |
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Just a layman, but I'd suggest:
1. lawyer up 2. Send a certified letter to the creditor explaining the situation 3. Send certified letters to the big three credit agencies explaining the situation. 4. Set up some kind of credit hold with the big three. 5. lawyer up. Also, that sucks. It's gonna be a major hassle for you I think. |
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Quoted:
I had trouble about a year and a half ago with someone in Minnesota using my social security number to sign up for DirectTV service: http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=945679 Today, I found a letter in the mail addressed to that person but with my address. It is from a collection agency stating that he owes $419.54 to Qwest. A Google search indicates that Qwest offers internet services as well as DirectTV service. How they tied my address to all of this is a mystery. Opinions on how I should handle this? Uh, mark envelope "Return to Sender", "No such person at this address" and drop it back in the mail. Why are you opening somebody else's mail? That's against federal law. |
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Quoted:
Why are you opening somebody else's mail? That's against federal law. Because I knew by the addressee what it pertained to. Federal law or not, I'm not going to just drop it back in the mailbox and pretend that all of this never happened, and wait for my 840 credit score to be dropped to 500. 
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Quoted:
The lawyer part is what I don't want to deal with. Why should I be punished financially because some douchebag out there is opening accounts with my social security number?  Because average people don't have a strong lobby. Until it costs "them" enough in loses to make it cheaper to verify who they are extending credit to, "they" will continue to keep doing what they are doing. ("them" encompasses a large number of businesses.) You should also check your credit reports on a regular basis. You can get a copy from each of the 3 credit bureaus each year. If you stagger them, you can get an update every 4 months for no cost to you. You will have to pay to see your score, but only one of them gives you an actual FICO (tm) score. (something like $15, Equifax) https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp ...and LePew has the right idea. |
| You need to report the identity theft to the company thats dunning you. Then you need to make a police report, if you haven't done so already. They'll probably want you to make the police report before they'll do anything for you. Finally, you need to get a free credit report from each of the big 3 and see what other unauthorized stuff has been done in your name that you are currently unaware of. I have some forms I can email you that I give out to all of our ID theft people that walk you through that part of the process. |
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I spoke with the company the guy ran up the bill with, and explained the situation to them. They recorded our conversation, and told me what I needed to do. First, I contacted one of the three credit reporting agencies and put a fraud alert on my credit. They said that they would notify the other two, and I received mailings from all three after that indicating that action was taken.
I then filed a police report, and faxed a completed and signed identity theft complaint affidavit, along with proof of residency and a copy of my driver's license to the company. I'm awaiting further information from them. |