credit card fraud

What is the name of your state? IL

My boyfriend's sister has opened credit card accounts in her mother's name and racked up almost $15000 worth of debt. for a long time she was taking the credit card statements out of the mail box and sending in the minimum payments. When my boyfriend & his mother found out what was going on they confronted the girl and she admitted to having done it and agreed to pay the card balances. She has now stopped paying completely, the collectors are after my boyfriends mother, and her credit is pretty much ruined. To make matters worse, the mother absolutely refuses to report this credit card use as fraud because she couldn't live with herself if her daughter went to jail.

my question is, is there anything she can do to get this off her credit record and get out of paying this debt. I figure that bankruptcy is an option, but aside from that is there anything she can do??

[bigun]

I would suggest Mom scream fraud loud and long and let the chips fall where they may. I would not bk a fraudulent debt.