Sometime in late 2006 through mid I was subject to extensive identity theft. Not only electronically but also through traditional mail.initially I was unaware of whom or how this was being done as the effects weren't particularly obvious...
Until the day Fifth Third sent a repo man to repossess my car. At the time we struggled to get through to anybody who could help us regarding resolving the apparent late payments so we could get the car back... in the end it took a lawyer calling their call center in India demanding to speak to a legal official of the bank before we got an appointment for a conference call to speak to sometime in Cincinatti. To cut a long story short, we got the car back and remedied the late payments - it wasn't until a couple of months later that it became apparent that the mail had been tampered with, both outgoing and incoming - my payments to Fifth Third were being cashed by someone else (apparently the payee name on the checks are ignored - so what's the point!) and their notifications to me about unreceived payments were being destroyed or hidden (I later uncovered a couple of them).
Anyway, since that time there was a major escalation in the identity theft to the tune of over $50,000. All issues of which have now been resolved and removed from my credit reports - except the 90 day late payments for 5/3 bank.
They have refused to voluntarily update my credit reports with the complete and accurate account status each month, making it appear that the account is still past due without payment... It's actually one payment away from being paid off - over $8000 paid to them in 9 months so I can get rid of the damned account.
I've had to repeatedly file disputes with the credit reporting agencies just to get the correct account status each month or so. I've written to them twice by certified mail asking them to reconsider their reporting of the late payments bearing in mind the very well documented and reported identity theft... They don't even have the courtesy to reply.
My last chance is to just to file a wider dispute with the credit reporting agencies that the bank is reporting information that is subject to dispute under identity theft - I had hoped that by addressing the bank directly they would take action themselves to voluntarily remove the information... I guess not.
So thanks Fifth Third. It's quite clear you're prepared to deliberately allow false information to sit on peoples credit reports and do them financial harm, while exploiting the woes of identity theft victims. You're no better than the criminal that did this to me to begin with!
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