Comments on: "My ex-husband stole our son's identity"

By: Patches, Seymour IN

Patches, Seymour IN — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:57:34 +0000

My dad did the same thing to me and my bothers while we were minors. He would open an accont in one of our names and run the bill up until it was turned over to collections. Even worse when I turned 18 and tried to get my electric turned on I was informed I had to pay the balance before I could have service TRANSFERED. That how we found out what he had been doing. I told them to turn off the service and they refused because he was later added to the account and they needed his permission to turn it off. I was still responsible for the bill even when I told them I turned 18 before. I also had tax leins against me from the business he started and didn't pay taxes on, he continued to claim us on his taxes till I was 20. It all came back to him and now lives in a trailor paying rent cause he can't get a loan, the only vehicle he has is company owned, 6 years from retirement and doesn't have a penny saved cause the goverment it taking almost $800 a month to pay them back. Wether family of not people should be arrested when they use someone elses identity to open any type of account

By: clark005

clark005 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:55:29 +0000

Interestingly, I just got a call from a collection agency alleging an unpaid Comcast bill, I called Comcast and they said, no you are up to date. After reading this article I realized. Someone stole my ID!

By: Kyle, LA, CA

Kyle, LA, CA — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:22:39 +0000

alot of places also requires a police report to be filed. My mother was also a victim of ID fraud and since she's been out of the country for a while, we are unable to make a police report in the States.
Still trying to resolve the issue at the moment.

and in my experience, getting in touch with someone in the credit bureau is tough, its endless machine answering loops (Except for transunion).

By: Alex, Cambridge, MA

Alex, Cambridge, MA — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:32:08 +0000

This is not uncommon especially when grandfather/father/son share the same name. When a company pulls a credit profile they access several companies. They then cross link by name and shared addresses, not necessarily by SSN. Just bacause my father and I shared just a last name, my credit report showed that I was a 56 y/o male when, at the time, I was 27. I had to write to the bureau giving them my name, ssn, addresses for 10 yrs, etc. Its ridiculous. I've seen credit reports where the father had bad credit, and the son had good credit and the good credit inadvertently boosted the father's score. Its not a perfect system and if you get declined for credit then that is when you want to go over your report(s) with a fine tooth comb and get the issues resolved.

By: Linda, Succasunna NJ

Linda, Succasunna NJ — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:14:02 +0000

My son experienced the same thing with his father. He filed a FTC Complaint but the police report was difficult to achieve because local police departments didn't wanted to take his report (home in NJ, stationed in VA and his father lives in NC). It has been about 8 months and some new delinquent charges dating back 3 years are still appearing while others have been removed. One charge was a credit card which was still being using and when my son reported it as identity theft, his father reported it stolen and that opened other problems to say the least. My son will now spend the next few years monitoring his credit report on a monthly basis. The sad part is even with the theft charges being in the thousands, we understand no charges will be brought against his father which to us is unbelievable. Now I understand why identity theft is so prevalent.

By: Srini, Corona, CA

Srini, Corona, CA — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:13:49 +0000

http://www.ChildCreditReport.com has detailed info on how to protect your child's credit history. fyi.

thanks,

By: John Barksdale, Austin TX

John Barksdale, Austin TX — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:53:13 +0000

As a victim of financial identity theft, I hold Comcast completely accountable for the error. They issued cable service to an identity thief without confirming the identity or address of the identity theft victim before issuing the service. The Social Security number is not supposed to be used as an identifier and cases like these prove my point. If Comcast issued cable to an identity thief, Comcast should work with the identity thief and the collection agency to clean up the mess. Why should the victim bear the burden of cleaning up their credit record because of Comcast's errors? I've shared my personal financial identity theft story at http://identitythefthurts.com. Comcast should be forced to PROVE the son took out the cable service, not the other way around.

By: Jeff, Phoenix, AZ

Jeff, Phoenix, AZ — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:51:31 +0000

Unfortunately, parents using their children's ID's are not that uncommon; sometimes ranging in the tens of thousands of dollars, and the "kids" don't find out until they're in their 20's and are looking for their first loan. Most can be cleared up, but in many cases they have to have a police sheet to verify the offense, which means they have to press charges against the offending parent. Tough way to start…