Financial Terrorism

Around 10 years ago, I was the victim of identity theft. Someone who I sort-of dated took my social security number and opened a few accounts with it. I didn't find out until 2 or 3 years later when the debt collection agencies came calling. Long story short, I provided the necessary documentation to have the debts against me dismissed. It took nearly two years to clear all the bad debts.

AND THEN... this weekend I got a letter from one of the agencies stating that they hadn't heard from me about the debt and that they would consider it valid if I didn't respond within 30 days. 5 years and 2 moves later. I called and they claimed that I never filed anything with them and that the debt was never dismissed, despite the fact that I have received correspondence from them stating such 5 years ago. So here we go again.

I googled this and it turns out this isn't an uncommon thing. I found a few news stories from reputable sources about certain collection agencies reopening closed accounts and trying to bully consumers into to paying debts that are either invalid, dismissed or paid off.

If anything like this ever happens to you, I would urge you to read up on your rights as provided in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. A few things I learned during all this:

1. You can get a free annual credit report by visiting http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Don't make any assumptions about your credit, even if you pay everything on time. You can also contact the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) directly for reports.
2. File a local police report. I was living in a small Midwestern town and the police tried to shush me away. The officer who took my report didn't know what to do about it. At first he told me that I needed to travel to the towns where the various accounts had been opened. Then he told me that I had probably given permission for my SSN to be used and just didn't remember. Bottom line: they just didn't know what to do and didn't want to deal with it.
   
3. File an affidavit at http://www.ftc.gov/idtheft.
   
4. If you suspect you've been the victim of ID theft, you can put a Fraud Alert on your credit reports by calling one of the reporting agencies. (I've been told that you only need to contact one.) This will warn creditors that they need to follow certain procedures when granting credit in your name.
   
5. There are statutes of limitations to debt collection. If a few years have passed since the account in question was active, check to see if the statues of limitations have passed. (Note: you can restart the statute of limitations by promising to pay, making a payment, entering a payment agreement or making a charge against the account. That restarts the clock to zero.) In this case, the fraudulent debt occurred in Oklahoma and the statute of limitations is 3 years for open ended accounts. I was living in Kansas at the time and the SoL there is also 3 years. I'm currently living in Florida, which is 4 years. In any event, I'm covered.
   
6. Protect your personal information!

Personal note to K. Kuhlemeier, in case you ever stumble across this: I don't believe that you did what you did out of malevolence but rather desperation. I understand that you were going through a rough time. I'm not unsympathetic to that. But, whatever wrongs I've done, I didn't deserve that. You wrecked major havoc on my life and caused me years of serious financial problems. You owe me an apology.