My wife's sister has been using her SSN to apply for credit! What steps do we need to take to fix this?

[sonystylez]

My wife gave her permission that I was not aware of until recently. But that's another story, so let's just focus on how to fix this situation on this thread if we can:

 

Facts:

 

1. Wife sister has applied for 10+ credit cards for the last 2+ years, using my wfie's SSN and Name.

2. She used her own employement information and salary (Not my wife's)

3. She also used her own address. (Not my wife's address)

4. Transunion/Equifax/Experian has my wife's sister's current address listed as current address on file and NOT ours.

5.Transunion/Equifax/Experian has my wife's sister's employement information on file.

 

 

What steps do we need to take to fix this?

 

1. Currently we are going to contact Trans/EQ/EXP to update to our addresss.

2. We are also going to ask for all of my wife's credit cards back

3. We are going to update all credit card information back to my wife (Chase/Citi/CapitalOne, etc)

 

What other steps do we need to take to fix this situation?

How do we update the credit reports to show my wife's employment instead of my wife's sister?

Anything else we need to do?

 

 

Would really appreciate any help/feedback. Many Thanks

[mendelssohn]

Put a Fraud Alert on all 3 reports and freeze them.

 

You're going to need to file a police report for identity theft. The only way to really get this resolved will not end well for your wife's sister.

[RussInGotham]

Put a Fraud Alert on all 3 reports and freeze them.

 

You're going to need to file a police report for identity theft. The only way to really get this resolved will not end well for your wife's sister.

 

Is it identity theft if the OP's wife gave her sister permission?

[sonystylez]

My wife's sister has been using her SSN to apply for credit cards. She has applied for over 10+ credit cards for the last 2+ years, using my wfie's SSN and Name. Most of them are maxed out. She has over 35K of credit card debt under my wfie's credit.

 

 

How do we get rid of this debt?

 

1. What are our options?

2. If we contact her creditors (Chase, Citi, etc), and told them of our situation, what would they do?

3. Would they work with us and help us? What can they do to help us?

4. Or would it backfire? (Close our accounts, etc)

5. Would they allow to transfer the accounts to my wife's sister?

 

 

Would really appreciate any help/feedback. Many Thanks

 

 

PS My wife gave her permission that I was not aware of until recently. But that's another story, so let's just focus on how to get rid of this debt if we can:

[almostanonymous]

There's no situation where this ends well for anyone unless your wife's sister is willing to relinquish the cards voluntarily, hopefully without balances.

[Konrad2012]

 

Put a Fraud Alert on all 3 reports and freeze them.

You're going to need to file a police report for identity theft. The only way to really get this resolved will not end well for your wife's sister.

 

Is it identity theft if the OP's wife gave her sister permission?

Exactly. Sister did nothing wrong.

 

OP and his wife need to have some serious discussions.

[trixiegirl]

If the wife gave permission, can't she and her sister be charged with fraud if the police get involved? I don't see how the card companies would just change the accounts over to her name either. Your best bet may be to just close all the cards and suffer through the loss of AAOA.

[nyrfann]

I was going to say this is ID theft but I guess it's not since your wife gave permission although I do think it some sort of fraud.

 

1- Not sure what you can do here other they start paying off the balances.

2- Again this is fraud IMO (since you wife gave opermission to use her info) so I'd thread lightly here

3- No and nothing

4- Who cares at this point

5- I BIG NO

Edited July 2, 2015 by nyrfann

[mendelssohn]

 

 

Put a Fraud Alert on all 3 reports and freeze them.

 

You're going to need to file a police report for identity theft. The only way to really get this resolved will not end well for your wife's sister.

Is it identity theft if the OP's wife gave her sister permission?

I missed that part.

[nyrfann]

I posted in the OP other thread. The wife gave permission so this is not ID theft, this is flat out FRAUD!

Edited July 2, 2015 by nyrfann

[leedspaddy]

With all due respect, your wife was very misguided to do this even taking into account that its family. Like everyone else has said, there is no result here that is good for anyone, unless the sister makes good on the debt and pays it back after she has relinquished the cards of course. I also don't think claiming ID theft is going to fly as well considering your wife gave her permission to use her SSN.................what was she thinking? All this could have been avoided had your wife either lent her sister the money or applied for cards herself and made her sister the AU........granted it wouldn't have stopped her sister from maxing out the cards but it could have allowed your wife to keep control unlike this mess. I wish you the best of luck in resolving this.

[ChanceBurt]

You should combine this with the other thread you already created:

 

 

https://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=545787

Edited July 2, 2015 by seezar

[SomeGuyInCA]

This is a big bummer of a situation.

 

The reality is that the apps WERE fraudulent, regardless of intent, because the person applying misrepresented themselves. So there is no clear path forward because no matter what you do, you wind up exposing the sister to risk, and indeed your wife is exposed to risk as well. The only real way to get rid of the debt is to report it as identity theft. But that will most likely have very negative consequences for the sister, up to getting charged with a crime and getting jailed. And the sister could always claim that your wife allowed her to do it, which then implicates your wife in credit card fraud, too. Moreover, If you call the card companies and report that this was all a big mistake, they :

 

A - have no reason to do thing one, since to them it is not a lot different from having made her sister an AU, in which case you would be responsible for the debts anyway, and
B - might just elect to close the cards since your wife basically helped her sister commit credit card fraud.

 

I don't see any way out of this debt other than to pay it, discharge it through a BR, or default on it and hope for the best. All three have negative consequences, but of them, the first option is the one with the fewest of them. Painful yes - but fewer long term harms.

 

It goes without saying that this was a gigantic mistake. But for future reference, it would have been much better for your wife to make your sister an AU on her cards rather than do this, because she would at least have been able to monitor all of this activity and put a stop to it the moment it got out of hand. As it is, she's allowed her sister to trash her credit, put her in debt, and has created a situation with basically no tenable solution other than to pay the debt.

 

That stinks - I wish I could tell you a different answer.

Edited July 2, 2015 by SomeGuyInCA

[Sourgirl32]

Is it Friday?

[cashnocredit]

This is actually pretty easy to solve. The wife freezes her report then cancels the cards and changes the addresses on the card accounts to her actual address. Sister pays the sister as required to pay off the balances.

 

Problem solved.

 

Even if the sister can't pay the balances the wife is responsible for the balances and the above steps should be taken. If the sister fails to provide payments then that is between the wife and sister.

 

EtoA;

 

I see from the other thread that the sister ran up 35k in debt and you want to know how to get out from paying it. Sorry, that's your wife's debt since she permitted the sister to open that cards in her name. While you could claim ID theft it wasn't and making the claim is actually fraud and meets all the elements of fraud not to mention a rather scummy thing to do to the sister. When the wife allowed her sister to act in her name the sister become her agent and she has to honor their actions.

Edited July 2, 2015 by cashnocredit

[SomeGuyInCA]

This is actually pretty easy to solve. The wife freezes her report then cancels the cards and changes the addresses on the card accounts to her actual address. Sister pays the sister as required to pay off the balances.

 

Problem solved.

 

Even if the sister can't pay the balances the wife is responsible for the balances and the above steps should be taken. If the sister fails to provide payments then that is between the wife and sister.

 

I got the impression the OP is looking for a way out from under the debt... which I don't think is available.

[sonystylez]

This is a big bummer of a situation.

 

The reality is that the apps WERE fraudulent, regardless of intent, because the person applying misrepresented themselves. So there is no clear path forward because no matter what you do, you wind up exposing the sister to risk, and indeed your wife is exposed to risk as well. The only real way to get rid of the debt is to report it as identity theft. But that will most likely have very begative consequences for the sister, up to getting charged with a crime and getting jailed. And the sister could always claim that her sister allowed her to do it, which then implicates your wife in credit card fraud. If you call the card companies and report that this was all a big mistake, they :

 

A - have no reason to do thing one, since to them it is not a lot different from having made her sister an AU, in which case you would be responsible for the debts anyway, and

B - might just elect to close the cards since your wife basically helped her sister commit credit card fraud.

 

I don't see any way out of this debt other than to pay it, discharge it through a BR, or default on it and hope for the best. All three have negative consequences, but of them, the first option is the one with the fewest of them.

 

It goes without saying that this was a gigantic mistake. But for future reference, it would have been much better for your wife to make your sister an AU on her cards rather than do this, because she would have been able to monitor all of this activity and put a stop to it the moment it got out of hand. As it is, she's allowed her sister to trash her credit, put her in debt, and has created a situation with basically no tenable solution other than to pay the debt.

 

That stinks - I wish I could tell you a different answer.

 

 

Thank you for your empathy. And I totally agree with you. If my wife wanted to help her sister, there could have been better ways to do it. To put it lightly, I am obviously NOT happy with this situation and I have expressed it to all parties involved, but my purpose for posting this thread is to gather information how hot to fix the situation.

 

Ok, so What steps do we need to take to fix this?

 

1. Currently we are going to contact Trans/EQ/EXP to update to our addresss.

2. We are also going to ask for all of my wife's credit cards back

3. We are going to update all credit card information back to my wife (Chase/Citi/CapitalOne, etc)

 

What other steps do we need to take to fix this situation?

How do we update the credit reports to show my wife's employment instead of my wife's sister?

Anything else we need to do?

Edited July 2, 2015 by sonystylez

[sonystylez]

 

This is actually pretty easy to solve. The wife freezes her report then cancels the cards and changes the addresses on the card accounts to her actual address. Sister pays the sister as required to pay off the balances.

 

Problem solved.

 

Even if the sister can't pay the balances the wife is responsible for the balances and the above steps should be taken. If the sister fails to provide payments then that is between the wife and sister.

 

I got the impression the OP is looking for a way out from under the debt... which I don't think is available.

 

 

Understood. I've concluded that there probably wasn't a way to get rid of the debt, BUT was hoping there could have been another way that I didn't know about.....

[MickeyChick]

freeze those reports ASAP.

[chicagorich]

I don't think I have ever "updated" a credit card company if I changed a job, got a raise, etc. Doing that to me would raise a big red flag to the card companies.

 

Frankly, I would just close all of the accounts. Whatever misinformation was given when the accounts were opened becomes moot once the accounts are closed, provided all amounts owed are paid back IAW the cards' terms.

[cashnocredit]

 

This is a big bummer of a situation.

 

The reality is that the apps WERE fraudulent, regardless of intent, because the person applying misrepresented themselves. So there is no clear path forward because no matter what you do, you wind up exposing the sister to risk, and indeed your wife is exposed to risk as well. The only real way to get rid of the debt is to report it as identity theft. But that will most likely have very begative consequences for the sister, up to getting charged with a crime and getting jailed. And the sister could always claim that her sister allowed her to do it, which then implicates your wife in credit card fraud. If you call the card companies and report that this was all a big mistake, they :

 

A - have no reason to do thing one, since to them it is not a lot different from having made her sister an AU, in which case you would be responsible for the debts anyway, and

B - might just elect to close the cards since your wife basically helped her sister commit credit card fraud.

 

I don't see any way out of this debt other than to pay it, discharge it through a BR, or default on it and hope for the best. All three have negative consequences, but of them, the first option is the one with the fewest of them.

 

It goes without saying that this was a gigantic mistake. But for future reference, it would have been much better for your wife to make your sister an AU on her cards rather than do this, because she would have been able to monitor all of this activity and put a stop to it the moment it got out of hand. As it is, she's allowed her sister to trash her credit, put her in debt, and has created a situation with basically no tenable solution other than to pay the debt.

 

That stinks - I wish I could tell you a different answer.

 

 

Thank you for your empathy. And I totally agree with you. If my wife wanted to help her sister, there could have been better ways to do it. To put it lightly, I am obviously NOT happy with this situation and I have expressed it to all parties involved, but my purpose for posting this thread is to gather information how hot to fix the situation.

 

Ok, so What steps do we need to take to fix this?

 

1. Currently we are going to contact Trans/EQ/EXP to update to our addresss.

2. We are also going to ask for all of my wife's credit cards back

3. We are going to update all credit card information back to my wife (Chase/Citi/CapitalOne, etc)

 

What other steps do we need to take to fix this situation?

How do we update the credit reports to show my wife's employment instead of my wife's sister?

Anything else we need to do?

 

 

The most important thing is to get your wife's CC addresses (they are, after all, your wife's) corrected by just changing the address at the issuer's web site. They will take care of updating the CRAs. Once that is done you can remove the old addresses from the CRAs. You can close or not the accounts depending on the situation and sister's cooperation. It isn't required because they are already in the wife's name.

[dansamy]

The siblings committed credit card fraud, which is a crime.

 

Getting out from under the debt will be difficult and painful. It will either need to get paid or bankrupted. Filing police reports for identity theft puts your wife in the crosshairs for legal repercussions for credit card fraud because she was complicit in it.

[cashnocredit]

 

This is actually pretty easy to solve. The wife freezes her report then cancels the cards and changes the addresses on the card accounts to her actual address. Sister pays the sister as required to pay off the balances.

 

Problem solved.

 

Even if the sister can't pay the balances the wife is responsible for the balances and the above steps should be taken. If the sister fails to provide payments then that is between the wife and sister.

 

I got the impression the OP is looking for a way out from under the debt... which I don't think is available.

 

 

Yeah, that was more than an impression. I saw the other thread where he specifically asked about that.

[SomeGuyInCA]

 

This is a big bummer of a situation.

 

The reality is that the apps WERE fraudulent, regardless of intent, because the person applying misrepresented themselves. So there is no clear path forward because no matter what you do, you wind up exposing the sister to risk, and indeed your wife is exposed to risk as well. The only real way to get rid of the debt is to report it as identity theft. But that will most likely have very begative consequences for the sister, up to getting charged with a crime and getting jailed. And the sister could always claim that her sister allowed her to do it, which then implicates your wife in credit card fraud. If you call the card companies and report that this was all a big mistake, they :

 

A - have no reason to do thing one, since to them it is not a lot different from having made her sister an AU, in which case you would be responsible for the debts anyway, and

B - might just elect to close the cards since your wife basically helped her sister commit credit card fraud.

 

I don't see any way out of this debt other than to pay it, discharge it through a BR, or default on it and hope for the best. All three have negative consequences, but of them, the first option is the one with the fewest of them.

 

It goes without saying that this was a gigantic mistake. But for future reference, it would have been much better for your wife to make your sister an AU on her cards rather than do this, because she would have been able to monitor all of this activity and put a stop to it the moment it got out of hand. As it is, she's allowed her sister to trash her credit, put her in debt, and has created a situation with basically no tenable solution other than to pay the debt.

 

That stinks - I wish I could tell you a different answer.

 

 

Thank you for your empathy. And I totally agree with you. If my wife wanted to help her sister, there could have been better ways to do it. To put it lightly, I am obviously NOT happy with this situation and I have expressed it to all parties involved, but my purpose for posting this thread is to gather information how hot to fix the situation.

 

Ok, so What steps do we need to take to fix this?

 

1. Currently we are going to contact Trans/EQ/EXP to update to our addresss.

2. We are also going to ask for all of my wife's credit cards back

3. We are going to update all credit card information back to my wife (Chase/Citi/CapitalOne, etc)

 

What other steps do we need to take to fix this situation?

How do we update the credit reports to show my wife's employment instead of my wife's sister?

Anything else we need to do?

 

 

The only thing I would add to this is this: If the sister doesn't want to give the cards back... update the addresses on file, and then report all the cards as lost. They will issue new cards, send them to the correct address, and deactivate the cards in the sister's possession.

 

Who's been paying these? Who has them registered online? You'll have to address getting charge of those account portals too.

[almostanonymous]

Does your wife currently have open accounts in good standing that she has actually applied for?