Consumer complaint received 2018-03-12
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: Lending Club Corp (CA)

This complaint is really a complaint for 2 companies. If I have to copy and paste this to submit another complaint I will. For the last 9 months I have been trying to fight some loans that were opened up because of Identity theft. I have been successful in dealing with most of the lenders but there are two that have been giving me problems that I do not know how to resolve. 

Without attempting to garner any extra sympathy from you there is something I believe you need to know about me. I am XXXX years old. I am also a widow. I have lived a good long life. That doesn't mean however that I don't care about my name or my reputation. On top of my personal credibility, I also care about my financial situation. I am a single woman who is about to retire as the skin and bones in my body will no longer hold up for me. The last thing I want to do is go into retirement with over {$20000.00} of fraudulent loan debt in my name. 

For the last few years my health has been degrading. I have tried my hardest to take care of myself as well as my daughter. I was able to do so for a very long time but the last few years I finally failed. For your information my daughter was not the best of people and it shames me to have to tell others about it especially since she has already XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. She was a XXXX. These last few years I have been in and out of hospitals and sometimes my stay was for several weeks. During this time my daughter was telling me that she knew that she has been a burden and was going to attempt to check herself in to helpful programs like XXXX, or XXXX among others. After one of my hospital visits for multiple weeks, my daughter had obtained money to help her in her XXXX XXXX XXXX ( or at least that is what she told me ). I  found out about this because when I went home from the hospital I saw several thousands of dollars in my bank account that I didn't know where it came from. She placed it there because she herself didn't have a bank account. over the next few months my daughter would ask me for some of the money so she could pay for her treatments. Obviously I gave it to her. This went on for a few months. 

After a few months, I started seeing automatic withdrawals from my bank account. I didn't know where they were coming from so I called every single entity that was pulling the money from my account. Then and only then did I discover what my daughter had done. According to the lenders, I had applied for multiple personal loans. I was so ashamed and felt so betrayed. My daughter always had problems but she had never stooped to this level. I didn't know what to do. On one hand, I didn't want to throw my daughter to the wolves. On the other hand, this was a burden even I could not take on behalf of my daughter. I did what I could and I tried paying as many loans as I could but it just became too overwhelming. {$1300.00} a month in loans at my age was more than I could afford. I was ready to declare bankruptcy but my daughter claimed she had consolidated the loans for me. Just when I thought things were finally getting better for me, the unthinkable happened. My daughter, XXXX bless her soul, XXXX XXXX. 

Once she XXXX XXXX I was distraught. She XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/2017. I was now all alone as both my husband and only child left me. Not only that, but I was all alone with a debt that I did not ask or sign for. I hired a company to help me figure out a way to be liberated from this debt. They were called XXXX XXXX. It was a sham. All they did was send letters over and over but no results were obtained. I decided to take the next step and research my options and spoke with many people. I ultimately came across the fact that I was the victim of Identity theft. While I knew my daughter defrauded the loan companies, I guess my lifetime of having to pay for her mistakes did not allow me to see that she really victimized me. But it only made perfect sense since some of these loans were opened in my name while I was hospitalized and unknowing. I decided to fill out a police report and a fraud affidavit. I called every single one of these lenders and informed them of the facts and submitted my paperwork to them. 

During this fraud investigation I received a call from these lenders asking me for information. I was very honest to all of them and I told them of everything that transpired. I didn't lie or hide the information about how I hired people to help me in clearing my name. I informed them that my daughter was an XXXX  and was XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX the same day she was released. She XXXX to a XXXX XXXX. Once they asked me to submit the report and fraud affidavit, I did so and never heard back from them. Eventually the accounts were soldt to collection agencies. 
I found out because the collectors starting sending me notices. 

I was confused and upset because I was under the impression that this report and affidavit was what the lenders needed to clear my name since I never opened these loans myself. In fact, it was my understanding these loans were made online. Once the collectors received the accounts I explained to them what was happening. All the collectors told me they recognized these accounts as fraudulent. They also told me they would cease efforts to collect these debts and the accounts would be submitted for a buy back from the lenders. But I can no longer stand by and just take their word for it. I was lied to by my daughter, lied to by XXXX XXXX lied to or at the very least misled by XXXX XXXX and Lending Club, I could no longer just believe what anyone told me. I then decided to hire XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX. His company had great reviews locally so I decided to at least speak to him and see if he could help me. 

XXXX told me many things. He informed me that it did sound like I was the victim of identity theft. He told me that I had taken the proper steps to notify creditors of fraud by submitting a police report and a notarized affidavit. He informed me that XXXX XXXX and Lending Club did not do a proper investigation if they never notified me after receiving my documents what the status of the investigation was. He also stated that although he is not an attorney, he believed that these lenders may have taken unfair and possibly illegal means to collect a fraudulent debt by selling it to a collector knowing full well it was fraud. I could tell by his demeanor that he knew what he was talking about so I decided to trust me in assisting me with getting this resolved. He did so by communicating with the 2 collection agencies who had unknowingly bought this fraudulent debt from XXXX XXXX and Lending Club. 

Lending Club did buy the account back but it didn't help me out any. After XXXX spoke with Lending Club, they told him many things which upset me even more. It was almost as if they were only listening to what they wanted to hear to manipulate it to their own benefit instead of the entire situation. Lending Club claimed this debt was considered valid because in a conversation with me, the investigators stated I told them I knew about the debt. They also stated that I benefited from the money as it was placed in my bank account. Because of this, they deemed the debt was valid. The first point I want to make to you is that I am not contending that I knew about the debt. What I am contending is to when my knowledge came about and how that doesn't constitute me as a responsible party to it. Yes I learned about the loans and the debt, but it was only after I spoke with the lenders after money started being withdrawn out of my account without my approval. It wasn't until then that I learned an account had been fraudulently opened under my name. That doesn't mean I had knowledge or gave permission to open these accounts fraudulently. Also, to say that I benefited from this money is stretch at the very least. Was the money placed in my account? Yes. Did I give my daughter the money when she asked for it? Yes. But that doesn't mean that I personally benefited from this money. To say that I did only goes to show that this lender doesn't care at all that I was a victim of fraud. They just want to come after me for money I didn't use. That also doesn't liberate them from the fraud they are committing. 

To say that I am responsible because I knew about the loan even though I didn't at fist is one thing. To say the money was placed in my account and therefore I benefited from the money is also something that is not true but I could as an analytical person see where they are coming from. But to say that I personally opened this loan, credit report a loan under my name, sell this fraudulent debt to a debt collector under the false premise that I signed for it and therefore my responsibility is something entirely different. Lending Club is committing fraud against me and anybody else who pulls up a credit report by falsely reporting that I, XXXX XXXX, did knowingly and willingly sign for, apply for, or attempted to obtain a loan of any kind from them. Wanting me to pay for money that was placed in my bank account is one thing. Credit  Reporting that I opened a loan knowing full well that I didn't and then going as far as to report it as a charge off and sell it to a collector is the most egregious violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and undermines everything that law was written to protect against. The integrity of a credit reporting system that is both fair and accurate. Just the reporting of this loan is a willful violation of that law and is outright fraud. 

Because I have been attempting to fight this account as fraud since XXXX, and because I have taken every step asked of me by Lending Club to no avail, and because I have had to spend time, money, and undue stress fighting and hiring people to assist me only to Have Lending Club ignore every attempt to right this wrong, I am filing this complaint as a final attempt by me to get XXXX XXXX to stop credit reporting this debt on my credit report and cancel it as the fraud account that it is. I am old, lonely, newly bitter, and soon to be retired with nothing to fill my time with. I will sue them if they don't fix this soon.