Consumer complaint received 2015-11-22
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: FL
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card
Issue: Cont'd attempts collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt resulted from identity theft

Complaint:
Today is my XXXX anniversary living in the U.S., I came to this country with my husband and my XXXX children on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. My husband submitted a XXXX on the same year XXXX, and we got a recommendation for approval by XXXX XXXX. I was able to issue my social security card after I got my employment authorization document, it was around XXXX XXXX. As a new comer and with lack of XXXX skills I was n't aware of the Identity theft cases that are very common in this country, even though I had learned from my husband how to protect my SS number from potential ID stealers. 
By XXXX, I received a letter from a Law Firm of XXXX, FL collecting me a credit card debt in the amount of {$6.00} with my name and address. Immediately my husband and I contacted the Law Firm to tell them that it was not my debt and that it has to be an error and an ID theft case, they sent me paperwork to fill and prompted me to denounce this case to the Florida 's XXXX XXXX Sheriff Office, which I did. I sent copies of the complain and paperwork duly filled and signed. Apparently the law firm returned the debt account to the bank which forwarded to a collection agency. This time I had to deal with annoying calls any time of the day all days of the week, it was hard for me due to my lack of XXXX, when my husband talked to them they did not want to talk to him alleging that he was not myself ; my husband demanded proofs of the papers that I had supposedly signed to get such a big credit, of course they were unable to provide such proofs because the credit card was open by somebody else on XXXX or year XXXX when I was not a U.S. Resident, and was living in my country, not even thinking to live here. At some point in XXXX somebody stole my Identity, and made his/her way to transfer this Credit card debt to me. The account was sold to another collection agency with very rude callers with whom was totally impossible to speak. One time I was able to get a XXXX operator who told me that this credit card debt dated from XXXX and was charged for a beauty treatment or surgery. It was a case of identity and we did n't know what else to do. 
I was not allowed to talk to the original bank to clarify my situation, collection agencies always said that bank had nothing to do with this and that they were in charge of recovery and collect the debt. They made several attempts to reduce the amount and offered payments in installments to set up the account, we did n't agree, this person was n't me. We did not receive more calls after XXXX, thinking that they stopped the attempts of collection realizing that it was a wrong case of ID theft. 
What our surprise that today we received a letter from th IRS adjusting my married joined nTaxes of XXXX on the amount of {$6500.00} resulted from a XXXX provided by the last collection agency. 
Nowadays, we are U.S Citizens whom know our rights, and we are going to contest this wrongdoing on behalf of the bank and the collection agency until this charge gets dismissed from our taxes. 
The Bank and the collection agencies ruined my Credit score, all of my Credit cards were canceled due to the morosity in my credit score. 
I want that people pay attention to my experience and go further and beyond to clarify any attempt of identity theft, what I did was not enough, but we will contest this wrongdoing because XXXX and the truth is with me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation