What if I just discovered my identity has been stolen? 5 years ago?

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:59:59 GMT
What if I just discovered my identity has been stolen? 5 years ago?

Ok - so I admit fault in not keeping track on my credit score, but that's the least of my issues.

I just discovered that I have an substantial debt under my SSN that I never incurred. A credit card appears under my name and identity. It was maxed out, a single payment was made, and then nothing after that. No other credit cards were opened after that. All further stuff on my reports was mine and I recognize it.



And this cc was opened and used 5 years ago.

But here's the kicker. I think I may have made that payment. According to the dates I've got I think I made the payment along with a host of other medical bills I was paying at the time. I didn't tend to read what I was paying, just wrote checks and paid the bills. I had just had my daughter and had a good number of bills go to collections. They hopped from collection agency to collection agency as I made payments when I could. (Again my fault, not disputing that) If I figure right, I made a payment to a credit card that wasn't mine to begin with.

Is that going to make it impossible to dispute it with the credit agencies? And what of the company that firmly believes the debt belongs to me? I'm now getting rather insipid calls demanding that I pay the debt that isn't mine. At least it isn't mine to my person, my social security number on the other hand apparently has quite a debt built up.

I know this has to have been identity theft, but it's the strangest case ever I would figure. Have I doomed myself to paying out a debt not mine because of my inattention? Will they believe me when I say the debt isn't mine?

For all my financial mistakes of yesteryear I just got myself back on track and doing pretty darn well all things considered. This could throw me back out to the lions. Argh. Any advice will be appreciated.

And please no flamers on my inability to control my debt or credit. I don't use credit for anything at the moment. Yes, I made mistakes but honestly and earnestly recovered from them. (At least I thought I did) We all make mistakes, so any advice on the situation at hand is welcome.