Identity Theft ruined me and I need help.

[SheedNYC17]

I'm 25 and grew up in foster care. (I only state this cause this is where the fraud began) I graduated college and decided I wanted to treat myself to a new car. Get to the dealer (Nissan of Manhattan) pick out my ride get all the extras figured out and start the financial paper work. BAM! I'm happy I'm thinking yes my first car $0 down and I'm out of here. FAIL!! All the banks they use WON'T FINANCE ME without a cosigner. (IM BAFFLED! 2 credit cards NEVER LATE, student loan never late paid a whole year early) nothing to say otherwise on my credit report AS FAR as I'm concerned. Whatever I say ok I really want the car, I need it for my new job etc. So I put about 4K down so I could do it alone. (Again I'm a foster child with no legal guardians anymore no more foster parents etc) a few weeks later I say hey let me see what's going on! I call up the agencies and request ALL 3 reports. (Free cause I've been denied within 30 days) they trickle in I read them and it hits me.....1200 cap1 (collections) 300(x2) Bank of America, 900 sprint, 1500 tmobile, 2000 Verizon, 10000 att...... totally lost totally infuriated. I begin to call up friends see what advice they have and what my next steps are...NO CLUE! I happen to have a bunch of privileged friends who don't even know if they have credit that's not in their parents name. I call up each negative on my credit report and DISPUTE each account piece by piece. 1 by 1 they start to come off and 1 by 1 I'm filing police reports for ones that won't come off without it. Here I am today(as I post this with bank of American reporting positively on my credit but also reporting negatively and att NOT removing the accounts even after finding them to be fraudulent (sent me a letter stating this)....my score on FICO EQ is 667, Trans 643, EX 634...they vary and apparently that's ok. I JUST WANT to know after these fraud alerts are placed what can I do to help myself. I'm 25, I have a degree, I have two jobs one of which is my career and also live with my fiancé. I need att to come off and I need Bank of America to admit fault. Please help.

[myjourney]

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@SheedNYC17 wrote:
I'm 25 and grew up in foster care. (I only state this cause this is where the fraud began) I graduated college and decided I wanted to treat myself to a new car. Get to the dealer (Nissan of Manhattan) pick out my ride get all the extras figured out and start the financial paper work. BAM! I'm happy I'm thinking yes my first car $0 down and I'm out of here. FAIL!! All the banks they use WON'T FINANCE ME without a cosigner. (IM BAFFLED! 2 credit cards NEVER LATE, student loan never late paid a whole year early) nothing to say otherwise on my credit report AS FAR as I'm concerned. Whatever I say ok I really want the car, I need it for my new job etc. So I put about 4K down so I could do it alone. (Again I'm a foster child with no legal guardians anymore no more foster parents etc) a few weeks later I say hey let me see what's going on! I call up the agencies and request ALL 3 reports. (Free cause I've been denied within 30 days) they trickle in I read them and it hits me.....1200 cap1 (collections) 300(x2) Bank of America, 900 sprint, 1500 tmobile, 2000 Verizon, 10000 att...... totally lost totally infuriated. I begin to call up friends see what advice they have and what my next steps are...NO CLUE! I happen to have a bunch of privileged friends who don't even know if they have credit that's not in their parents name. I call up each negative on my credit report and DISPUTE each account piece by piece. 1 by 1 they start to come off and 1 by 1 I'm filing police reports for ones that won't come off without it. Here I am today(as I post this with bank of American reporting positively on my credit but also reporting negatively and att NOT removing the accounts even after finding them to be fraudulent (sent me a letter stating this)....my score on FICO EQ is 667, Trans 643, EX 634...they vary and apparently that's ok. I JUST WANT to know after these fraud alerts are placed what can I do to help myself. I'm 25, I have a degree, I have two jobs one of which is my career and also live with my fiancé. I need att to come off and I need Bank of America to admit fault. Please help.

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Sorry to hear about the fraud best wishes 

For better results and more advice post this in rebuilding forum 

Good Luck sounds like you will be ok

[red259]

I was a victim of ID theft as well years ago. Basically I pulled all three credit reports (you can get them once a year for free or in the event of identity theft you can request a free copy as well). Then I initiated disputes with all accounts I did not open. There is an option where you can freeze your reports for 90 days or indef I believe. I did 90 days just to make sure nothing new was being opened without my knowledge. If the companies are refusing to take these items off the credit report then I am not sure the next step. I would def file a dispute through the credit agencies and it is good that you filed police reports for those incidents. I'm not sure if sending the credit reporting agencies a copy of the letter you receieved along with the police report would help anything, but I would think there must be a way to fight this. In the end you will come out of this, but I am sorry for the pain your dealing with now.

[n777ua]

First of all I would add a GLOBAL freeze to my credit file.  From here on out you will need to manually unfreeze your reports when you file for credit, or provide credit grantors with a PIN to access your credit.  Free to add the freeze and $10 each time you unfreeze, but its money very well spent.

Unfortunately for the accounts that won't come off, you'll need to be persistent.  Continue to dipute the accounts that aren't yours, and write letters to the company as well.  If that doesn't work, contact your states attorney general or (and this usually works better), your state senators office.  When all other avenues fail, your senator can (and should - thats what you pay him for ) help. 

[LS2982]

Have you disputed the AT&T bill directly with the bureaus yet?

[lionsfan20]

watch these videos from 60 minutes in february. They basically went through the troubles of disputing things on credit reports and the struggles with doing so. It also gives some advice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57568661/credit-report-mistakes-how-to-protect-your-score/

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50140756n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG69y-vpIbk (this is actual piece , the others are 60 minutes overtime)

hope it helps

[LS2982]

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@lionsfan20 wrote:

watch these videos from 60 minutes in february. They basically went through the troubles of disputing things on credit reports and the struggles with doing so. It also gives some advice.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57568661/credit-report-mistakes-how-to-protect-your-score/

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50140756n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG69y-vpIbk (this is actual piece , the others are 60 minutes overtime)

hope it helps

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Good find! 

[SheedNYC17]

I have disputed directly with att. They have sent me a letter stating fraud and said they would remove it however i haven't had any luck with that happening yet. I've written letters and have done everything I know. I've even had the detective that filed my report follow up and a dead end. They said within the next 7-14 days they'll send me a letter or a package that'll tell me what they will do and if further action is needed. I'm super puzzled because they already deemed it fraud "so why won't they remove it?"

[SheedNYC17]

New to this so not sure if you guys are being responded to directly. BUT THANKS FOR THE HELP AND GOOD WISHES.

[SheedNYC17]

So I literally just got an email update from the "account" specialist from att fraud mgmt team and according to them. In April 2012 an account was opened (they deemed it fraud almost instantly) and closed it. Under the same circumstances that it was opened, it was opened again in November of the same year and they allowed it to go thru with the explanation that......"If they open an account with your name online we can't verify or deny that you did it".....WHAT!? So the letter I received is from the April account and they'll continue to investigate the November account to see what went wrong....(I guess it's a step in the right direction. Or atleast I hope it is. My question to the community is....how often does stuff like this happen? Because these reps that I've been dealing with act like its just as common as hoping a turn style.