Credit Monitoring Identifies a Thief
Dear Audrey,
In early 2000 I filed for a divorce, leaving a 30 year relationship. At the same time, a friend who acted like she adored me, stole my identity. She first asked if she could put me on as a cosigner because her credit was poor. I told her it was a bad time, but after much pleading, I said okay. One card, $5,000.00 limit!
Later, I found out I was the primary card holder. When other cards came, I called her and she gave me a line that she transferred to a lower interest account. To make a long story short, I found out that she had opened four cards in my name with a balance of over $30,000.00 and she was late on all of them up to 120 days. We parted ways to say the least, but I did not have the heart to put her in a position where she may end up in jail, so I paid them all off in September 2003. I also purchased the credit monitoring service from TrueCredit.
On May 11, 2004 I received an alert and upon investigation I found out she opened a card online in April 2004, in my married name using my Social Security number.
To end the story, the account was new and only up to $1,000.00. Thanks to this service, she is now being prosecuted for ID theft and fraud. The credit card company sent me a letter thanking me for my quick response and apologized for any inconvenience they caused me. They also confirmed that I had no obligation to them.
Sincerely,
Rita
Dear Rita,
Thank you for your email. I am so glad to hear that our credit monitoring service was able to help you guard against new cases of identity theft. Your story of identity theft by a friend is unfortunately really common. Identity theft by a friend or relative is increasingly prevalent and is especially hard on the victim who has to decide whether or not to report the formerly trusted person. It sounds like you have done everything correctly to restore the security of your accounts. I hope that this ordeal will be well behind you very soon. Thank you again for sharing your story!
Best wishes,
Audrey O'Dell
