Real Stories Volume 8:
My Father Passed Away Last Year and Someone Is Still Using His Credit
Cards. What Should I Do?
Background
Please meet Sherrod, a 58-year-old civil servant who lives in San Antonio,
TX. Sherrod is a widower and up until 2003 took care of his ailing father
who had Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, Sherrod’s two younger
brothers also took turns watching over their father.
His Dilemma
Sherrod’s father passed away in late 2003. After the family took
care of the funeral and estate related matters, Sherrod went back to life
as usual; work, golf and fishing.
In early 2004 he was having dinner with one of his brothers and when
his brother agreed to pick up the tab he didn’t think anything of
it. However, when the waitress brought back the credit card receipt she
handed it to him and said “Thank you for coming in tonight, James.”
The problem with that was that Sherrod was having dinner with Russ, not
James. In fact, James was his deceased father.
When he asked his brother why the waitress would call him James he looked
perplexed and quickly changed the subject. Sherrod filed the occurrence
in the back of his mind and made plans to look into it later.
Early the next week he called his mother and explained what had happened.
At first she seemed confused and uninterested in discussing the situation.
But when pressed she finally let the cat out of the bag. After Sherrod’s
father passed away one of his brothers had started using his father’s
credit cards…all 4 of them.
When Sherrod asked why Russ needed to use his father’s credit cards
his mother answered that Russ had gotten himself into a little credit-related
trouble. In this case trouble meant that he had filed bankruptcy because
he had gotten in too much debt to afford his minimum payments. All of
his creditors had closed his accounts and his car even got repossessed.
In what Sherrod says is “the ultimate disrespect” his brother
has taken over their dead father’s credit. And, in some cases, is
using it for luxury purposes like paying for dinner.
Before confronting his brother, Sherrod wanted to see just how bad the
situation was. How many accounts had Russ assumed? And, what else other
than his father’s credit has he taken over?
Over the next few weeks Sherrod talked to his mother and other brother
and learned the full story. His brother had assumed 4 credit cards and
even applied for and received a car loan using his father’s name
and social security number. He knew it was only a matter of time before
Russ started missing payments and eventually he would trash his father’s
credit.
The question is what should he do? The reality of the situation is that
Russ has committed true name fraud. He has essentially stolen his father’s
cards and then he stole his identity and applied for a car loan in his
name. This sort of identity theft is the fastest growing white-collar
crime in the U.S. It costs businesses billions of dollars each year.
Sherrod has a very difficult situation to deal with here. Does he notify
the lenders that the person using the accounts is not actually who they
think? Or, does he even go one step further and turn his brother in to
the police for identity theft? He would almost certainly be asked to testify
again his own brother who would probably be arrested and charged with
multiple counts of ID fraud and could even spend time in jail. But, on
the other hand, Russ has committed a truly reprehensible act.
It is a very sad truth that family members perpetrate a significant percentage
of identity theft cases. Some experts speculate that the actual number
of fraud cases is in reality much higher but many cases go unreported
because of this. How about this case? Will it be reported or not?
Sherrod is in a no win situation. On one hand he is incensed that his
brother has taken advantage of his father’s good credit reputation.
He would like nothing more than to turn him in to authorities. But, on
the other hand, Russ is his brother and if he turns him in he’ll
likely be asked to testify against him if it ever goes to court. He could
be responsible for sending his brother to jail for years.
In the perfect world Sherrod would stop the fraud from occurring and
not become the family pariah. Any other outcome would mean that either
he ignore the situation or possibly get his brother in significant trouble.
What would you do?
What Did Sherrod Do?
Sherrod was determined to do something however he just didn’t know
what. So, he did what he felt was the absolute right thing to do and he
confronted his brother.
Over a private cup of coffee one Sunday morning, Sherrod let Russ know
that he knew exactly what was going on and to what extent. After denying
it, Russ finally admitted what he had done. Of course he tried to convince
Sherrod that he was “going to make all of the payments” and
eventually when his own personal credit recovered he would stop using
his father’s name and begin using his own again.
This wasn’t good enough. Sherrod was adamant that Russ immediately
stop using his father’s name and make due on his own credit reputation.
After much convincing (and some threatening) Russ agreed to stop using
the accounts and have them closed for good.
Sherrod felt like he had 500 pounds lifted off of his shoulders. Not
only was he able to clear his father’s name but he also was able
to remain in good standing with his brother and the rest of the family.
It was a deftly played strategy and it worked. Or did it?
What Russ didn’t tell Sherrod was that he planned on closing the
accounts but he didn’t make it a top priority nor did he go down
without a fight or, in this case, a souvenir.
Russ did close out the credit cards as promised. But, he did so only
after taking cash advances against 2 of them totaling $15,000. Sherrod
didn’t find this out until 4 weeks after their conversation. He
was furious. He felt he had been lied to and he wasn’t about to
let this go. He just knew that Russ wouldn’t pay back the bills
and his father’s good credit reputation would be trashed posthumously.
Sherrod had had enough. Not only was he not worried about what his brother
thought of him but he also felt that he had been betrayed. He wasn’t
about to let this latest occurrence go.
Not only did he contact all of the credit card companies but he also
contacted the auto lender to let them in on the little secret. What Sherrod
did was set off a storm of events that he would never be able to reverse.
The credit card companies immediately contacted Russ for payment in full.
And, the auto lender repossessed the car. While he is still unsure which
credit card company made the call to the authorities, Russ was picked
up less than 3 days later on suspicion of true name fraud AND social security
fraud. Seems as if Russ was doing more than using his father’s name
to establish credit. He was also cashing his social security checks.
As of the date of this article Russ was out on bond awaiting trial. Sherrod,
while very upset about turning in his brother, feels that he did the right
thing.
How To Prevent This From Happening
Hindsight is always 20/20 but to prevent this from happening would have
been very easy. At the time of his father’s death Sherrod could
have contacted all of his father’s creditors and informed them of
his father’s death. This would have prevented any further use of
the accounts.
And, he could have contacted all 3 of the credit reporting agencies and
informed them of his father’s death. They would have added notifications
to his credit reports showing that he was “deceased.” With
these notices in place it would have been next to impossible for anyone
to get credit in his father’s name.
When the credit bureaus add the deceased notifications to their credit
files it automatically prevents the reports from being scored by any of
the credit scoring models that lenders use.
Summary
What Russ did was essentially a combination of true name fraud and stealing
someone’s wallet to use their credit cards. He is a criminal in
the eyes of any law enforcement agency.
Assuming the credit of someone else is a serious situation regardless
of whether or not the bills are being paid.
Sherrod was in a no-win situation. He had the choice of allowing his
brother to trash his father’s credit reputation or turn him in and
risk becoming the family outcast. He chose to do the latter and ride the
storm out.
He eventually turned in his bother and started going about the process
of clearing out his father’s final credit standing. Today his father’s
name is in good standing and Sherrod can sleep at night knowing he did
the right thing.
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