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: LendingPoint Holdings LLC (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. On one of my hospital visits for multiple weeks, my daughter had obtained money to help her in her quest for 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 or again I was told. 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/XXXX. I was now all alone as both my husband and XXXX 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. 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 in the last week of her life and 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 sold 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. I can no longer stand by and just take their word for it however. I was lied to by my daughter, lied to by XXXX XXXX, lied to or at the very least misled by XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. 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 XXXX XXXX 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 him 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 XXXX XXXX. 

XXXX XXXX wouldn't speak with XXXX because they had already sold the debt to XXXX XXXX. XXXX then called XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX stated they had already assigned the debt as a buyback and had done so in XXXX. They could clearly tell it was fraud and would not collect on it. It was just a matter of time before XXXX XXXX bought it back. This was back in XXXX. We are now in XXXX and multiple phone calls later and this account is stilled assigned to XXXX XXXX and is still on the list of buy-back debts. Even the collector XXXX was wondering why it was taken so long. He claimed that they hadn't heard back from XXXX XXXX even though they had sent out requests weeks ago. He understood the situation but was stuck in Limbo just like we were. He also said that XXXX XXXX had not given then anymore accounts in 3 months. This is just an assumption by me but it seems like XXXX XXXX was glad to cut their losses in selling them fraudulent debt and ran tail. 

I am now currently 8 months into this investigation. It is unfortunate that XXXX XXXX is doing what they are doing. I didn't sign for this loan, I didn't open this loan, and this debt does not belong to me. I have done what has been asked of me by submitting fraud reports and now I am siting idle while XXXX XXXX twiddles their thumbs for whatever reason. Meanwhile I have the fraudulent {$20000.00} debt on my credit report which is causing me to lose sleep and is delaying my retirement as I am now scared they will attempt to come after me. I can't afford to not work if they start coming after me for this fraudulent debt. As I wrote in my complaint for XXXX XXXX, if XXXX XXXX does not stop credit reporting that I opened this loan then I will also be forced to come after XXXX XXXX. I won't stand by while this stall tactic of theirs of not buying back a fraudulent debt yet not wanting to speak to me or a representative while this debt is in Limbo any more.