Just found out my idenitiy was stolen! - Help.com

technically. if he/she used your name then yes you are responcible for the debt

This happened to my daughter just recently. My darling sister used my daughter’s identity to oepn charge accounts and then didn’t pay them.

First thing is to notify the creditor of what is going on. You may be asked to provide your birth certificate or proof of age. After you do that you need to pull your credit report on all three reporting agencies to see what else has been done. Make sure to put a fraud alert on them also. This means that you, nor anyone else can open credit without proper identification and verification that it is you. You need to contact the police and file a report. Paypal will most certainly ask for this report. Good luck. It took us months to straighten this out.

Oh yeah, until you do all of this, you are responsible for the debt so get going on it now.

NO, you do NOT owe the debt. The debt is not yours and was incurred as the result of FRAUD.

Contact the credit reporting agencies–you may have to contact just one. Follow instructions for refuting the debt.

Notify PAYPAL first and tell them you are NOT the person who fraudulently used your name.

Do NOT pay anyone any money due to this identity theft. You are NOT liable.

Get Paypal to send you copies of everything they have. I mean all of it. You need to take all that to the police station so they can start tracking it.

Even though it is not on your credit make sure the fraud alert is. Also, password or change any and all bank accounts you may have. If they can open a paypal account they can get to your other accounts as well.

My sister opened 2 credit card accounts plus a couple of accounts to different places online. Until you prove to all involved that it wasn’t you, you will be liable in their eyes. Like chev.jame said, don’t pay them anything, but ultimately it is your responsibility to make them see it isn’t your doing this.

Paypal should have the online info the person used, the date it was opened, how it was used, etc. In my daughter’s case they were even able to give her an IP address of the computer that was used to apply for the credit.

Have you talked to anyone at Paypal yet either on the phone or by email?

Is Paypal telling you that you have to pay them back or have they figured out it wasn’t you? What bank account did they use to get the account? was it one of your’s?

Don’t send them any money. If you do then they take that to mean you are accepting the debt. If they cannot provide you with the transaction info and the sign up info then just let it ride since it isn’t on your credit. Keep an eye on your credit report for awhile. I don’t remember having to use my social security number to sign up but then again that was a long time ago.

Also, if they did use your SS number, you need to contact the social security administration and let them know about the fraud too.

Talking on the phone to low-level people won’t do much good. Send them a certified mail, return-receipt letter (you get back a green postcard as proof of receipt), and tell them you do NOT owe any money, that your ID was stolen, and that if PayPal doesn’t rectify the error, you will take them to court.

THAT is the ONLY kind of letter that will get your case in front of the right people. “Court” gets their attention. The near-minimum-wage employees you are talking to on the phone couldn’t care less, but their bosses will.

Chev is right. Write.

If you still seem to be banging your head against a brick wall, try a short letter stating something along these lines:

“I have endeavoured to resolve this matter with you since you first brought it to my attention on… I refute this debt unequivocably since it was fraudulently incurred by others unknown.

I have reported this matter to the police and insist that you take immediate action to rectify your records. I am credit-worthy, have been honest and reliable in my transactions and consider the implication that I am in debt to others to be erroneous and defamatory.

If I do not hear from you positively within 14 days of the date of this letter, I intend to seek legal redress through the courts.”

Sometimes, it takes a counter-threat and a legal team to get involved for the paperpushers, box-tickers and call centre staff to realise that they might actually need to think beyond what it says on their screens!!

Yes, to get a thorny problems resolved, you first have to stop dealing with low-level employees, who only parrot what their supervisors have told them to say. They cannot make decisions. They don’t have the time or inclination to research your problem. They’re there to do one thing: stonewall you.

You are also entitled to receive payment back from PayPal for those items that were received by your customers. Be sure to state the details of the sale and the amounts owed you by PayPal.

Realize that it MAY take a letter from an attorney to get their attention. They’re a big outfit, and it takes the threat of losing big money to get their attention. But you need to write a letter like Mums outlined. Don’t just send it . . . send it certified, return receipt so you can prove it was sent AND received. That starts the “clock” ticking with PayPal . . . if they don’t start working to resolve your issue, it will look like they were trying to put you off.

You might address the letter to the CEO and a duplicate copy to “General Counsel” at PayPal.

By the way, I have prevailed over 99.99 percent of the time with companies like this. The only company I never got an apology from was Shell Oil, which tried to stick me with a credit card protection plan I didn’t want or need or authorize. I haven’t bought Shell gas for my car in over 25 years–so my boycott did show up on their balance sheet and income statement, however miniscule.