When I got my free annual credit report, Boy, was I surprised to see that I had a Lane Bryant account and that I had paid nothing on it and was over 150 days past due and had been closed by Lane Bryant and that they had been unable to contact the consumer. Everything else on the report says "pays as agreed never late" because that is how I pay my bills. Well, my head was spinning as I tried to figure out what could have happened. Under charge type it said "Instant Credit". Then I started thinking, it had been a long time since I had received a catalog, but the last ones I got said Instant Credit, my credit was pre-approved, but I never used it. I had purchased a skirt a couple of years ago, but I used my Visa. Now, I am always getting other people's mail and they get mine, but that is another story.
Anyway, I got to thinking maybe one of those catalogs got delivered to the wrong person, and they thought, "Hey, here is my chance to get some free clothes." and they used my name in vain. All, they had to do was fill out the change of address form, which would explain why I stopped getting catalogs, too. So, I alerted the Credit Bureaus, they promptly put fraud alerts on this listing and Equifax started an investigation. Through them I was able to get the mailing address for Lane Bryant's billing dept. And part of an account #, so I sent Lane Bryant a cerified letter explaining in detail what I believe happened and asked that they send me the history of this bill, and especially the new address where it is being mailed. I might mention too, that they do not have my unlisted phone number, they probably have somebody's number, but since I am not the one who applied for the credit they don't have mine. After reading some similar complaints here I am not going to give it to them.
Meanwhile, I waited for a reply and waited, weeks later I sent another cerified letter. Equifax must have been having equally as much trouble because to my surprise and delight they erased this from my report. Just recently I got a mailing from Lane Bryant, but it wasn't what I asked for. It is a 4 page affidavit form asking my age, SS#, driver's licence, details of any police report filed, how many credit cards were stolen, places to list them, they also want a photostat of my driver's license and of course they want my phone number and they want all this to be notarized. They want to make sure I am who I say I am, they sure weren't that careful when thy granted the credit. These people know that if we catch the person who misused the order form, they will never get their money. They figure they stand a better chance of harrassing it out of me. They may have noticeed on my CB report that I have a MasterCard with a 0 balance, so they might think, Hey, I might just put it on that and make the whole thing go away. Not going to happen.
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