Ask The Money Coach

Posts Tagged ‘identity_theft’

Q: Someone Made Medical Claims Under My 12-Year-Old Son’s Name. Two Bills Went to Collections. I Have Health Insurance, But I am Disputing This Because My Son Did Not Make These Claims. Meantime, My Credit is Being Affected. My Insurance Has Gone Up, My Limits are Being Lowered, and My Inactive Credit Cards Are Being Closed Due to Derogatory Public Records and Collections. Should I Tell My Credit Card Companies What’s Going on and Dispute It? And Can I Get These  Collections Off My Credit Report?

A: This is, unfortunately, a bad case of identity theft. You need to protect yourself and your son in a number of ways, starting by pulling your most recent credit reports, examining them for any other accounts that you may not know about, and then putting a credit freeze on your credit reports. Read this article for more information about how a credit freeze can protect your credit rating.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what-is-a-credit-freeze-and-how-can-i-use-one-to-protect-my-credit/

Additionally, if you know who made those claims, you should report that person to the proper authorities — both the hospital and healthcare provider, and the police. The accounts you mentioned are in collections that wound up on your credit report. So I imagine, the identity thief is probably someone you know, love or trust. If this person was able to use your son’s information, they presumably had knowledge of your home address and – more importantly – sensitive data such as your social security number. Notify the hospital or clinic where the services were performed that it was definitely not your son. Then ask if you (or the attorney you mentioned hiring) can investigate the hospital’s records related to the medical claims you’ve been billed for. The identity thief likely filled out some forms, and you’ll be able to see if they did, in fact, list your social security number and other personal information of yours. This may give you a clue into who had access to such private information about you. Even if it turns out that your information was merely misappropriated by a complete stranger, you should dispute this information with
the credit bureaus. Let them know that you were the victim of identity theft and the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion) may remove those collection accounts. Read this post for the websites for filing an online dispute with the credit bureaus.

http://askthemoneycoach.com/2010/01/what%E2%80%99s-the-fastest-way-to-get-the-credit-bureaus-to-fix-mistakes-in-my-credit-reports/

Regarding your credit cards, yes, do notify them also of the identity theft and that this is the reason for the collections and public records on your credit file. But honestly, I wouldn’t expect much from them. Unfortunately, the damage has been done. And while it’s good to put your creditors on notice about the identity theft, I doubt that those creditors will re-open your cards or restore your previous credit limits. Your best bet is to probably wait to clean up this identity theft mess first, then re-apply for a new credit card and/or a new increase in your credit limit.

Lastly, I would also suggest that you enroll in a credit monitoring service. That way you’ll be able to monitor your credit reports and make sure nothing fishy is going on, such as unauthorized accounts you didn’t open.

Related Questions:

• not my name on my credit report

A subscriber to my newsletter went to Half.com, a division of Amazon.com and ordered a book. When she got her Discover card statement, she found a bogus charge described as Amazon.com. She wanted to know what to do.

This sounds like a case of identity theft (i.e. use of your credit card number without your knowledge or consent) by someone on Half.com and/or Amazon.com.

Do follow Amazon’s advice and alert Discover about this incident. Request that Discover reverse the charge and have them cancel that card and re-issue you another one.

You should also immediately pull your credit reports — all three of them, from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. You can get 1 credit report fee of charge every 12 months from each credit bureau via www.annualcreditreport.com.

If you’ve already gotten a report via annualcreditreport.com, just go to the bureau’s website, and request a credit report online directly from them. Don’t buy a credit report. Find the site info for each website that gives free credit reports for the victims of identity theft. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, if you’ve been a victim of fraud or identity theft you do not have to buy a credit report.

After you get your reports, scrutinize them to make sure no other unauthorized charges have been made and that no accounts have been opened in your name. If you detect any suspicious activity, notify a local law enforcement agency, as well as the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov). Lastly, if fraud did occur, put a fraud alert or a credit freeze on your credit reports to prevent this identity thief from accessing your credit in the future.

A final word: it sounds like Amazon knows who was involved, or at least has more information about individual/Amazon user who misused your card. Since Amazon said they’re willing to turn over other info to law enforcement, or Discover, you should definitely notify the authorities and Discover of that fact.