Credit Card Opened ID Theft

[Shadowfactor]

Wasn’t exactly sure where to put this.
So please move if needed.

This doesn’t affect me personally, but I wanted to help out my mother in dealing with a fraudulent credit card.

My brother is in rehab for a year by court order. I had my mother freeze all 3 credit reports and place fraud alerts.

My little bother used to be addicted to drugs. When he was using he opened several accounts under my mothers name. She always caught most of them when the cards came in the mail and closed the account. One slipped through.

In May 2016. He opened a Citi Best Buy Card ( Visa) 5K limit. He ran up the entire balance and left my mother high and dry to pay it. She finally started receiving the bills that were late when he entered rehab the time before this. It had a balance of 6200. She paid it down to 3500 while he was in rehab the previous time. Upon getting out in late 2016. He said he paid the rest off since he had a job for about 6 months and supposedly had money. He never did.

My mother pulled her credit reports after being denied a credit card and it’s showing a charge off with citi for 3546 in mid 2017.

The account hasn’t gone to collections yet as of last week when she got her reports.

She doesn’t want to pay it, nor should we have to pay it. But on the other hand. She won’t file a police report about it if she has to say it was him. She’s not going to get him in trouble. I’ve tried to talk to her about it and how she needs to employ some tough love. She won’t and never will at this point. He’s doing good in the program and it’s been 9 months since he’s been in. He’s made some changes that we both can see so hopefully it sticks this time.

I want to help her get this off her reports. She had prefect credit. 800+ scores. Paid off her mortgage in 2015. Has about 10 positive trade lines. Never carries a balance.

Her scores are now in the low 600’s. She has one credit card herself.

What’s the best way to get this removed since it was fraud ?
Please keep in mind the earlier comment about not indicating it was him. She won’t do it so there’s no point in even trying. I know my mother.

[Anonymous]

Been on her shoes, I have no problem reporting identity theft to anyone if it means I am going to be penalized for either 7 years or the rest of my life (blacklist by Citi).

In my opinion solely, drug addicts don't learn by being coddled.  If that drug addict isn't stealing your mother's ID, there is a very good chance they're going to steal the ID of someone else, or steal something else.

I'd suggest she file the police report, but that's my opinion solely.  I would get this removed with Citi and try to rehab the relationship with Citi as well.

[Shadowfactor]

She isn’t opposed to filing a police report saying it was ID theft. But she’s not going to say she knows who it was.

I’ve tried to talk to her about doing just that. And she won’t. I’ve tried several times to convince her. She just gets pissed off and tells me to leave and she won’t get him in any more trouble.

So that’s out.
I don’t think she cares about the relationship with citi. She’s never been a very credit oriented person. She uses debt for everything. She’s been like that for 10 years that I can remember. She hates paying twice, hates autopay, and just in general dislikes credit cards.

She has one for emergencies, but even if something comes up she still uses debt. She basically has one for peace of mind and the occasional trip out of the country where she can’t use her debt card. ( she doesn’t even have a Visa/MC debt card) she just has an atm card and uses it most places.

She pays cash for everything. The only time she’s actually financied anything was when she bought her house. She did get a car loan for about a month because she couldn’t move money out of her investments fast enough and needed a car. Got a loan and then paid it off entirely when she got the money moved over.

She’s thinking about moving though which is why I want to help her get this taken off.

Anyway any other suggestions

[dragontears]

Unfortunately unless she is willing to file a police report she is responsible for the debt.

[Shadowfactor]

I have no idea about this process. But if she did file one. Does she have to say she knows who did it ? Or can she just not say and act like she isn’t sure ?
She doesn’t know for sure that it was him. He never did openly admit that he did it, but we both know it was him.

She paid 3000 of it which is what it concerned about. I don’t want her to do that and then the police come back and arrest her when they find out she made a 3K payment.

[Anonymous]

Yep, she's 100% responsible and there's no point in you spending time trying to do anything else.  There's also no point in commentary on it.

The law is the law and in this case there is no option but to either follow the law one way (file a police report including all pertinent data) or follow the law the other way (accept responsibility for the debt personally up to and including lawsuits and judgments).

Just because she doesn't care about credit doesn't mean that insurers don't.  She may be paying thousands of dollars more for the rest of her life in higher insurance rates.  That's also her responsibility if she prefers to just accept the debt as her own.

[Shadowfactor]

I will try to talk to her again and point that out.

What about an FTC fraud report ?

[Anonymous]

ABCD sumed it up perfectly. Either she files a complete police report or she accepts the debt as her own price of not wanting to get him in trouble.

Any other option to fight or dispute the account involves lying (by omission) to police/creditors/credit agencies and only opens her up to more troubles than she already has.

[RobertEG]

The FCRA provides a process to permit removal of fraud/identity theft information from your credit report without any involvement or concurrence of the creditor.  See FCRA 605B, and the detailed discussion of that process in the sticky thread at the top of the General Credit Topics forum.

The essential part of the FCRA identity theft process is the need for a police report to back up the assertion.

Otherwise, and consumer could simply assert they did not authorize and account.

Filing of a police report subjects the consumer to potential criminal prosecution for any knowingly false statements, and thus is the mechanism selected by congress to weed out spurious assertions.

If unwiling to file a police report, then you cant avail of the blocking provision of the FCRA.

You can submit requests to the creditor for removal, but they can usually verify based on their documentation of applications using your identity.  You can dispute and assert that a reasonable investigation by the creditor should reasonably show that the documents were not submitted by you, but that is very difficult to prove.

If you file a police report, you can, of course, decline to answer any questions regarding knowledge of who likely used your identity.

However, that is a standard question that police are trained to ask as part of any investigation, so expect it, and expect that they will decline to take a report if you declines to cooperate.

[SBR249]

I understand the whole family is family/blood is thicker than water thing. And to be honest, if a relative of mine is in a situation where they are in rehab and are showing signs of improvement I'd be supportive and not trying to get them in trouble too. Tough love is good and all but again, family is family and if they are improving I'm not going to sabotage that. 

That said, there are costs to that approach. Your brother incurred the debt under your mother's name. Now your mother says she won't rat him out and that's fine. But that means it's only fair to ask your mother to accept the consequences whether it's a bad credit profile (and all the costs associated with that) or issues with delinquent debt. That's what it takes to protect your brother. 

What you are essentially asking is to offload the costs and risks of protecting your brother onto the "system" (ie CC issuers and by extension their customers) while still enjoying the benefits and protections that comes with it. That just doesn't sound right to me. 

Edit: I'm not trying to point fingers or accuse anyone and if this post offends the OP I apologize. But I'm just trying to offer a perspective from someone who is personally uninvolved and still a part of the system and therefore will be indirectly affected (no matter how minutely).