We live in a world with a lot of chances for identity theft, from phishing scams and data breaches to hackers and ATM skimmers. It’s an unfortunate reality.
However, few expect identity theft to come from someone they know, let alone their own family. Yet that’s exactly what happened to one Reddit user. The culprits were actually her parents.
A set of retired parents took out a loan in their child’s name and now refuse to pay it back.
The Reddit user posted on the platform to share the upsetting and bizarre situation they found themselves in because of their parents.
The adult child explained that their parents often rented pontoon boats and had looked into purchasing one themselves, so they didn’t think anything of it when they bought one for around $30,000. It wasn’t until several months later that they realized something was amiss.
“At the start of July, I began getting my ducks in a row to buy a house,” the Redditor wrote. “When I applied for a pre-approval, I found out my credit score was barely over 600 and I had an extra $30,000 plus in debt I had no idea about. Even worse, it was 90-plus days late.”
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“I told the lender the account wasn’t mine and he said my identity [had] probably been stolen, but it was probably someone close to me as the money would have had to go to a bank account with my name on it,” they recounted.
Eventually, they were able to find the culprit.
“I requested more information from them and they linked me to their fraud department,” they continued. “They were able to tell me [that the money was sent] to a bank account from when I was a minor that I shared with my mom.”
The adult child then confronted their mother.
“I called my mom and asked her about it and she, after a long pause, said that’s how they bought the boat,” they revealed. “They made one payment on the account and they realized they probably couldn’t afford the monthly payment for the next five years.”
fizkes | Shutterstock
When the Redditor questioned why no one told them, their parents said “They figured I would say no” and they “wanted to enjoy retirement.”
“It ended by them saying the boat couldn’t be repossessed because it was a personal loan,” they shared. “My mom suggested declaring bankruptcy and I told them I was going to the police. My mom said not to do that because they wouldn’t take it seriously.”
Identity theft is still identity theft, even if it comes from a family member.
As one person pointed out in a comment, “You’re the victim of identity theft, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter who did it or what your relationship is to them. They broke the law, now they have to face the consequences of their actions.”
Even if this occurred at the hands of a family member, and even if that family member was someone trusted, it doesn’t change the fact that this is identity theft.
LifeLock stated that the fallout for someone whose identity has been stolen is not lessened when the theft is committed by a family member.
“Family identity theft has the same financial consequences as other types of fraud,” LifeLock said. “The effects of identity theft cut even deeper when relatives commit fraud. Some family members can cover up their identity theft for a while, but not forever.”
Being family does not change the fact that this person’s parents took advantage of them and did something illegal, ruining their child’s credit score in the process. Although it may seem harsh, they will have to face the consequences of their actions so their child is not held accountable for their poor choices.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.
