A police report does not prove anything, and is thus not basis for documenting a dispute. It is a sworn assertion, not proof.
If you simply dispute, they will use the information in their files to simply verified the accuracy based on what is known to them. They, rightfully in my opinion, can only base their verification on their records. They arent required to hire a private investigator to determine the accuracy prior to verifying, and the dispute process does not compel them to provide documentation to verify the accuracy of thier reporting. That is why the identity theft provisions were added to the FCRA back when.
The police report is thus used to invoke the identity theft provisions of the FCRA, and thus permit you to build documentation to support a dispute.
In the interim, the police report permits you to have the information immediately blocked from your CR under FCRA 605B until the accuracy of the information is ultimately determined, and hopefully deleted from your credit file.
File a police report (the FCRA calls it an "identity theft report") and initiate the identity theft provisions. The age of the matter is not the issue.
What the police report provides is a sworn statement, under penalty of law for any knowingly inaccurate statements, that simply records your assertion that the account/transactions were never authorized or established by you, and thus logically must have been established by fraud or identity theft. You arent required to "prove" a negative in that statement. Most law enforcement agencies have standard procedures for accepting request for police reports that are needed by a consumer in order to invoke their statutory rights under the FCRA. If a police agency declines, simply call your state AG, who will assist you in obtaining the report.
The FCRA accepts such a sworn statement as basis for immediately blocking the information from your credit report under FCRA 605B. That's what you want now. Then, by also sending it to the creditor, you can require them to provide all business records pertaining to the identity theft information pursuant to section 609(e), thus building your documentation of "not mine."
If a debt collector is also involved, you can additionally send the police/identity theft report to them, and compel their production of all information that they normally would have been required to provide if you had disputed the accuracy with them. FCRA 615(g).
