Solider with ID Theft – a Question from Liz Marcardo

I have a potential client with a big mess on his hands so I was hoping we could help him out. I wanted to run it by you first since he has been given the run around by the credit agencies and other so-called repair companies in the past.

Needless to say, he is an active duty officer deployed to Iraq , whose identity was stolen and realized it when he returned in 2003 and saw it in his credit report, bills etc. About twenty accounts were opened fraudulently, all going delinquent, written off etc. The person literally became him and utilized his SSN so he didn’t pay taxes (so delinquent tax issues as well), got arrested a few times (convictions under his name, preventing him from getting a job) and also taking a picture for his driver’s license. If your officer is still active he has the ability to getting FREE help from the military service he is with. They are called Credit Information officers. This is a common thing amongst our service people and is a shame. The collections laws are also different for service people than us non service people.

I know, typical identity theft with a bit more added! Needless to say, the client had filed and reported the incidents with our local police as even tried with his creditors. For the most part, getting anything removed or deleted, according to him was too complicated so he is calling us to see if we can help. This is tough but very do-able. Filing a police report is the best thing he could have done. He also needs to fill out a form with all 3 credit bureaus telling them to stop selling his report for 90 days. He can tag it as “Identity Theft”.

So here are the questions. Can we help him? I would have him go to the Credit Officer first. They have more power than CJS and it is FREE. I’m sure that is yes but does it help more since he has police reports filed?YES, the first thing one should do for Identity theft is file a police report. The second thing to do is send it to all 3 bureaus attached to the identity theft form which will stop them from selling your inaccurate information. Remember that the consumer can sign up for another (3) 90 day terms which makes it 1 year that the credit bureaus can NOT sell your information. The bureaus hate this law. Do we need copies? Tell your client to keep all correspondence with every creditor, collection agency and military. . I haven’t seen the credit report yet as I wanted to run this by you first. Also, some things are still appearing on his report as of last year and he is saying that is all fraud as well. Should he just try and dispute the more recent ones on his own?? I just want to put this statement out there. Make sure your client is VERY clear on what fraud is and what is his. If he adds any legitimate stuff into the identity report he will be held to Federal prosecution. We had this happen to a client that wasn’t forthright with us and now they are in BIGGER trouble than before.

If you can, please let me know ASAP so I can call him and let him know what to do! I would love to take him on as a client and show him what we can do!! Thanks so much for your help!

Please let your client know that I appreciate his service to our Country!!! Let me know if there is anything I may do to assist him further.