<p>Good to hear that there appears (at present) to be no harm done. </p>
<p>Sounds more like a data processing error at your local bank. </p>
<p>I would suggest that you do take action this summer to clear this up, however. I would start by taking your state ID (driver license - hopefully your state is considered OK by the current Fed guidelines) your SS card and at least one other person with the same (or better - passport) level of ID with you to your local bank. This is to prove you are who you are - often documentation of this will allow for another proven person to vouch. Sit down with the branch manager and demand that your SSN be removed from the mortgage account on their system. Give them 30 days.</p>
<p>I am guessing here based upon your reply that the name on the account does not match yours (at least completely - perhaps a last name match and first initial?). The fact that you are presenting documents showing that your SSN does in fact belong to your name, this by itself should be enough to authorize them to take action.</p>
<p>My next guess is that the person with the mortgage probably doesn’t even know that the bank has his SSN wrong. It typically does not show up on statements (identity theft issue). He probably has never been audited by the IRS (low odds), so I can’t see a reason why he’d even question anything. In fact, he is being cheated in that his 18 years of payment on the mortgage hasn’t helped his credit rating.</p>
<p>My final guess here is that the local branch does not want to fix a screw up at another branch and is looking for a bureaucratic reason to avoid doing their legally required duty. If they cannot fix this problem in 30 days (it does take some time), I’d be escalating to the regional manager. If this isn’t fixed by August, I’d be talking to your congressman’s office. The bank is probably federally insured and is subject to lots of federal oversight. </p>
<p>Why keep at it? Just because he has paid his mortgage on time doesn’t mean he will continue to do so (lots of people have issues these days). And you don’t want to find out what happens if they foreclose on a house you don’t even own.</p>
<p>I’m confused. If the credit reports don’t show anything, then where did the banker get the info? Is it solely on the bank’s records? Did the Bank’s records some how show you two as the same person? If so, the Bank needs to correct their records. Sees odd though. The bank is reporting mortgage info to the credit agencies, so if the bank thinks it is your mortgage, there would be credit report info on you from at least that bank.</p>
<p>Something is wrong with the picture presented.</p>
<p>It is very confusing; I don’t know what to how to make sense of it myself. Let me take you all through the steps.</p>
<p>I logged into annual credit report to check my report. As I began the process for checking the Equifax report, two questions were presented to me – Click the bubble that indicates where you obtained a mortgage around September 2004 (none of the options were banks I had even heard of) & What is the account number of the mortgage?. I clicked ‘none of the above’ for the both of the questions concerning the mortgage, and Equifax told me I had no credit report available. I confirmed this by speaking to a live customer service representative (that I have no credit history). They could not explain why I was presented with these two questions during the online session.</p>
<p>My local bank has nothing to do with this Equifax mishap.</p>
<p>I seem to remember hearing on some radio talk show recently that if someone randomly picked numbers to create a bogus SSN, it wasnt technically considered identity theft. They claimed the person (the crook) had to knowingly use a SSN attached to a known person in order for it to be considered identity theft. Thats totally unfair. I hope they arrest your person, but at least he hasnt caused you any harm. Another possibility-0- areyou sre the person is an illegal alien? Is it possible that the bank /mortgage company may have mistyped the person’s SSN and put yours on in error. That would explain why a person with a mortgage shows no income- as if they report income they’d report it under their correct SSN. Its a longshot (since I am guessing if this guy paid taxes and tried to claim the mortgage interest deduction, it’d have raised red flags with inconsistent ssn’s a long time ago).</p>
<p>I had some lady paying her bills out of my checking account a few years ago. We were able not only to track down her name, address, etc, with some sleuthing asistance from the bank and one of the companies she defrauded, but that company had a TAPE RECORDING of her saying her name, address and giving my bank account info to pay her bill!! I filed a police report here and in her home town (Atlantic City). The police there said yup- she had a criminal record, but nope, they wouldnt arrest her because they couldnt use the tape recording as evidence. Apparently in NJ they cant MAKE the person speak in court, so they couldnt PROVE it was her voice on the recording! :eek: I was not a happy camper. I closed/changed my account, but that really steamed me.</p>
<p>galoisen-
Is your question addressed to me?? If so, I moved on, begrudgingly (I was proud of our detective work!) I am in a state 1000 mi away, and it wasnt worth the time or trouble to pursue it. We shut my account down after she’d only stolen several hundred dollars to pay a few bills, the bank credited my account, and the companies she defrauded were well aware (as part of our investigating) of what she did. I am guessing they have bigger fish to fry in Atlantic City.</p>
<p>To the OP-
Are you saying those were merely security questions, or are you sure some illegal alien is using your SSN on a mortgage? Those kind of security questions are common-- they often ask stupid stuff you never heard of. If that is all you are dealing with (security q’s at Equifax) then there is no stolen identity. If on the other hand your bank says someone is using your SSN, then I’d be dealing with them pronto quick, as maybe its their error (as another poster said).</p>
<p>I just got a letter the other day from batteries.com telling me their security was breached and credit card info was compromized. So now I am going though that, getting their free credit card monitoring (their way of saying “sorry”) from Experian. Sigh… Its always something…</p>
<p>Oh, well – that’s a relief then. So far, I’ve determined that:</p>
<p>(1) TransUnion has no credit history under my SS#
(2) Experian has no credit history under my SS#
(3) Equifax has no credit history under my SS#
(4) The Social Security Administration shows no record of wages being earned under my SS# </p>
<p>The only evidence I have of identity theft is what my banker told me over a year ago. I’ll be heading to my bank to figure out the mess sometime next week. They should have some explanation!</p>
<p>I’m terribly sorry for you jym626. It really is always something …</p>
<p>^^^^ Thanks, sligh_anarchist. I takes a lickin’ but keep on tickin" (thats a line from an old timex commercial, probably WAY before your time). But hey, nobody in my family has broken any bones in at least a few months (since January), knock on wood. This is a good thing.</p>
<p>I have to tell you I was thrown back when I once called our credit union to get some information on our account and they asked me one of those ‘security’ questions. It was ‘how much is your monthly loan payment with our credit union’. After thinking about it for a few seconds, I started to freak out because, as far as I knew, we had no loans with them. So I answered, “Um, we don’t have any loans with you.” And the woman said, “That’s the right answer.” Boy was I relieved… it scared me for a minute.</p>
<p>Yep…when I’m getting a credit report they have always thrown in a bogus question…Example : in the year xxxx you purchased xxx car…it was financed with…and then give 3 options plus none of the above… none of the above is a valid answer if you didn’t finance whatever they are referring to.</p>
<p>Just found out today that some cretin in Washington State tried to order items from an online merchant using my credit card. The vender said this person has been using many stolen account information-- so be warned- the criminal’s name is BUI NGUYEN and he tried to have the items shipped to 2034 South Main St Apt #2 Seattle WA 98144. This person is a CROOK. Criminals should be outed.</p>
<p>Bringing this thread back up b/c I spend most of the day today dealing with an identity theft issue, and still have more to do. Unfortunately it isn’t just a stolen credit card-- they had my name, address and SSN too. What a hassle. Fortunately we have a friend who works for Equifax, so have gotten some quick, personalized attention and assistance with this. But so far, today’s calls involved shutting down a credit card, getting documentation of the fraud from a cellphone company in order to file a report with the sheriffs office fraud and forgery division (not a police report as I found out the hard way by going to the police station) – still awaiting a call back from them–, having first a 90 day, then a 7 yr fraud alert and then a full security freeze put on all 3 credit bureaus (2 down, 1 to go), contacting financial institutions, etc etc. No fun at all. This stinks. </p>
<p>I recommend that everyone put a 90 day alert on their accounts (no cost involved) and renew them. You can also get some baseemail notification of changes to your credit at no charge (though its less helpful thansome of the ones you pay for) but at the bvery least, consider getting the free protection that is out there. Its worth it.</p>
I guess everything is alright!</p>