Someone Impersonated me to Get my Annual Free Credit Report Years Back

[Anonymous]

I hope i can clarify this. I rented a place back in 2009 for a few months and broke the lease to move out of state. I did owe rent, but that's besides the point. I paid my karma since then. I get a Facebook message in the summer of 2015 from my previous landlord stating she received 2 separate emails from Equifax with order numbers with MY name on them. She told me that if credit issues arise from me, she would not hesitate to sue blah blah blah. She said she paid our utilities and she could have sued us but didn't. I get all scared wondering what's going on. I decide to call Equifax and ask what's going on. Apparently, HER EMAIL was on my Equifax. I asked the rep "How could this happen?". He stated that she must have gone to AnnualCreditReport.com and answered my identity questions correct. Well of course, she knew my previous addresses, SSN, full name, everything about me. The Equifax person tells me that they can fix this and put my email on the account. (In which they didn't still..). They put a freeze on my credit report (Not what i asked for, it happened years back).

I then realized that for years getting car loans and everything would always send off red flags because it several misspellings of my name. Last year when I was speaking to my car loan lady she grilled me about some stuff on my Equifax. She asked why I had "Null" as my middle name, etc. It was like my Equifax was completely messed up. I had been trying to access it for years and never got questions correct. I always put it aside because I didn't get really serious about fixing my credit until last year.

Here we are in 2016. I still can't get into my Equifax and I am not sure what's going on. All a rep does is freeze my credit report and tell me everything is updated now. I am up in arms on what to do now. Do I sue her in small claims for this mess? Do I sue Equifax? I'm so exhausted thinking about this. We're due to get  mortgage in 2017 so it's time sensitive that we act fast on fixing this issue.

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I hope i can clarify this. I rented a place back in 2009 for a few months and broke the lease to move out of state. I did owe rent, but that's besides the point. I paid my karma since then. I get a Facebook message in the summer of 2015 from my previous landlord stating she received 2 separate emails from Equifax with order numbers with MY name on them. She told me that if credit issues arise from me, she would not hesitate to sue blah blah blah. She said she paid our utilities and she could have sued us but didn't. I get all scared wondering what's going on. I decide to call Equifax and ask what's going on. Apparently, HER EMAIL was on my Equifax. I asked the rep "How could this happen?". He stated that she must have gone to AnnualCreditReport.com and answered my identity questions correct. Well of course, she knew my previous addresses, SSN, full name, everything about me. The Equifax person tells me that they can fix this and put my email on the account. (In which they didn't still..). They put a freeze on my credit report (Not what i asked for, it happened years back).

I then realized that for years getting car loans and everything would always send off red flags because it several misspellings of my name. Last year when I was speaking to my car loan lady she grilled me about some stuff on my Equifax. She asked why I had "Null" as my middle name, etc. It was like my Equifax was completely messed up. I had been trying to access it for years and never got questions correct. I always put it aside because I didn't get really serious about fixing my credit until last year.

Here we are in 2016. I still can't get into my Equifax and I am not sure what's going on. All a rep does is freeze my credit report and tell me everything is updated now. I am up in arms on what to do now. Do I sue her in small claims for this mess? Do I sue Equifax? I'm so exhausted thinking about this. We're due to get  mortgage in 2017 so it's time sensitive that we act fast on fixing this issue.

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Go old school and get the paper report by mail if you can't get it online.

After you get that you can start addressing things, and probably get into the online account since you now have what they're looking for... not sure that filing a claim would help but I'd start doing things in writing just in case.

Edit: ah that sucks, EQ Canada publishes easy form online but couldn't find it easily for EQ USA.  Probably can just call them and ask for how to request it via mail, I don't have the address handy unfortunately.

[takeshi74]

Definitely request paper reports to verify what shape they're in.  Ensure that your info is correct with all your creditors so you don't have one reporting incorrect/mispelled/etc info.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I will go old fashioned and see what I can do. I just am appalled that my old landlord IMPERSONATED me to gain access to MY free report. Can't she get in some legal trouble for doing such thing?

[iv]

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@Revelate wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I hope i can clarify this. I rented a place back in 2009 for a few months and broke the lease to move out of state. I did owe rent, but that's besides the point. I paid my karma since then. I get a Facebook message in the summer of 2015 from my previous landlord stating she received 2 separate emails from Equifax with order numbers with MY name on them. She told me that if credit issues arise from me, she would not hesitate to sue blah blah blah. She said she paid our utilities and she could have sued us but didn't. I get all scared wondering what's going on. I decide to call Equifax and ask what's going on. Apparently, HER EMAIL was on my Equifax. I asked the rep "How could this happen?". He stated that she must have gone to AnnualCreditReport.com and answered my identity questions correct. Well of course, she knew my previous addresses, SSN, full name, everything about me. The Equifax person tells me that they can fix this and put my email on the account. (In which they didn't still..). They put a freeze on my credit report (Not what i asked for, it happened years back).

I then realized that for years getting car loans and everything would always send off red flags because it several misspellings of my name. Last year when I was speaking to my car loan lady she grilled me about some stuff on my Equifax. She asked why I had "Null" as my middle name, etc. It was like my Equifax was completely messed up. I had been trying to access it for years and never got questions correct. I always put it aside because I didn't get really serious about fixing my credit until last year.

Here we are in 2016. I still can't get into my Equifax and I am not sure what's going on. All a rep does is freeze my credit report and tell me everything is updated now. I am up in arms on what to do now. Do I sue her in small claims for this mess? Do I sue Equifax? I'm so exhausted thinking about this. We're due to get  mortgage in 2017 so it's time sensitive that we act fast on fixing this issue.

---

Go old school and get the paper report by mail if you can't get it online.

After you get that you can start addressing things, and probably get into the online account since you now have what they're looking for... not sure that filing a claim would help but I'd start doing things in writing just in case.

Edit: ah that sucks, EQ Canada publishes easy form online but couldn't find it easily for EQ USA.  Probably can just call them and ask for how to request it via mail, I don't have the address handy unfortunately.

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Just use the annualcreditreport.com mail-in form (PDF): 

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/manualRequestForm.action

Include one document (copy) with your SSN, either:

Social Security card 
Pay stub with Social Security Number 
W2 form

And one document (copy) with your current address, either:

Driver's license 
Rental or lease agreement/house deed 
Pay stub with address 
Utility bill (gas, electric, water, cable, residential telephone bills)

Mail to: 

Annual Credit Report Request Service 
P.O. Box 105281 
Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

[Appleman]

The landlord has indeed broken the law but I am not a police officer or lawyer so I have no idea what laws or courses of action you have available. 

And it sounds like you have someone who would sue you back for past rent if you sued them for identity theft. All that being said, you do need to gain control of your credit account. Once the landlord has your report she has all of the information they would need to get access again.

Sorry to hear about the tough situation, please update us about how this all works out.

Good luck.