“Dear Steve,
My mother has opened at least 30 accounts in my name and stolen my identity. She put the wrong birth year on all accounts, but put the right information. I still live with her and have nowhere else to go until i become eligible to join the military service. I dont know what to do. I cant get a car, I cant apply for a loan, I cant do anything and my job doesn’t pay enough. She paid a small company to get my credit fixed, but they are not progressing. I need some financial advice.
What is the absolute best thing to do in this type of situation?
Darryl”
Dear Darryl,
That sure sucks.
To make it suck even more, does she even know what year you were born?
Unfortunately you are left with two choices.
- Contact the credit card companies, file an affidavit of fraud, and you’ll have to file police charges against her. Then put a fraud alert on your credit report.
- If that doesn’t sound possible then file bankruptcy and put a fraud alert on your credit report to slow her down from doing this again. However, don’t be surprised if she does do it again. That’s the way it usually goes.
By you filing bankruptcy to resolve this problem you’ve enabled her to keep doing this since you took on all the consequences.
Honestly, for the long run, the best approach is the police report and press charges against her. Otherwise she’ll know she can do it again, all the current fraud accounts could hurt your military service. You need to face this and take action to end this situation.
Make sure when you leave for the military you do not have any of your financial information sent to her address and from now on check your consolidated credit report every six months to watch for new fraudulent activity.
While the solutions are not joyous, remember, she did this to herself. It is not your fault for turning her in.
Once that is all addressed then you may want to examine what underlying behavior she has that led her to this. She might have an addiction or mental health issue that needs treatment.
Please update me on your progress by
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My mom opened a Chase credit card in my name. When she told me about it there was about $3,000 owing and she had been making the payments. She had gone over the limit once and missed payments. Luckily the missed payments didn’t show up on my report. She was very sorry about it though. I was able to get out a student loan to pay half of it, then I transferred the balance to a zero interest card and paid off the rest. I’m glad I forgave her, and I figure it all worked out since I lived with her for six months. She passed away this past May, about 9 months after she told me. Remember to forgive her no matter what happens, you only have one mother.