Mom ruined my credit score

[Anonymous]

Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong section, I'm new here. Please move to the accurate section if need be.

For years my mom has been ruining my credit even when I was a young child back in 2007 and had no credit. I don't even know how that was possible but it happened. I have told her before to stop using my name for things. I previously tried to make a credit karma account only to find out she had already made an account for me years back to moniter my credit. When I first looked into my account, I had so many open accounts and owed about $4000 to various collections, and only about 1 or 2 of them was due to my faults when I was 18. They were small collections of $200 or less. My credit score was a low 300 at the time. I told her to stop using my name for things and she told me she would stop and that she was going to dispute all of those open accounts and get my credit score up. She did manage to do so and brought my credit score to 500. That's fine but since then, I see she has still been opening accounts in my name and closing them when she couldn't pay them, leaving open collections in my credit scores. Now I have 2 for ATT and Fingerhut I have never touched. I owe $1000 for these combined accounts that were opened tjis year by her.

I have contacted her and told her for the last time to stop or I will report her for identity theft, but now I need to know how to fix these issues that my mother has caused for me. I'm thinking of taking out a secured card to build my credit responsibly. But I have never touched those ATT and Fingerhut accounts and don't know how to dispute them.

Can I have some advice? Please and thank you for reading.

[Anonymous]

Unless you want to treat your mom like an identity thief, you really have only one choice. Freeze your reports so her future attempts fail. While they are frozen dispute all of her accounts saying they aren't yours. Then you'll just have to go through the pain of unfreezing refreezing your reports while applying for your new active accounts to start your rebuild. This should only take a few years until she figures out your credit is frozen then hopefully the cycle is broken and you can leave them unfrozen. A credit monitoring/ identity protection service may be another option but I'm not familiar with any personally so I'll let someone more experienced speak to that method.

[rmduhon]

Definitely freeze the reports.

[Anonymous]

Okay what is freezing my reports and how do I do that?

[Anonymous]

From the sound of your post, you are not close with your mom for whatever reasons. I agree with the other posters about freezing your credit report. However, some of the creditors may make you fill out identity theft information anyway. This could include filling out a police report. I would not potentially put myself in harm’s way by filling out a police report and omit information about the culprit. I can understand that this might be a struggle morally, however it may help your mother realize she needs help and to get that help.

By not doing anything, you will only be putting yourself in a hazardous position financially while allowing her to continue. It is likely she is doing it to more than one person. Keep in mind that identity theft can have far ranging consequences beyond hurting your credit. The last thing you want to have happen is to get picked up on a felony warrant, then must spend your money to prove otherwise. A man had his identity stolen and got charged with murder http://fox8.com/2017/04/30/northeast-ohio-man-cleared-in-texas-cold-case-murder/

In terms of freezing your credit report, I believe you can do that at each cra separately. There may be way to do it from one place, but I don’t know about. If there is, I'm sure others here will know about it.

[Anonymous]

Do you think it's better to put out a fraud alert for vetter security rather than freezing my accounts?

[Anonymous]

I agree with fiveseven.  DW and myself about 13 or so years were victims of id fraud by  family .  They did not apply for credit They just tried to sell or borrow against  everything thing we owned. They got the basic info from my mother's house and had fake id made. Since they were family they knew most of material already.  They timed the act to be when we were on an very long extended trip. How they got caught was of all the attorneys to pick for a refi closing they picked my best friend.  We were over seas and got a call from him.  It took months to fix everyting.  Some places were easy to work with others not so. We did press charges. We did let them spend 6 months in jail and the rest on an extended probation. Just recently they did file fake tax returns for spite using our information (see my post ).  Even undoing their efforts made us loose around $100K.  They are dead beats so we did not get a judgement .  

If some of the items on your credit report predate when you were 18 you can sometimes dispute those as you were to young for it to be you.  

I would put a freeze credit report.  I would prosecute her or she will do it again.     

[RobertEG]

Fraud alerts come in two flavors..... initial, and extended.  See FCRA 605A.

An initial fraud alert requires only an assertion of potential fraud/identity theft, and does not require submission of a police report.

However, it only lasts for 90 days.

An extended fraud alert lasts for several years, but requires a police report that identifies specifics.

If unwilling to file a police report, then the fraud alert process under the FCRA will likely be too short to produce your intended results.

[Anonymous]

That sucks OP.  I would definitely freeze your credit reports to prevent future abuse.   Then I would work on contacting each credit bureau and disputing all of the accounts that were not opened by you. 

[Anonymous]

I fall solidly in the 'call the police' camp. Clearly, she has zero respect for you, your needs, and your future, so why bestow unearned loyalty on her. What she has done, and continues to do, doesn't just hurt your chances of getting a credit card or car loan, the effects are far more dire; it can prevent you from getting a good job (like military or other government jobs), buying a home, renting an apartment, etc.

Its one thing if you do it to yourself; you suck it up and try to do better. But its entirety different if someone does it to you...