On 1/29/06, Fred Bauder fredbaud@ctelco.net wrote:
It is not that your identity so far as the state or federal government is stolen. Identity theft refers to someone gaining sufficient access to your personal information that it is possible to access your credit card accounts and bank accounts or create new ones. What they are stealing is your credit rating. They can then run up a big bill and leave you with it; the banks and credit companies may forgive the debt, but straightening your credit rating will be difficult and time consuming, or expensive (if you hire it done).
Can someone really "run up a big bill and leave you with it"? I thought your authorization was needed in order to enter into a loan.
IOW, I thought that while the credit reporting agencies might report the outstanding loan, no court would actually attempt to enforce such a loan.
Straightening out your credit rating can occassionally be difficult, but the vast majority of the time it's actually quite straightforward. Actually getting a bank to "forgive" a debt on the other hand...
Anthony