I am fighting a battle with a company that says my employer has an account (or a credit card) with them and owes them a lot of money. He never applied for this account or any account with this company and now it has come to them bringing in an attorney.
My employer wants me to fight them the problem is that this all began back in 2005 and we have done very little if much to fight them until now. I filed a complaint with ftc.gov, but people are telling me that I should also report Identity theft. I need a police report to go with this don't I? Isn't it too late? Where do I go from here without going to court?
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
2007-03-16 05:45:35 · 4 answers · asked by Just Sarah 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Credit
Filing a police report should be done - by your boss not you !!!
The police report should be sent to the Original Creditor (OC) the credit reporting agencies (CRA's) and the attorney.
If your boss had known about it since 2005 and had done nothing about it as far as claiming ID theft , the creditor (and the courts) may or may not take the ID theft as truth. (just a little heads up)
Another heads up - if the card is supposed to be a company card and not a personal card, your boss will find no protection under the FDCPA.
If the police report does not clear things up, you boss may have to work a bit harder at it.
I don't know if your boss is dealing with the OC or a collection agency (CA). OC's are held the same as collection agencies in very few states.
OC's do not have to "validate" a debt (unless your boss is in a state that holds OC's the same as CA's) But they do have to provide "verification"
If your boss is dealing with a CA, they do not have to provide validation if the request was not made within the first 30 days from when the CA contacted the debtor.
If the attorney they are using is a collection attorney, send him a debt validation letter A computer print out of the account is not validation, the atty must get the information from the OC.
Send "everything" certified mail return receipt.
When the green card is returned (from the certified mail) send another dispute to the credit reporting agencies (CRA's) include in the dispute a copy of the police report.
If your boss is using reports that he/she paid for and received from each CRA, the CRA's have 30 days to investigate and another 5 days to mail your boss the results. If your boss uses the free FACT-ACT report it gives the CRA's an extra 15 days to investigate.
If the accounts are verified, then file an online complaint with the FTC. The FTC probably will not become involved until they have a certain amount of complaints from many people, but the CRA's generally tend to fall over backwards to work with the person who files an FTC complaint against them.
Then file another dispute with the CRA's and include a printout copy of the FTC complaint and another copy of the police report.
Also file complaints with the BBB, the AG in your bosses state, the AG in the state where the OC/CA (which ever one your boss had been dealing with), the AG in the attys state and the attys state bar association.
DO NOT do ANYTHING in your name !!!!!!!!!!!!
Just my opinion but I think your boss is a jerk to put you in the middle of this. Your boss should hire his/her own atty and let the atty handle it instead of you.
If this goes to court "you" will probably be called as a witness.
If it is found that your boss had been lying - your boss may be charged with fraud. In that case, you may be hit with residual fallout from the fraud charges (as a possible accomplice)
Be careful
2007-03-16 11:01:02 · answer #1 · answered by echo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lucky for you the laws have changed, the company now has to PROVE the debt, it used to be on the consumer. I suggest you go ahead and file a police report to show you have taken action, this can help you later for proving your case.
You have done much of what you need to do already with reporting to ftc.gov. You stated this problem began in 2005, keep in mind that many people do not check their credit reports often so you still have time to fight this.
Be sure to dispute the debt in writing to the company and/or the attorney they have sent this case to. Send this by return receipt mail keep a copy of the receipt. This also will show that you have done everything in your power to show this debt is not yours.
There is more information listed at the site below, follow the instructions carefully!
Hope this helps ;)
2007-03-16 13:19:07 · answer #2 · answered by Rhonda B 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be identity theft, or it could be mistaken identity, or it could by a scam.
If the company says your boss owes them money, tey should be able to produce a detailed account report showing how much and when the charges occurred, even what the charges were for. If it is a credit card company, they should be able to show who the money was paid to. Check the company background.
If the charges occurred over a short period of time, identity theft is likely, And you may be able to get the FBI involved.
2007-03-16 13:08:26 · answer #3 · answered by Niklaus Pfirsig 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If lawyers are involved, why is he having you do the work for him? He needs to check his credit reports and if the account isn't listed on the credit report, odds are it isn't legit. If the account IS listed, he needs to go to the police and file an identity theft affidavit and should probably put a freeze on his credit report.
2007-03-16 13:16:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋