Where can I find what to do about bad debt on my credit report that isn't mine?

Question

I'm receiving letters from Portfolio Recovery Associates about a bill that I supposedly have. The Prior Creditor is listed as SBC. Upon doing some investigating on the internet, I found out that SBC is a phone company that is in quite a few states, but not the state that I have lived in my entire life. I checked my credit report and found that I also have a prior address on there that is from Indiana, when I have never lived there! I visited there over 5 years ago with a friend and was only there for a week, and the address now on my report is where we stayed at, with her aunt. While I was there, my purse (with all of my information in it, including my MN drivers license and SS card) went missing for 2 days. The weird thing was, the day I was going to report it stolen, it suddenly reappeared. I had an idea already of what had happened, but had no proof. Now this! I am going to write a validation letter, but after that, what can I do???

Answer 1

I do just this type of thing for my clients. It happens more frequently than you may believe. You can dispute the information as invalid to the three credit bureaus. It is a relatively simple thing to do but you have to take the time to do it. Explain everything to them as you have here and they will have 30 days to prove that the information is correct and valid. Since the information is not correct or valid they will be forced to remove it and your credit will recover within a month or two.

If you have any questions regarding any credit issues, you may email me at [e-mail]

Answer 2

First contact the credit bureaus to put a lock on your credit. Then file a police report in both your area and the area where you believe the crime took place (just call) and get copies of both. You'll need to have copies to send to the creditors to prove you're serious and not just trying to get out of paying. Then call the creditor and ask to speak to their ID Theft dept., if they don't have one it may take a bit longer to sort it out. Just keep calling and keep track of everyone's name and the date and send them the information with the police report and a formal letter. Hopefully you can get everything sorted out and ask for PROOF in writing from the company that you are not responsible for this debt. Then send a formal dispute to the credit bureaus correcting all the info and send COPIES of your proof letters from the creditors and police reports. Hopefully it will all be fixed but keep getting copies of your reports every six months because you never know what else they charged that hasn't gone delinquent yet. Good Luck, you're going to need it.

Answer 3

What y ou need to do is go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and obtain each of your 3 credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Once you get access to your reports, you need to dispute the information online to each of the 3 bureaus. You clearly have proof that you have never lived in Indiana and will be able to clear this from your record. However, it may take some time and patience on your end. You can also go to http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml to read about debt validation.

Answer 4

Oh geez! You poor dear! What a horrible situation to be in. There's not much you can do at this point. When your personal items come up missing, you should report that immediately. A police report is the only thing that will hold up as proof for things like that. Here is a link that has a lot of information about identity theft:
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/gs17a/htm

I hope some of this information can help you!