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     | Friday, November 26, 1999 - 07:11 am  We just received a call from a collection agency and they said that my wife owed AMEX about $2000 for a bill that was not paid. My wife checked on the date of the charges, etc and it turns out they were after my wife moved from CA. The only thing she can think of is that her roommate had a card made in her name and sent to her. We've requested a copy of the bills, etc to compare signatures and get the time frame of all the charges. When my wife explained all this the credit company they said "well if that is true you can pay and then sue her for the charges". We do not want to pay for this, is there a way to force AMEX to go after this other woman, especially since this could be considered fraud. PS, all the charges were in '91/92. TIA GLJ
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| | Friday, November 26, 1999 - 08:55 am If all the charges were, as you say, '91 and '92 then there is no problem. You are past the statute of limitations so they can't sue you and get any kind of judgement and it's pretty unlikely that a collection from that long ago will still be showing up on your credit report. Suggest you merely draft them a letter telling to cease and desist any further attempts to contact you regarding the matter, give them what information you have on the person believed to have fraudulently used your AMEX card. You can also go to http://www.consumerinfo.com/ and sign up for their service -- they will give you a free credit report as a "trial" to see if you like their program. You can cancel within 30 days and not be billed and still keep a copy of your credit report. Alternatively you can contact each of the credit reporting agencies and procure your credit report for $8.00 a pop. Another note (for anyone who may be interested) is that it's often easy to get a free copy of your credit report by disputing something. Many times inquiries that are more than 2 years old don't fall off immediately when they should. Calling up and disputing the inquiry as being "more than 2 years old" right at the beginning of the month can quickly get a helpful CRA representative to delete that inquiry and send you a copy of your credit report as "proof" that it has been done.
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| | Friday, November 26, 1999 - 10:13 am Dear Gary: Under the FCBA you are protected for fraudulent charges. In this case since the debt is from 1992 and usually you have to submit disputes around 60 days or so after the incident.I would use the defense of " Date of Discovery". How could you question it w/in the alloted time if you did not discover it until the other day. Contact AMEX and tell them you just found out about this and had absolutely NO knowledge of it until now. You should not even have to hassle the disputation process with the credit bureaus because you were (or your wife was) a victim of fraud. Tell AMEX in a Certified letter (copy and attach an affidavit of fraud signed, witnessed and notarized) that you just discovered this and that you want immediate action to resolve this and reverse any damage to your wifes credit if some has taken place. If they refuse to cooperate contact the FTC and Attorney General. Good Luck! Kristi Feathers carreonandassociates.com
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