Removal of old late pays due to fraud?

[Anonymous]

Are there any good strategies for getting late payments removed because the charges were due to fraud? I had two infrequently-used store cards stolen and didn't realize it until months later. I stupidly ignored bills received via mail because I thought they were promos and I knew I hadn't placed any orders. I learned of the charges when the accounts went into collection. I relucantly sent pay-for-delete checks to get the mess over with, but the derog items were never deleted--apparently no good deed goes unpunished. I'm afraid to dispute them because I don't know how to prove that the charges aren't mine; I can only point out that the activity in question is inconsistent with 15+ years of credit history.

Any advice?

[RobertEG]

Filing a dispute is usually not adeuqate to remove credit reporting that was based on fraud or identity theft.

Briefly, if the creditor has adequate basis to support a determination that you authorized/applied for the credit, they can verify without "proving" that you signed/authorized the account or transaction.

For that reason, congress amended the FCRA by the addition of section 605B, which requires a CRA to block any information that is asserted to have resulted from identity theft from the consumer's credit report provided the consumer files the assertion in the form or a police report sworn before a law enforcement agency.

The creditor is not involved in the process.

For details on the identity theft process, see the sticky post titled "Victem of Identity Theft" in the upper portion of the General Credit Topics forum, and carefully read the specific requirments of FCRA 605B.