Credit Card Opened ID Theft

[SBR249]

To specifically address the question of "what about an FTC fraud report", I don't think that will help too much. The FTC doesn't actually address or take action on individual cases that are reported to it and they say so on their website. Instead they collect data reported to them and look for trends that would indicate a pattern of fraudulent activity. For example, if they get 1000 reports of a shady company billing people for unsolicited merchandise, then they might take action and use those reports as evidence. But they won't intervene for individual cases.

In any case, your circumstance probably falls under CFPB jurisdiction as it is financial in nature. Another alternative is your state attorney general's office or a separate consumer protection agency of your state government. The good news is that the CFPB and most state consumer protection agencies will address individual cases, the bad news is that they generally don't take enforcement actions for individual cases (CFPB definitely won't). Rather, they usually say that they act as mediators between the parties to try to facilitate a resolution. For enforcement type actions, they will almost certainly point you to your local law enforcement agency. 

Honestly, if it were me, I would plan to pay it but I would contact the CC company directly (maybe reach out to the executive office) and explain the situation (without mentioning names). Politely beg them to offer some sort of arrangement that won't wreck your mother's credit while she pays the debt off in full. After all, she is a victim here as well, and if she makes a good faith effort to not burn the CC company hopefully they'll be a bit more understanding and flexible. 

[Anonymous]

OP Should get the police involved family or not that person needs to learn a hard lesson.

[Shadowfactor]

She made a payment for 3k at some point in 2017. Probably early 2017, from what I can remember.

I’ll talk to her about it and see if she would want to work out some kind of arrangement with citi and get it taken care of.

Would it be possible to transfer the debt to my brother and let him be responsible for it since it was his anyway.

I bet she would give them a grand or something along those lines if they would be willing to accept it wasn’t her that opened the account and transfer it to his name and delete any negative trade lines.

[SBR249]

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@Shadowfactor wrote:
She made a payment for 3k at some point in 2017. Probably early 2017, from what I can remember.

I’ll talk to her about it and see if she would want to work out some kind of arrangement with citi and get it taken care of.

Would it be possible to transfer the debt to my brother and let him be responsible for it since it was his anyway.

I bet she would give them a grand or something along those lines if they would be willing to accept it wasn’t her that opened the account and transfer it to his name and delete any negative trade lines.

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If she wants to settle then she can probably call up Citi when the debt is sufficiently delinquent and ask for any settlement offers but if that's the way she goes, it's unlikely they'll be willing to delete the negative. 

As for transferring the debt, probably not. Citi extended the credit to someone who it thinks is your mother based on your mother's credit profile and risk of default. If it knew it was actually your brother Citi probably wouldn't have done so. I don't see them being willing to just transfer it without another assessment of whether he'll actually pay it back. There's also the fact that your mother refuses to officially acknowledge that it's your brother that incurred the debt. You just aren't going to convince anyone with that. 

Also, I would not pay anything until you have negotiated or decided upon a resolution. If your mother pays anything it will be taken as an acceptance of debt and the statute of limitations clock will restart. Furthermore, how will you convince anyone from a legal standpoint that it's not her debt if she even paid portions of it?