Forum
« Certificate of Occupancy Innovation Construction »
October 22, 2009
Someone's using my address
Apologies if this is a bit off topic, but it is a homeowner issue of sorts: for the past week we have been getting collection calls (some recorded, some live) from "Ed Fund" about a "federal financial matter. They're looking for a person who does not live here and never has... however, she just happens to have the same last name as we do. And today I got two Sallie Mae bills for her in the mail. What gives? Our number is unlisted, although in this day and age it's probably easy for a person to dig up our name, phone and address. According to Sallie Mae, "Ed Fund" is not affiliated with them. This is two separate agencies looking for this woman, one of whom has our phone and the other of whom has our address. Should I be worried about this? I guess it's not an identity theft issue unless someone's using my name, but it makes me nervous to have our address and phone erroneously linked to someone else (with the same last name!) by collections agencies, plural. Did these agencies just get their wires crossed somehow, or is Miss X doing this deliberately? Could this mess up our credit rating? Any suggestions for how to proceed?
Comments
I get a number of similar call like that based on having a new phone number. Usually they stop for a while after I yell at them.
However you should be VERY worried about your credit report! The same thing happened with my kid, she moved into a building with a deadbeat who had the same last name, and all her sh*t showed up on my kid's credit report. It took us a year to get it straightened out and cost the kid a job when they hired her and then ran her credit.
Posted by: denton at October 22, 2009 4:00 PM
you might want to check your credit as well as the credit of other residents in the house. one of those credit monitoring services might also give you piece of mind (although usually they are a waste of money).
Posted by: slick at October 22, 2009 4:01 PM
Thanks, both of you. Denton, that is horrible about your daughter's job. I will check our credit report, but I'm a little worried about that because I've heard (maybe this is not true?) that getting a lot of credit reports can cause your credit score to go down...
It's especially weird because this is only a 2-family building and we have never gotten anything for this person until this week. We've been here 5 years and the previous owners were here for 30.
Posted by: StuyMom at October 22, 2009 4:06 PM
Definately take Denton's advice to heart, but to make you feel better similar things have happened to before on more than 1 occassion.
Typically, either someone with the same last name or similar name and address disappears and the collection agencies, being particularly agressive, will try to track them down and may mistakenly harass you in the process.
As Denton said - yelling at them usually makes them go away.
Checking your own credit should have no affect on your score.
Posted by: newsouthsloper at October 22, 2009 4:16 PM
Checking your credit report periodically is always a good idea. Like new south sloper said, checking your own report does not affect your score. What does affect your score are "inquiries of credit" which are done when you apply for a loan or a credit card. You should be ok as long as this person's credit issues do not appear on your credit report. Myfico.com is good, and if you google myfico and code, you can almost always get 15-25% off.
Posted by: CG_ups at October 22, 2009 4:40 PM
I would definitely check with the credit reporting agencies and maybe even request a temporary freeze on access to your information. The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees access to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). This access does not affect your credit score. For more information, see: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports

Credit reports are NOT the same as a FICO score: http://www.myfico.com/Default.aspx
Posted by: vinca at October 22, 2009 4:41 PM
It's a good idea to check your own credit 3 times a year - once w/ each agency.
But I think your immediate situation is a collection agency - not a scam. I've had the same thing going on for over a year - someone w/ my surname & same initials, not forenames. I get automated phone calls saying if I'm so & so, press one, if I'm not just hang up. But the calls keep coming so I've phoned the number on the called i.d. & asked to be taken off the list - told them that my number is incorrect. About 2 months later the same account is given to a new agency & I go through the same routine. Two of the agencies were rude but I got them to stop - the others have been very pleasant & realize it's a waste of manpower to persist.
Posted by: Arkady at October 22, 2009 4:56 PM
Revised link for FTC info and credit reports: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/menus/consumer/credit/rights.shtm
Posted by: vinca at October 22, 2009 4:57 PM
Thanks brownstoner readers. You guys are the best. I'm very relieved to hear this is a common thing and my paranoia is unfounded. I didn't know collection agencies took such a scattershot approach!
Posted by: StuyMom at October 22, 2009 5:10 PM
When you get your credit report make sure you don't accidentally "allow" them to take money out of your bank account for any kind of "protection". One of my friends did that and now she is seeing that charge on her debit card every month, with of course nobody that can be reached at the agency... I googled that problem and found quite a few complaints!
Posted by: coopfornow at October 22, 2009 5:38 PM
Check your credit report! We had the same calls and letters for awhile and never thought much of it until we tried to purchase a vehicle and got denied tier 1 financing--which we figured we were eligible for based on earlier credit reports. We found out that the person with the same first and last name as my husband (different middle name) is a pretty bad guy (he's wanted for felonies and assaults) and it eventually affected our credit report. It has taken weeks to correct and we're not sure if its fully done.
Posted by: ilikeslices at October 22, 2009 6:25 PM
The next time you get a phone call from the bill collectors, simply tell them they no longer have your permission to call your number. By law, they must stop calling your number as soon as you tell them that. I am not 100% sure but the same may apply for the collection notices you receive in the mail.
Posted by: InsertSnappyNameHere at October 22, 2009 7:12 PM
Agree with Vinca. You need to make sure this is just some kind of weird coincidence and that you're not a victim of identity theft.
You can check your credit report for FREE once a year, from equifax or one of the other companies. Don't pay for any upsells--it should be totally free.
You might also want to put a freeze on your credit report. This means no one can run a check on your credit until you unfreeze it. Which is useful because if someone has stolen your identity and tries to open up a credit card, the credit card company will run the credit check, see the freeze, and refuse to issue a card. Downside is you have to remember to un-freeze it if you want to do anything that requires your credit--but that's for things like credit cards and buying a house, so it's not like you shouldn't remember. Information on how to do this is here:
http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns/learn_more/003484indiv.html
And to make these calls stop, you should tell them you are not this person, and if they harass you, they're actually financially liable:
http://consumerist.com/5031790/psycho-debt-collectors-will-not-stop-calling-me-about-someone-elses-debt
Posted by: bkrules at October 22, 2009 8:33 PM
You can get your credit report 3 times a year - utterly free - one from each agency.
www.annualcreditreport.com
Posted by: Arkady at October 23, 2009 9:27 AM
Sometimes when a person seems to disappear off the face of the earth, their creditors start looking for them and find people with similar names. I used to get calls at work from my bank about someone with almost the same name who was not paying his mastercard bill. Eventually they realized they were calling the wrong person. I actually use a credit monitoring service offered by Bank of America - it gives me peace of mind knowing that I'll get an e-mail every time there's a hard inquiry on my credit report, and they send me a full report quarterly. Maybe it is a waste of $12.95 a month, but what the hell, it's less than the cost of a bottle of mediocre wine.
Posted by: bohuma at October 23, 2009 11:01 AM
This is a little different, but has some similiarities. I used to come home every day to dunning phone calls from the Municipal Credit Union for a person who used to have my telephone number. It went on forever, despite my attempts to contact them and get my number off their list. It was driving me nuts and when the people started getting nasty to me, I decided to really give them a hard time. I contacted the NYC Department of Consumer affairs who registered the complaint and then told me to write to the NY State Banking Department. I finally wrote a letter to the NY State Banking Department. I got a letter back from them and then a letter from the president of the freaking MDC saying sorry, blah blah blah. And it finally stopped. But for you, it is definately possible that you could be incorrectly tagged with this problem. You should complain to NYC Consumer Affairs, the NYS Banking Department, check your credit reports (three agencies) and if it persists, write letters to the three credit unions telling them of the possible confusion. Good luck.
Posted by: donatella at October 23, 2009 11:54 AM
Like Donatella, we have a different but similar problem. The ne'er do well son of the former longtime owner of our house (now deceased) who hasn't owned or lived here in several years still to this day puts our address as his, with the DMV, with car rentals, with Social Security, child support and employers. And the mail always somehow looks like he's in trouble for something at any given time. I put each and every piece of mail back, with "return to sender, incorrect address, please correct your records" on it but the mail for him still comes in waves every once in a while. I just can't believe places like the DMV don't make sure a home address is correct - don't they require a utility bill in their name or something?
Posted by: traditionalmod at October 23, 2009 12:07 PM
Post a comment
Please be patient while your comment is published. It may take a moment.