So many people don’t realize that identity theft is something that can affect them until they become a victim. Unfortunately, becoming a victim of identity theft means that it is too late to do something about it.

Take what has been reported as a “rogue” debt collector in Buffalo. He harrassed a woman who resided in Pittsburgh, PA to make a payment toward an old debt in her name. The woman did not want to pay the debt, as she felt that she did not owe the money. An old friend of hers opened credit in her name and ran up the bill, leaving her as the one who owes for it. After she and her husband spoke to this alleged debt collector for a while on the phone and got frustrated with him, the husband went ahead and agreed to a settlement amount to pay toward the bill and they apparently paid using a debit card.

In the meantime, the debt collector decided to use the woman’s debit card to buy new bowling equipment, pay for an acquaintance’s car insurance, purchase cash cards and more. This 37-year-old man ran up more than $1900 on the woman’s card in his expenses.

The debit card owner continues the story: “He called my mother and threatened to have her arrested for credit card fraud if she did not cooperate with the investigation. She gave him my phone number, and he threatened to have me arrested.” The debt collector had introduced himself to her as an investigator.

The woman spoke to her bank and explained the situation. She was able to freeze her account and charges were reversed for fraudulent purchases. This poor woman was able to at least recover some of her money, even though this situation did cause her to lose some business income.

The owner of the collection agency did aid in the investigation and and canceled the bill she owed on which sparked this whole situation.

The “rogue” collector has been arrested on two counts of identity theft.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.