When family members steal your identity?

Hi
All your boyfriend needs to do is to immediately contact the credit bureaus and inform them about the situation. There are fraud controlling departments in these three bureaus which will take immediate action. If you contact any one of the bureaus, two other bureaus will be alerted automatically. Ask them to set fraud alert to your credit report which prevents opening of any new line of credit under your name. Next contact the local police department and file a complaint. If he don't take these steps immediately he may have to pay the entire amount which you father has borrowed in his name.

What a shame that a parent would do this to one of their kids! how old are the accounts?

What really stinks about this situation is the family turmoil it causes when you have to have him arrested to straighten it out. You will probably get the flack about
"how can you have your father arrested" yada, yada
but your boyfriend needs to respond on this by saying, "how could he do this to his own son?"

I hope that you all can make it through this with out a whole lot of heart ache, thats what happens when a realative pulls this, I mean we would not feel so bad if it was a stranger.

You will have to be patient with your boyfriend also, if he and his father are close or have a good relationship then this is not going to be easy for him to do. You will need to be supportive and realize, what if the tables were turned and it was your father. What ever his decision on how to handle this, weather he have his father pay the debt or he does go through with having him arrested and going that route, don't push, this is his credit. I know it affects what you two are planning together but ultimately this is between him and his father. Keep it in the back of your mind that how you handle this is how he will see your relationship for the future and how things will be handled then.

I wish you luck and would not trade places for you for nothing, hopefully your relationship will survive this test. Hang in there and be patient.

My husband went through this a few years ago and first let me say I am sorry you have to deal with such an awkward and stressful situation. We decided that we had to look out for our own family and took alot of steps to clear hubbys credit up. His dad and him had the same name except for his middle name had an IE added to it. The bank itself help us by calling alot of the creditors from their office and letting us speak to them directly. This took a long time. What we had in our favor is my hubby would have been 12-14 years old at the time of the bills. The only one we had trouble with was the electric because he was 18 when they put his name to the bill cause they couldn't pay their bill and just changed names. In the end we gave them an ultimatium. Pay it or we are having it shut off.
We could not shut off a service account if money was owed so in the end we came up with the money the couldn't and shut it down. I wish ya luck and know this isn't an easy situation.

Still think it is a shame that they would let the parents open an account in a childs name, it is fraud.

I have an article on my page about identity theft prevention and recovery. I hope it helps

I am sure it is awesome, you have a great page.

I know but it sure happens alot. Nothing like ruining a childs life and credit before it begins. I think the parents just mislead these places since my hubby and his dads name were alomost the same. Still it was really aggraviting and there are times here and there we still do. Recently we moved and the electric cazrrier in the area was the one his parents owed money to when the bill was in just his dads name. They refused us service until we went in and straightened the whole thing aroung with his SS card.

You would think after hearing about all of junk that goes on in this world I wouldn't be surprised at a parent that pulls this on their kids. But, I am shocked that someone would do this----most likely these are the same type of people who cheated in school, cheat on their taxes, etc.

I agree. I really also find it kind of sad. I mean our children are already going to have a rougher time them we did when they amke it out into this world on their own. Why would a parent want to hinder a child they should be helping?

That is what I mean, especially for us here, we should be passing on our lessons that we have learned the hard way to make it easier on them, I know that I am going to try and make these lessons sink in. I am doing things now to try and help my child have a better chance in life. Like starting her an account at my credit union where she will have life long membership, this place has awesome rates for home and auto and other loans. I can't use the benefits because my credit sucks, but I can have a savings there and set her up one too. I figure if she is a well established member and she keeps her ducks in a row that she will be rewarded later in life. This is a state workers credit union that you have to be a state worker to get into, so the benefits are pretty rewarding. I am hoping that she will prosper in life, I would not do anything to jeapordize her future, like opening credit cards or utilities in her name. that is just wrong.

You are taking all the right steps to ensure that your child is going to have the best start possible. I don't think that parents that use there child's social security number to obtain credit is the majority, we hear about it here because it is part of what we discuss, credit issues. I would hope this is not a common practice anyway. I think fireyone is right when she says that our children will have a tough enough time as it is without us putting up road blocks and barriers for them before they even reach the age where they can start establishing their own credit. Shame on those who do jeapordize their kids.

I hope so, life is rough enough with out putting discouraging barriers there for a kid, I hope to do what I can to help her be successful in life.

you sound like a good parent goodnatured, hope your daughter realizes what you have done for her now later in life. I am sure that you will teach her well.

When my mother-in-law did that to my husband there was no reasoning for it. His dad worked in the mines and she had a job. Her problem was she thought shopping was the first item that should be listed on the budget form. Whatever was left after a week end shopping spree is what got sent out on the bills. This made it even worse.

Now that is not even reasonable thinking, you have to pay the bills first. I guess since she lost her home over this, she may start thinking a little differently.

In situations like this (and others) sometimes you have to sink to rock bottom before your eyes are opened to what you are really doing or allowing others to do to you.

wow. thats is hard to imagine that a parent would do that to his kid.

i can never imagine in my life, my dad doing something like that to me. if anything he would let me do that to him, if i really needed it.

good luck to your boyfriend, and not so much good luck to his dad

What I think is that we should always keep confidential informations like credit card numbers and social security numbers etc with ourselves and do not disclose it with anyone even in the home with family or with spouse. That is the only way I think we can prevent identity theft by family members. But it is also true that we cannot always hide it from our family members, but we can at least try to keep these things in our safe custody.

Identity theft may be made by your home members but it occurs mostly outside your home. Identity theft outside your home occurs mostly from your credit cards. So you should be alert while using cards. For this you must limit the number of cards you carry daily to a maximum of two and while making payments with these cards you should check while they swipe your cards.

Good advice Mary. I myself would limit it to one card that I actually carry on me. If it was a parent stealing your identity keeping SS numbers safe would be a really hard thing to do since they have accedss to them from birth. It just a shame that the people who know your most vital info would do something this rude.

Well with a mind set like that you can see where she would lose everything, how did she think it was even possible to survive it all thinking like this?

You definately need a better outlook and attitude to amke it in todays world. I was always told "if you think you got it ropugh,there are people out there that are worse off than you". My ex mother in laws favorite saying when you would complain...then she would turn around and gripe about her own problems...Go figure.

Well there are some people that, if you have a broken arm, they have two broken arms, two broken legs, etc, etc, you get the picture, they are always worse off than you. You got to lovem'

That about sums her up to a T. Another one of her favorite sayings was "what do you think about me, its even harder being my age" Sure it is Granny

tell her blah, blah, blah

That never works. Can you believe after we went in debt to move off the property that should have been righfully mine that they had the nerve to mail me the taxes? I about pooped my pants when I seen them. No note attached just taxes shoves into anothr envelope addressed to me.