I will never comprehend this.
I never thought this would happen to me. This is stuff that happens to people in movies and the news, not me, never. But it did and it is scary and real and I don't know what to do.
See, I was married for almost three years and I am currently going through a divorce. The identity theft was committed by my own husband. I know what you are thinking: they are married so this is a matter of joint assets. Well, that is not true. When you get married, yes, you are as far as the credit beaureau is concerned, one entity. However, no matter what, your social security number is your own. You do not sign over your citizenship and lose your individuality to become one megaspouse. Since his credit was so bad from his first marriage in the military, all of the bills and loans had to be acquired by me, a person with clean-ish credit. If I could offer the support of my good credit to our marriage, fine. we are in this together and we contribute what we can.
In the normal ideal world, you think you could trust the person you marry, right? well, after a few months, my exhusband quit his job because he didn't want to be supportive of a household he hated and I made too much money for his inferiority complex to make him feel less than me. Things got progressively worse with domestic abuse and when he got the idea that I was scared of him and wanted to leave, he decided to damage me to punish me forever. Yeah, he told me this. He started opening credit cards and purchasing accounts using my name, social security number, his cell phone number, and took away my mail key. Get it? His cell so I won't get calls asking for overdue payments, my mail key so I would be ignorant to the bills. Tens of thousands of dollars have been charged to my name, unbeknownst to me. My identity was used without my permission.
To use someone's identity is an indictable crime. and being married is not a technicality. I never gave permission, my signature and acknowedgement were falsely represented, and I was prevented from the existance of this information. If he were to do this to his neighbor, it is the same idea to do it to me. Both are illegal. I am still, after eight months after finding out, shocked as hell that he had destroyed my credit on purpose so badly.
To make matters worse, let's explain the bill situation...No problem, I had good credit and I applied for phone bill, rent, electricity, cable, credit card, etc. Do you expect that when bills come in the mail they get paid? of course, and if your spouse insists that they are to be trusted to take care of them, is there much of a question? You did marry them. Well, my trust was taken for a fool. My ex spouse made large withdrawals from the bank and claimed to be paying the household bills with it. When I would go to the ATM, I would assume that if there was a negative balance, then he must have just paid the bills and I would have to pray that my car would make it home because I could not get gas. My paychecks were instead used for other women, porn, instruments, and camera equipment.
My trust in him screwed me. Bills and rent and tons of credit card and purchase accounts went unpaid for many months, my college loan for over year, insurance for the car got cancelled, and debts went to the collections departments of the credit beaureau. He did, indeed get what he wanted: over 40,000 dollars in the negative with me responsible for it and not him.
Here is how I found out...One of my neighbors received my mail and threw it on the floor in the hall. I opened the envelope and almost fell on the floor. It was a threat to sue me from a collection agency for 3500$. I asked him what is was. He claimed to have no idea and told me I never listened to him not to throw out my mail. So someone probably stole my ID from the garbage and it was my problem. When I called the next day, I asked millions of questions to the customer service representative and was devastated to find out it was him!
Soon after I reclaimed my mail key and found that tons of bills, collections, and accounts were coming to me and I stupidly trusted that my life was in good hands. The police insisted that I file a report for this so that I can go to court. I did and I am persuing this. Not to be mean or get back, but to reclaim my credit.
So I found myself today dealing with one of the credit companies to get the necessary information. I had to do a great deal of begging to get information on “my account.” I have no idea what I am going to do and this is not easy. How do I know that I didn’t miss anything? I am nervous that one day when I can afford a house, my loan will not be approved because of an unpaid bill from when I was married is blacklisting my credit. This is one reality check I will never forget.