Should I risk my dad going down for identity theft??

[Anonymous]

[posted this in relationships and money forum, realized it might be better suited here!!]

My dad used my SSN to open a credit card account when I was 17 (I am 20 now). He forgot to pay the bills and it ended up in collection. After multiple failed attempts to dispute the negative account with the credit unions, I recently spoke with a lawyer. He said that he could send letters on my behalf to the credit unions, basically to question the original creditor and insist that the account isn't mine, but it could end with my dad being implicated and getting in trouble. He wouldn't say how big the risk was or what kind of trouble my dad could get in because that would be a separate case (my father's case). Can anyone shed some light on how likely it is that the credit unions or the original creditor will go after my dad? I want to repair my credit, but I would not be able to live with myself if my dad went to jail, even though he was the one who illegally opened the account in the first place.

For some more context, I live in Michigan and the delinquent account is 2.5 years old and fully paid off to the collection agency.

[egghead88]

I’m not an Atty, but I believe you would actually file a police report for identify fraud for your dad to be in serious legal trouble. A letter for your Atty might work, but most CRAs want a police report to validate your claim of identify theft.
Also, I don’t see the CA or the OC making much fuss over a paid debt. But, this is just my two cents... perhaps someone in MI with experience in identify theft can weigh in...

[Jnbmom]

Wow you are caught between a rock and a hard place. Not sure of your relationship with your father but this would definitely put him into some trouble for fraudulently opening a credit card in your name, to what extent I don't know. Granted this was a very awful thing to do to your child regardless of the circumstances

I realize you want to improve your credit and getting this removed would certainly help, is that your only negative? But in order to get this removed possibly would be to implicate your father, are you willing to do that?

[Anonymous]

Just my 2 cents... As a parent there is NO circumstance under which I could imagine taking out a fraudulent account in my child's name, much less allow that account to end up in collections. All bets are off in that circumstance and if I were in your shoes I would do whatever I had to to clear my record and let the chips fall where they may for your dad. Some actions are so egregious, people need to suffer the consequences and I would consider this one of them. He has no right to be angry at you for it, you are the victim here. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you atleast take measures to assure that this can never happen again. Who's to say he won't do this again in the future if you let it slide this time?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

[posted this in relationships and money forum, realized it might be better suited here!!]

My dad used my SSN to open a credit card account when I was 17 (I am 20 now). He forgot to pay the bills and it ended up in collection. After multiple failed attempts to dispute the negative account with the credit unions, I recently spoke with a lawyer. He said that he could send letters on my behalf to the credit unions, basically to question the original creditor and insist that the account isn't mine, but it could end with my dad being implicated and getting in trouble. He wouldn't say how big the risk was or what kind of trouble my dad could get in because that would be a separate case (my father's case). Can anyone shed some light on how likely it is that the credit unions or the original creditor will go after my dad? I want to repair my credit, but I would not be able to live with myself if my dad went to jail, even though he was the one who illegally opened the account in the first place.

For some more context, I live in Michigan and the delinquent account is 2.5 years old and fully paid off to the collection agency.

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Have you read this post?  It is in this forum at the top and it explains everything you need to do:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/Victim-of-Identity-Theft-What-To-Do-to-Protect-Yourself/td-p/2059499

The police report will automatically block the account in question from harming your score and does not require the cooperation of the three credit bureaus (it is different from the "dispute" process).

The only wrinkle to all this is that you are claiming that the fraud occurred years after you became aware of it, and furthermore you may have implicitly acknowledged the debt as yours by paying it off (it's unclear to me whether you or your father paid the collection).  I am no expert in the issue of fraud reporting, my guess is that one's ability to persuasively claim fraud is weakened by both these things.  I hope our resident legal guru RobertEG chimes in.

PS.  You write:

After multiple failed attempts to dispute the negative account with the credit unions, I recently spoke with a lawyer. He said that he could send letters on my behalf to the credit unions...

I am pretty sure you mean the credit bureaus (i.e. Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion).  A credit union is a very different thing -- it's basically a bank with a non-profit status.  Not a big deal, just explaining so you can use the best words to describe your situation.

Of course, do let us know if the lawyer actually meant sending letters to credit unions.

[Anonymous]

Oops I wrote this late at night and I meant credit bureas (Transunion rejected my dispute twice, Equifax and Experian never got back to me). My bad!!

And I guess I'm so hesitant because if my dad somehow gets in trouble, it impacts me greatly too. Even though I'm 20, he still pays for me and my sisters' college tuitions and most of our entire household's expenses.

Also I have no idea who paid the collection. I asked my dad and he doesn't even remember lol...he's not the best at tracking finances if that hasn't been clear already. 

[Anonymous]

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@Jnbmom wrote:

Wow you are caught between a rock and a hard place. Not sure of your relationship with your father but this would definitely put him into some trouble for fraudulently opening a credit card in your name, to what extent I don't know. Granted this was a very awful thing to do to your child regardless of the circumstances

I realize you want to improve your credit and getting this removed would certainly help, is that your only negative? But in order to get this removed possibly would be to implicate your father, are you willing to do that?

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This is my only negative account. My credit history is pretty much nonexistent (I just started building it this past year with secured cards) so I would assume it has a big impact on my score. Right now, I'm at a 604 Experian FICO and I'm scared that I'll hit a score ceiling until this negative account completely drops in 2022..

[Anonymous]

My two cents is it’s still your dad. I’m in no way condoning what he did. People do make mistakes. What does he say about the matter? If he’s paying your way in life I guess I’d call it even. Lots of parents these days can’t afford to pay for their kid’s college.

[Anonymous]

You have to decide whether it's worth filing the proper report for fraud, and risk putting a rift between you and your Father. And any possible implications that follow it. IDK how well you get along  now, or if he'd be willing to take that hit to help you. At this point it woud be eye for eye. Obviously his credit wasn't good enough, so that's why he used yours. But all it did was to make both parties suffer. Since the bill is paid, it becomes more difficult to dispute. Why did you pay it if it wasn't yours? By doing that you legally acknowledged it as yours, because no one would ever pay a bill that isn't their own. 

So it seems as if you should just let this one go, the hassle and financial cost may be more than the damage the original debt is doing to your CR. It's paid, which is better than an unpaid one. You are only 20, you'll rebound from this by 27. If you lay the burden onto your Father, how old is he and can he bear it? Since his credit may already be not good/great, it migh be worth it. It's a trade off on who should take the burden.  IMO, at 20 you really don't need great or a lot of credit. It just ends up getting 80% of the people into trouble anyways. People aren't really ready for credit until 30. One CC is fine for Hotel rservations car rentals etc. where one needs to have one. But there are those that go through life without ever having one. So it can be done. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

You have to decide whether it's worth filing the proper report for fraud, and risk putting a rift between you and your Father. And any possible implications that follow it. IDK how well you get along  now, or if he'd be willing to take that hit to help you. At this point it woud be eye for eye. Obviously his credit wasn't good enough, so that's why he used yours. But all it did was to make both parties suffer. Since the bill is paid, it becomes more difficult to dispute. Why did you pay it if it wasn't yours? By doing that you legally acknowledged it as yours, because no one would ever pay a bill that isn't their own. 

So it seems as if you should just let this one go, the hassle and financial cost may be more than the damage the original debt is doing to your CR. It's paid, which is better than an unpaid one. You are only 20, you'll rebound from this by 27. If you lay the burden onto your Father, how old is he and can he bear it? Since his credit may already be not good/great, it migh be worth it. It's a trade off on who should take the burden.  IMO, at 20 you really don't need great or a lot of credit. It just ends up getting 80% of the people into trouble anyways. People aren't really ready for credit until 30. One CC is fine for Hotel rservations car rentals etc. where one needs to have one. But there are those that go through life without ever having one. So it can be done. 

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I didn't pay the bill. I didn't actually know the bill was paid in full until I contacted the collection agency to validate the debt after I saw it on my credit report. Also, I wanted to have a higher score because I'm going to be starting full-time at a consulting firm, so a decent travel/airline rewards card would come in greatly. The firm I'm working for has consultants pay up-front for their hotel and airfare, reimbursing the expenses at the end of the month. Having higher credit limits (right now I only have $200 credit limits from my secured cards) would be useful so I don't drain my bank account each month (and possibly not have money to even front the expensive flights/hotels).

All things said though, I'm leaning towards letting it go and working on building my credit through establishing a more concrete credit history. It seems like too big of a risk to gamble with.