Family credit fraud

kilby_007

To cut a long story short, my brother has opened credit accounts with clothes shops etc under my name at my parents address and I've just found out about one of them. He's a habitual liar so I can't assertain the extent of the damage. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Thanks

SnowTiger

kilby_007 wrote: »

To cut a long story short, my brother has opened credit accounts with clothes shops etc under my name at my parents address and I've just found out about one of them. He's a habitual liar so I can't assertain the extent of the damage. Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this? Thanks

Do you still live at your parent's address? If not, do your credit files link you to their address?

Do the accounts opened by your brother appear on your credit files?

There's a similar story here.

You might have to report this to the Police if you really want to get something done about it. Difficult.

agrinnall

Family fraud, whether admitted or not by the OP, is a surprisingly common thread on various MSE boards. In pretty much all cases it comes down to 3 choices:

1) Tackle it within the family to get the guilty party to own up and repay what they owe
2) Do nothing
3) Involve the police and be prepared to be a witness when it comes to court.

We rarely see the outcomes but I suspect that many people are not prepared to go as far as the third option, even though it's probably the only one that will really resolve things.

kilby_007

Thanks. There's nothing on my experian report linking me there. My dad intercepted some letters this morning and found bills under all of our families names so it's not just me. My brother has "special needs" / "problems" that he seems to get away with murder but he knows what he's done. I'm tempted to get the police involved to teach him a lesson as previously he's got himself in debt and we've had to bail him out but this is a step too far...

Stevie_Palimo

kilby_007 wrote: »

Thanks. There's nothing on my experian report linking me there. My dad intercepted some letters this morning and found bills under all of our families names so it's not just me. My brother has "special needs" / "problems" that he seems to get away with murder but he knows what he's done. I'm tempted to get the police involved to teach him a lesson as previously he's got himself in debt and we've had to bail him out but this is a step too far...

Just be prepared for the fall out after doing this from your family and as long as you can take it then go ahead and use the Police route, I did this a long time ago when a family member of mine used my details to obtain various credit and basically had a backlash from most of them to which I stood firm and told them to do one.

Nasqueron

kilby_007 wrote: »

Thanks. There's nothing on my experian report linking me there. My dad intercepted some letters this morning and found bills under all of our families names so it's not just me. My brother has "special needs" / "problems" that he seems to get away with murder but he knows what he's done. I'm tempted to get the police involved to teach him a lesson as previously he's got himself in debt and we've had to bail him out but this is a step too far...

The only way you will get any cards and debts on your record removed is to report him to the police and go through with it, you'll never get anywhere by claiming he did it without your agreement while refusing to treat it as fraud.

National_Debtline

Hi kilby_007

kilby_007 wrote: »

Thanks. There's nothing on my experian report linking me there. My dad intercepted some letters this morning and found bills under all of our families names so it's not just me. My brother has "special needs" / "problems" that he seems to get away with murder but he knows what he's done. I'm tempted to get the police involved to teach him a lesson as previously he's got himself in debt and we've had to bail him out but this is a step too far...

These situations can be incredibly awkward to handle and you have to proceed in the way you're most comfortable with. As others have said, the only sure-fire way to repair any damage caused to your credit file is to report the incident through the proper channels i.e. Action Fraud and the lenders themselves.


It sounds as if this is a scenario that could recur time and time again, so you and the rest of the family should consider beefing up your ID security. One way of doing so is via www.cifas.org.uk - there is a fee to pay for this service, which requires potential credit providers to run extra security checks on applicants. More informal methods mostly revolve around commonsense measures such as keeping sensitive personal info under lock and key, although this can obviously be more challenging around immediate family and co-residents.


Dennis
@natdebtline

kilby_007

OK, so I've just checked another of my credit files and it is recorded on the noddle report as 3 defaults. How do I go about getting this removed? If I call the company and pay off the debt in the meantime, am I admitting that the debt is mine?

grumbler

The only way to get them removed, and it's not an easy way, is to report all accounts as fraudulent and to report your relative to the police.

Even if you pay, with or without admitting, the defaults will remain and only the status will change to 'settled'.

chuckley

do you live at your parents house? if not you'll get fraud markers on your file... and in having that on your file some of your genuine accounts could be closed.

kilby_007

chuckley wrote: »

do you live at your parents house? if not you'll get fraud markers on your file... and in having that on your file some of your genuine accounts could be closed.

No I don't live at my parent's address. It's only on my Noddle report. On the advice of action fraud I've raised a report with them and given the reference number to noddle, hoping they will just remove the defaults from my credit report. My brother has admitted the fraud to the creditor and I've asked them to change the account to his name and they're going to get back to me.