Quote:
Originally posted by AKA2D '91:
Well, my story is different. I did not have credit cards while in college. Mind you, I had a CLEAN, POLISHED credit history....NO CREDIT, BUT, someone did obtain a card IN MY NAME! 
I NEVER received ANY bills. I guess my SS# was obtained from a class roll, or some department and my identity was "stolen".
Anyway, one day, my mother called me and told me something about a card and the "bill" was being turned over to a collection agency. She KNEW I never came home with NEW items. Anything NEW I had, she had purchased them. Then the records showed that items had been purchased as far away as Chicago...HECK, I have NEVER been to Chicago!
So, from there we tried to get to the bottom of it. By the time we found out what had happened, it was too late. The incident went on my credit report. I submitted a dispute and left it at that. The debt the person had incurred was over $1000. So, that was in 92. Since then, I have little by little gotten my credit, back on track!
I HAVE NOT AND WILL NOT PAY FOR SOMETHING I DID NOT DO! Shoot, at least let me have some merchandise or something...YA KNOW!
I wish they would curtail or limit credit to college students.
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Like you AKA2D '91, I have now and had throughout college outstanding credit history but I have had a couple of fraudulent accounts set up in my name and showing up on my credit reports probably for the same reasons you stated (i.e. people stealing SS# from class rolls, etc). I feel like I am an expert on this situation by now. Like I stated earlier, people, you must obtain a credit report from each of the three credit agencies once a year because the longer incorrect info is on your reports, the harder it is to dispute. Not only should you dispute it with the three credit agencies but obtain a fraud affidavit from the company that has a fraudulent account with your name. You can also put fraud alerts on your credit reports but you have to do this with all three agencies because as I stated earlier, they are independent of each other. Each credit agency will explain how their fraud alerts work. But anyway, thank God that I have been able to get these fraudulent accounts off of my credit reports.
[This message has been edited by DST Love (edited January 17, 2001).]