“Dear Steve,
A few years ago, the person whom I shared my college post office box with stole my identity and opened several cards in my name, most of which were charged off later. To this point I have been able to have all of them removed from my report except Capital One.
Although Equifax and TransUnion both removed inaccurate addresses from my credit report, put fraud alerts on my reports, and also removed every other fraudulant account from my report, somehow Capital One keeps coming back as verified. When I talk to the bureaus, they tell me that CO was able to verify my name, social security number, address and birthdate. Even after telling the bureaus that they shouldn’t be able to verify my address since it was supposedly removed, and of course they can verify my other information (it was stolen, so the thief obviously had all my information), they keep telling me Capital One is verifying it and they cannot remove the item. How can I actually have this removed?? I don’t want to have to wait 4 more years to buy a house because of an account that isn’t even mine!
Crystal”
Dear Crystal,
Ahh yes, the old college identity theft issue. It happens all the time.
If you have a copy of the police report you filed when you discovered your identity was stolen, submit that to the credit bureau. That might give them enough support to remove the account unilaterally.
Otherwise, it is a problem with a creditor verifying an incorrect account. When it comes to Capital One, get a lawyer to write a letter to them if the police report does not get the account removed. Capital one does not listen to reason, you’ll need some authority behind it.
Please update me on your progress by
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