Identity theft committed by mother

Fyei

Hi,

So this is a complex issue... I'm very sorry for the length of this. I've added a tl;Dr at the bottom.

My girlfriend has never been very financially aware. She grew up in poverty and managed to get where she is now (early twenties) without ever really getting independence or building any real day to day life skills...

The reasons behind this I can write books about - she's a serious victim of emotional and financial abuse by her mother... I won't go into deep details, but the good news is we're now in the process of moving her out of that toxic environment. She's now going to be moving in with me. I've got a decent income which can support us both and she hasn't got anything holding her back anymore... Except one thing, which is why I'm posting here.

A few years back her mother committed identity theft and started a mobile phone contract in her name and never paid a dime towards it. She doesn't know anything about what happened to the handset as naturally her mother never told her that this was done, but we think she sold it to CeX or cash converters.

The first she found out about this was a letter from Vodafone demanding something like £300. This never got paid as my girlfriend didn't know anything about this and assumed it was a scam. The truth came out a year later when the debt had been passed to bailiffs and my girlfriends uncle stepped in and had a row with the mother. The uncle then paid the money and as far as we know it's now all paid and no one will come chasing us. It didn't go further than this as my girlfriend didn't understand what to do and she would have lost her support network (what little she had) if she'd gone to the police.

I've recently done a search on Noddle with her to assess the long term damage of this and the debt is very obviously on there and very clearly shows as a default.

Now that my girlfriend is safe from abuse/persecution by the family, is there anything that we can do to reverse this damage? Also, I have a feeling that this mobile contract wasn't the only thing her mother took out in my girlfriends name and more letters may show up in the future. Does anyone have advice what we should do if this happens?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide. I'm a bit lost on this as I've never seen something like this get so out of hand!

Tl;dr: my girlfriend was emotionally and financially abused by her mother for years. Her mother took out a mobile contract in her name and never paid it. Her uncle paid it years later to stop bailiffs trying to break in, but the red marks still exist against her name. I'm looking at ways to fix her credit file and also get advice on what to do if more debts come out of the blue in future.

forgotmyname

It will drop off after 6 years, Unless legal action was taken against the mother then you may as well just let it drop off naturally.

If more debts appear then you need to report them as fraud. Then you can get them removed. But it would probably need to involve the police and mention that its probably her mother doing it.

academiet

You are right. It's true.

Fyei

Ok, fair enough. I'll recommend to her that she just leaves it and lets it and the relating CCJ drop off.

That said - we looked again at her credit report on noddle and I just noticed, there are three debts with Lowell all marked as Default for roughly the same figure. My girlfriend only knows about 1 of them, the other two are a mystery to her. She's never seen letters from them before.

One account was opened in 2009, the other in 2012 and the other in 2013. None of them have been updated recently on Noddle, all of them stopped being updated around the same time her uncle paid off the letter that was sent to her... still though...

Should we be worried about those?

Candyapple

Your girlfriend should register herself with CIFAS to prevent her mother making any further applications for credit in her name at her soon to be old address.
https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr_for_individuals

As for the 3 defaults, what dates did they default each account?

Lowell could have purchased the 3 debts from 3 separate companies. If you wanted to find out where they came from, you'd need to write to Lowell with the 'prove it' letter.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2607247

solentsusie

Your girlfriend should get all three of her files from the three credit reference agencies. Some companies do not report to CallCredit (Noddle is their free online service) so she should check there is nothing else in her name that is is unaware of on both Equifax and Experian. She just needs to pay £2 for her statutory reports.

A default or CCJ should only be registered once. If there is more than one default from Lowell then they have either made an error or more than one account has been defaulted.

Does it state on her report that the default has been satisfied? Her uncle may have paid them all off.

Good luck.

PaulW922

I think some advice from National Debtline may be in order as there may be other debts your GF is unaware of. If she is moving in with you and your finances become linked (maybe by means of a joint account) then you could be impacted too through no fault or action of your own.

Debt firms like Lowells can make your life an ongoing misery and will of course tells lies about who is liable for any debts in these cases. Equally, I guess many 'debtors' claim to know nothing about the debt - if no action has been taken by your GF it does look to any debt firm that you are just trying to blag your way out of it.

I would definitely go down the CIFAS route as recommended above.