What do you do if a family member has committed identity theft against you and taken out credit cards?

Question

I have a family member that has committed identity theft against myself, as well as my father. He has established credit cards under my name using my social security number and I am afraid that going to authorities will cost me money, or get him into some serious trouble. He has taken credit cards out in my name and they have now been handed over to collection agencies. Needless to say, my credit is screwed. He is will to admit his wrong-doings. Can the amounts be taken out of my name and somehow established under his own? The same with my father? What do I need to do to clear my name and hopefully, protect this family member at the same time, in terms of jailtime. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

My advice is to speak to a lawyer and the best, most inexpensive way to do this is through Pre-Paid Legal Services. For more information visit the website below, and feel free to contact me through that site if you have further questions on how this service may be able to help you. I encourage you to find out what your rights and options are in this situation.

I wish you the best of luck.

http://www.getprotectedhere.com

You need to talk to a lawyer, Pre-Paid can help with that. They also offer and identity theft shield program where they assign and investigator (from Kroll) to handle all the paperwork and other countless issues that go into dealing with identity theft. Because this has already happened, it will cost you to get this corrected through Identity Theft Shield, but the lack of headaches will be worth it. A pre-Paid Legal Plan in my State (WA) is $17 + $9.95 for the Identity Theft Shield. I would check both of them out.

Answer 2

He needs to be held accountable for what he's done. You don't need to press charges against him. Just let the credit companies know and they'll take the necessary legal action. Meanwhile, you get your credit repaired and he learns a tough lesson.

Also, at this point there's no way to get the balances transfered to his name. A serious crime has taken place and the accounts will likely be frozen. He'll likely be required to repay whatever he's fraudently borrowed, in addition to fines and possible prison time.

FYI, you didn't do this - he did. He obviously felt that you and your father were targets that he could get away with harming. That's not what I call family. He was completely disloyal to you and he's betrayed you in a very serious manner. Like I said, you don't have to prosecute. Just let the finance institutions know what's happened so that you can straighten out your end. You have zero responsibility to feel guilt as a result of any action these companies might take.

Answer 3

A few immediate steps to take, regardless if it's a family member, when faced with identity theft:

1) Contact your bank & other lenders immediately to freeze the accounts and/or flag those suspicious transactions

2) Contact any of the three major credit bureaus to file a "fraud alert"

3) File a police report where you live to have the documentation needed to eventually reverse those fraudulent charges.

Additionally, most identity thieves do not simply victimize you once. If initially successful, they will either find additional ways to vandalize your credit and/or pass your sensitive information on to their criminal friends who will attempt to repeat the process.

In any case, regardless of family membership or not, identity theft is a crime against you and you do have certain rights to protect your financial future.

For more details on how you can fight back or better yet prevent this from happening to you, check out this resource for what a mother recently did when faced with repeated identity theft attacks from her very own daughter.

Answer 4

If you don't go to the police, you will be held responsible for the charges on the credit cards the family member took out fraudulently. Your credit will not be screwed if the purchases were unauthorized by you; you are legally not responsible for credit card charges you did not authorize. Your family member must pay his dues, and if you won't press charges the credit bureau will because if he doesn't pay them back the money he owes then they will be set back. I'm sorry, but the family member is a criminal and he needs to be treated as such.

Answer 5

Why would you want to protect someone who has ruined your credit? Do you have any idea how long and how hard it is going to be to straighten this mess out?

Why should he make a mistake and not be held accountable? Call the police or go to the station and make a report. You'll have more help with clearing this up than if you try to "hide" him from legal punishment.

I can see him now, sitting there thinking, "Ha. She likes me. She isn't going to turn me in. I'm going to go out and buy some CDs and maybe some beer. She isn't going to tell on me."

Answer 6

Turn her in. You gotta think about the people she is hurting while doing this. This almost happened to my single mom who is on very low income, doesn't get child support from AWOL dad and goes to work for long hours every day...if someone would have stolen any large amount of money from us we would probably be on the streets right now. Your aunt is a selfish moron who needs to be turned in. Stealing people's credit cards, identity, money for your own personal gain when you don't know anything about the people your doing it from is the height of selfishness. TURN HER IN AND GIVE HER WHAT SHE DESERVES! If the punishment was up to me and she had stolen my money (me, not knowing her condition) I would pitch some molotovs on her roof and key 'THeif' onto her car, so if you don't care about her victim's you should know your aunt is endangering herself also. Luckily she has not and you can turn her in to the cops for the punishment who can get her some help and get the money back where it belongs and everyone can be happy :D.

Answer 7

Wow, that's a tough one. You hate to rat out a family member but he must have no conscious at all to screw both you and your father over. I would definately call the authorities and any financial institutions that are involved after you file your police report.
Thanksgiving dinner should be really interesting with your family this year.

Answer 8

Grab the fam member by throat - get cards and cut up - call all companies and tell them - write to credit report companies and tell them.

If the fam member is under 18 not too much will happen to him or her. If older something might - but you gotta clear your and your dads credit up.

Answer 9

Call the authorities and report it. Letting him get away with it is the best way to tell him that what he did was ok. Protecting them is the worst thing you can do for them. You cannot clear your credit unless it is reported.

In a nutshell why would you be willing to screw yourself and your future to protect someone who treated you that way. If he is willing to admit his wrong doings, he should be willing to accept the punishment. He knew when he did it, it was wrong and that there was a chance he would get caught. Its time for him to grow up and accept the consequences.

Answer 10

Get a credit report. The cost is worth the benefit. Find the mistakes. Force him to admit to it, get your credit fixed. Forget prosecuting until you get your life back on track first. Once he's admitted to the mistakes, and you get clearance that your report will be changed, THEN go after him.