Identity Theft

[carofl93]

State is FL.

I recently applied for a Target credit card. I was denied an account and recieved a letter from the Target National Bank stating that myself or a co-applicant previously had an account with poor performance.
I called the Target National Bank via the 1-800 number on the letter and found that an account had been fraudulently opened with my name as the co-applicant in 2000. I was given the name of the person who opened the account, the year it was opened, the fact that it was done in Albuquerque, NM, and that the account was/is delinquent and closed.

I requested that any and all information be mailed to me regarding this account and was told that I could not obtain the info; that only the police could obtain it. Is this legal, or is it Target's way of covering themselves as they were the ones who approved the fraudulent account?

Also, is there a way that I can check my credit to see if other accounts have been opened with my name on them? I ran my name through Equifax, Experian and Transunion, and nothing showed other than the old credit accounts that I opened myself.

Thanks,
Carol

 

[K'Ta]

State is FL.

I recently applied for a Target credit card. I was denied an account and recieved a letter from the Target National Bank stating that myself or a co-applicant previously had an account with poor performance.
I called the Target National Bank via the 1-800 number on the letter and found that an account had been fraudulently opened with my name as the co-applicant in 2000. I was given the name of the person who opened the account, the year it was opened, the fact that it was done in Albuquerque, NM, and that the account was/is delinquent and closed.

I requested that any and all information be mailed to me regarding this account and was told that I could not obtain the info; that only the police could obtain it. Is this legal, or is it Target's way of covering themselves as they were the ones who approved the fraudulent account?

Also, is there a way that I can check my credit to see if other accounts have been opened with my name on them? I ran my name through Equifax, Experian and Transunion, and nothing showed other than the old credit accounts that I opened myself.

Thanks,
Carol

No one will help you until you file a police report. Do that, pull your credit report from all three CRAs and dispute what isn't yours. You also want to flag your reports as possible fraud activity and submit a written statement about such. The issuing bank is going to want a copy of the police report. You're going to have to bust ass to get this resolved. I'm sorry, it's a long proccess and not something that's likely going to be cleared up with a phone call or two. Depending on how deep this goes you could be looking at years and years of cleanup and explanations and letter writing.

 

[ecmst12]

Wait, the account Target is claiming is yours isn't on any of your credit reports? If not, that's good, at least you don't have to dispute anything with the credit bureaus, only with Target.

 

[carofl93]

Thank you both for the replies!

I filed a police report yesterday and called Experian to have the fraud alert placed on my credit file. Experian will contact the other 2 reporting agencies and do the same.

I also found out that the Target account had been sold to a collections agency; the agency then gave it to a lawyer. I called the lawyer and told her what was going on. The lawyer said that the woman was using my SSN but her own name, and that the woman had done this more than once. I left my phone number with the lawyer in case she needed anything to help her own court case.

I'm now in the process of filling out identity theft/fraud affidavits from the FTC. I filed a complaint on their website as well.

Now, I suppose, the fun begins.

Thanks again for all of the help.

Carol

 

[K'Ta]

I filed a police report yesterday and called Experian to have the fraud alert placed on my credit file. Experian will contact the other 2 reporting agencies and do the same.

Fantastic. I'm glad you're taking the steps to resolve this and the fact that the woman is a known ID thief helps.

Now, don't rely on Experian to contact the other two CRA's. They're all three seperate businesses and unrelated except for the services they provide. Call the other two yourself. You're going to have to go through the same steps for each CRA if you want to be sure that you've covered all your bases.