Fact Sheet 115A
What if my spouse is stealing my identity?
It can be very hard on somebody to find out that their Social Security Number has been used for fraudulent purposes by their spouse. Unfortunately the normal procedure for clearing your credit reports of these fraudulent charges does not apply if you are currently married to the person using your information fraudulently.
With the way the laws are written, in most states the two of you are seen financially as one person. Therefore, your spouse has the ability to access accounts you both have open, as well as apply for new lines of credit using your information.
You can definitely try to file a police report, and we do encourage that. However, most police departments will not act because it is considered a domestic dispute and not a criminal one.
The only way you can have these accounts removed from your credit report is to either pay them off, or go through a divorce and try to have the accounts placed under your spouse’s responsibility.
Are you willing to, or planning on, filing for a divorce?
Ask yourself if you are willing to file for a divorce from your spouse. If you are not willing to file for a divorce or for a legal separation, we suggest that you look into the Credit Freeze Program in your state. This way, you can freeze all access to your credit reports so that nobody but you can open lines of credit using your social security number. You can see your state's Credit Freeze Program on our State and Local Resources page.
If you are willing to file for a divorce we suggest that you first file for legal separation from your spouse.
File for legal separation
- This is different than filing for divorce.
Even if you are planning on filing for divorce we strongly suggest that you look into getting legally separated first.
Filing for divorce does not mean that you are legally separated.
You are still legally married while the divorce is being finalized.
Your spouse could still potentially open new lines of credit using your information, or access any lines of credit you have opened. This is not technically identity theft but it is against the law. Talk to your local police department. See if they are willing to file either a formal police report or an incident report. You may need it later.
Talk to your divorce attorney about it.
Specify that you want to be financially separated as well as legally.
Also talk to your divorce attorney about the division of assets, including debts on credit cards, and who will be responsible for each card.
Ask the attorney to include a clause in the legal separation indicating that all cards opened after the date of the legal separation are the sole property of the card holder and may not be listed as a joint account.
Once that the legal separation is done, if your spouse continues to open fraudulent accounts using your information it is now considered identity theft and you can use the steps in Fact Sheet 100 in order to clear the fraudulent activity.
Once you are legally separated, notify the Credit Reporting Agencies of the separation and then obtain your credit reports.
To do this you will need to write to the three Credit Reporting Agencies.
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Equifax Inc.
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Experian Inc.
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Trans Union LLC
Send them a copy of your state ID or driver’s license, a copy of your Social Security card, a copy of your separation papers, and a copy of a bill or a bank statement with the same name and address that is on your state ID card. In your cover letter state your name, address and social security number. If you have moved in the past 5 years, tell them your previous residences. Explain to them that you are now legally and financially separated from your spouse and you would like your credit report separated from theirs. Request that they send you a copy of this separated credit report. Send all of your documentation Certified Return Receipt Mail.
Divorce
– In order to have any fraudulently opened accounts removed from your credit report, your divorce attorney and your spouse’s divorce attorney will need to agree who is responsible for each account.
You should request that your attorney get a full financial deposition from your spouse and all three of thier credit reports.
This will help identify accounts that you may not be aware of.
Please review your credit reports.
Look for all the accounts that you did not open and highlight them for ease of reference.
Contact these companies and try to obtain copies of the applications that were filled out. You may need to send them a fraud affidavit and a copy of a police report (see Fact Sheet 100)
If your signature was forged on these documents, have your signature notarized for comparison. Give all of this information to your attorney. It will help your attorney state your case to your spouse’s attorney, and if needed, to the presiding judge.
Hopefully, these accounts will be placed solely on your spouse’s credit reports.
There is unfortunately no guarantee that you will have all of these accounts removed from your credit report, but the more evidence that you can gather to prove it was not you who applied for the lines of credit, the more it will help your divorce attorney argue your case.
Afterwards
- After your divorce has been finalized, we suggest that you check your credit reports once a year to make sure that no more fraudulent activity is occurring. You can do this at www.annualcreditreport.com/ or 877-322-8228.
As well, you can view our program with Debix and see if it is right for you.
Look into your state's Credit Freeze Program. See if it is right for you. You can read about it on our State Resources page or at the Consumers Union website.
Related Links:
Fact Sheet 115 When you personally know the thief
Copyright Jan.
2007, Identity Theft Resource Center®, all rights reserved.
This fact sheet should not be used in lieu of legal advice. Any requests to reproduce this material, other than by individual victims or their
own use, should be directed to ITRC.
Created by the ITRC Staff