3. ELI5: Why does identify theft hurt your credit score? If you can prove it wasn't...

ELI5: Why does identify theft hurt your credit score? If you can prove it wasn't you who took out credit in your name, etc. shouldn't that wipe it clean?

I had my identify stolen and still is kinda is. Very little support is out there and its a constant battle keeping on top of it.

Story time if you don't mind..

tl dr: I had my id stolen and the cops did nothing. Can't afford a lawyer, IRS was after me, I even had the personal information on the guy that stole my ID... nothing. 13 years later, everything is ok now, kinda.

My ID was stolen when I was relatively young, 3 or so and by the time I turned 18 I had perfect credit for a few years. I was able to buy a truck, get a credit card, cellphones and whatever else I wanted that required credit. Then the shit hit the fan... I always wondered why I had such great credit so I pulled up a credit report to check things out, sure enough, a bunch of stuff was on there that wasn't mine. Around this time the guy stopped making payments. I had like 5 credit cards, multiple cellphones, cars, and a loan that were all defaulting. I was like fuck. So my parents said go to the social security office to see what they would do. So I did... they said they would issue me a new ss# but never did. They kept sending me the same ss# card with the same number on it. After my 3rd time going to the SS office, the guy working my case, discovered the name of the person using my number. He made a note on post-it with his social, name, and address which I copied down when he wasn't looking. He said the guy was using the wrong number and that they would call him to tell him to stop using it. YEAH... that was my last time going to them for help.

So at this point i was being sent to collections and had the IRS calling me telling me because they said I lied on my taxes. I decided to go to the cops... they did nothing. They gave me a handout with tips on how to protect your ID and a case number. At this time mind you, ID thrift just stated to get big.

I ended up putting a hold my my credit by faxing and writing to the credit agencies. With a credit report in hand I started to call everyone on there that wasn't me. Which was pointless because they wanted information from me I didn't have because IT WAS ME THAT OPENED THE ACCOUNT. I would say 80% of them weren't helpful.

I finally got my first break... T-Mobile called asking about my account (an account that wasn't mine). So I pretended to be the person that stole me ID. From that, I got his fathers name, the middle name of the guy that stole me ID, a phone number, a DOB and a new address. At that point I told T-mobile they screwed up and I am not who I say I was yada, yada, sent over a case number, filed out a some paperwork and closed the account.

So I started calling places where my ID was stolen pretending to be the guy that stole my ID. It worked for the most part. After about 8 months of hitting it hard I had most of my credit under control. The cool part of this i was getting money from this guy too! 3 times I was able to cash his last checks that were sent to me instead of him. The checks had my name on them sooo.... I said fuck it, he owes me. i might have cashed $600 total).

For years I kept putting a hold on my credit and every month or so I would get a call because that asshole was trying to open up another account. I ended up going back to the police with all the information I had on the guy, they looked at me like I was nuts. They didn't believe the information I had on the guy was any good and still refused to do anything... they gave me another case number. So I decided to go to the guys house. When I got there I NOPED out. It was really hood but I did get a chance to see his car he bought under my name, it was nice.

Then I decided to get a lawyer. The lawyer said I was pretty much shit out of luck unless I decided to front the costs. He mentioned something about how the laws were written didn't really protect people like me.

Then I came up with the plan to go to that guys house, call the cops and say he stole my car. Since the car was in my name, why wouldn't it work? I called the lawyer back and he laughed. He said it was a risky move and wouldn't recommend it. He did mention going to the media and pleading my case there to put pressure on local authorities. I decided that was a bit a much and stuck to the idea of constantly watching my credit.

So after 13 years of constantly dealing with it, I can finally say my credit is solid. I assumed the guy stopped using my ID because I made it so difficult for him to use it. I haven't had any surprises in a long time.

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