We Think Lisa's Identity Just Got Stolen and Someone Bought a Car

[shark]

Man oh man, I sure hope some heads are rolling at that dealership. What a STUPID, moronic mistake to make.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by shark

Man oh man, I sure hope some heads are rolling at that dealership. What a STUPID, moronic mistake to make.

I am stunned and baffled. So much so that I don't know if I'm baffled first or stunned first. lol
I'm long since done being pissed at them now, so that's good. We'll see how this all works out. I'm sure it'll be fine. Like I said earlier, God has bailed us out of a lot worse, and He'll make short order of this mess.
What worries me most is if they can be this incredibly stupid, how many other people have they hurt, and where's the limit of their stupidity, if there is a limit?
It really is scary. You'd think someone would have to go way out of their way to be that inept. It's kinda sad, even. It says a lot about how bad the service sector is nowadays. It's a shame there's little or no incentive for people in those type of sensitive jobs to care or take pride in their work.
If they get fired they just move to another crappy job.
Maybe it's not even any worse than it ever was, there's just so many businesses out there now, and we have so many choices, that it's impossible to avoid very poor service. It's gotten to where we're just used to it and have grown to accept it as a "fact of life".
I'm sure the older members can remember when things started going downhill. It was in the late 90's when the internet started to blossom. In order for brick and mortar shops to survive, something had to go. That something was service. They figured people would accept lousy service to get low prices just like they got on the internet. Then service outfits realized people were willing to tolerate lousy service, so instead of sending qualified, trained, seasoned professionals to fix your fridge, they started sending minimum wage kids who would eventually get it right after five or six tries.
(I'm generalizing, of course. I'm sure you guys know the kinds of things I'm talking about. Everyone has had a dose of terribly lousy service somewhere along the way, if not every day. I'm not saying everyone is awful, because there are lots of really awesome folks in those jobs, too.)

[AlohaStyle]

Originally Posted by shilala

This is still preliminary, Bill. The lady from PNC bank called and that's how we figured out Great Lakes was where the problem started. We'll have proof of that in the coming days.
In the meantime the bank is fixing their end and sending Lisa an affidavit she has to fill out. The LifeLock thing should allow us to see what's happened to Lisa's credit and make sure nothing else is at play here.
Once I have all the info, then we'll decide together what we do and how bad I hammer Great Lakes. So far it's been a minimal investment of time and money, but we're not paying a dime for their mistakes. We don't mind the time so much because we understand people do make mistakes, but had I ever made an error of this proportion in my career, I'd certainly expect to be looking for a job. I don't want to see someone get fired, but I will insist that I speak to them directly.

Wow Scott, I can't believe what a mistake they made... I mean they are screwing up you and your wife's credit! I have never been a person that would consider lawsuits because like you said, mistakes happen. But I might seriously consider a lawsuit because this "mistake" will stick with her credit for awhile, even though it might all get taken care of shortly. Even though you might get told your credit is repaired and all is taken care of, many times something gets through the cracks.

Good luck to you.

[Taki]

That sucks bro...I am actually a fan of PNC, only cause my mother works for PNC, she is pretty high up in regards to ranks. But if you open a loan in a branch they have to have to forms of ID meaning passport and drivers ID. You may need an attorney to fight this problem but you are in for a mess unfortunately. Put a freeze on your credit report so that if anyone try's to get a loan out in your or your wires name, they will contact you immediately and ask you if it was you that was in wanting a loan or anything that will go against your credit. I am sure you know this but file a police report, get to the bank or any PNC bank and dispute it with the book you got. It will affect your credit if you don't pay the loan or start to pay the loan. It may be an unsecured loan because if you take a loan out for a car they would want the title to hold for collateral, so that being said it is probably an unsecured loan. If they took out the loan over the phone through a call center they would have to get the signatures notarized. Hopefully some of the things above help but, the best thing to do is to have a credit freeze put on your credit so that if anyone even you try to take a loan out they will call you and ask you if its actually you trying to take a loan out no matter what the loan is for. Good Luck Brother...

[Taki]

Didn't read through the whole thread...just figured i would give some quick tidbits to help out but I'm glad that everything seems as though it will work out. But i like the idea of the credit freeze, from my understanding it doesn't affect your credit, it just helps make sure no one is our there with your name running around racking up bills.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Taki

Didn't read through the whole thread...just figured i would give some quick tidbits to help out but I'm glad that everything seems as though it will work out. But i like the idea of the credit freeze, from my understanding it doesn't affect your credit, it just helps make sure no one is our there with your name running around racking up bills.

From what I understand, thats what out LifeLock subscription is for.
Fortunately it's all under control for now. Lisa has been working like 16 hours a day this week trying to make a project deadline, and I'm almost as busy with my own stuff and covering for my baby.
Once this weekend is over things will be back to normal and we'll know right where we stand come Monday.
Thanks for all the suggestions, brother. It's much appreciated.

[shilala]

Thanks to all of you guys for all your help and looking out for us on this thing. I used pretty much all your suggestions and you sincerely came through for us when we needed you most.
You're good family. I doubt if you guys even have any idea how much I lean on all of you, but this is always the first place I think to ask questions when I get jammed up. The collective experience here is priceless. It's no wonder I love all of you so much.

[shark]

Yep, coulda been a lot worse. I saw a news story on some show like 60 Minutes or some such, where a person had their SSN compromised. The ID thief completely assumed the victim's identity. What made it worse, the thief had a pretty lengthy criminal record, so the victim had to somehow prove it wasn't them who committed multiple felonies, defaulted on a few car loans, etc. What a nightmare.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by shark

Yep, coulda been a lot worse. I saw a news story on some show like 60 Minutes or some such, where a person had their SSN compromised. The ID thief completely assumed the victim's identity. What made it worse, the thief had a pretty lengthy criminal record, so the victim had to somehow prove it wasn't them who committed multiple felonies, defaulted on a few car loans, etc. What a nightmare.

I can definately see how something like this can totally blow up.
All Lisa has to do is fill out an affidavit that she didn't take out the loan. I imagine it needs to be notarized. My BIL is a notary so that's no big at all.

[Boz]

Any updates Scott?

[shilala]

It's still mostly up in the air, William.

Yesterday we finished our refinance on the house. That was good because while we were there we told TJ the bank kid about all this. He gave us the credit report he ran just a few weeks ago, and everything was all good, no stuff on there that shouldn't have been.
We should be getting a current report in the mail any day now, so we can compare and see if anything has been compromised, but it looks like we're okay.

We still have to mess around and dispute this loan with the credit bureaus to have it removed from the record and have any related credit inquiries removed.
We still don't have the bottom line truth of what happened, either. That should come in the next few days. It's pretty obvious, though.
I'm guessing this should be all cleared up and tied up in the next week or two.

I'm keeping a loose record of the time, cost and effort we've incurred because of this. If we don't hear from Great Lakes Hyundai with an apology and/or some sort of gesture, I'll be showing up there with a bill for them.
I'm sincerely hoping they have sense enough to contact us with an apology, especially considering we're a customer. So their fate is in their hands. A simple apology would surely suffice. I don't have the desire or time to be vindictive, but I'll make time if necessary.

This doesn't sound to me like a simple error. The supposed other Lisa would have to have signed papers for the loan and registration and not notice the wrong address. The sales and finance people would also have had to overlook the errors. Just still seems fishy to me.

[RevSmoke]

Will keep you and Lisa in our prayers. Peace of the Lord be with you.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

This doesn't sound to me like a simple error. The supposed other Lisa would have to have signed papers for the loan and registration and not notice the wrong address. The sales and finance people would also have had to overlook the errors. Just still seems fishy to me.

I hear ya, Lance. There's a lot more "little things", but I can't put them all to type. Most are just guesses at this point. Suffice to say that we understand completely how the blockheads at Great Lakes Hyundai could have transposed the info as they had all of it. We started shopping there before Lisa had her new licence. The names are close.
You're absolutely right, there was a series of seriously negligent errors that all add up to what happened. It's kind of like a nuclear plant meltdown. One thing goes wrong, then another, then another. A whole string of human errors. That's what it looks like here.
Once I know everything for sure, I'll type up the whole story. No sense in trying to do that now. I'm sure it'll be pretty unbelievable, even in truth. The good thing is that it's not a stolen identity crisis, or at least we're 99% sure. It's just half-assed knucklehead work. Once this all plays out, I'm sure it's going to uncover a bunch of personal identity security loopholes that you could drive a truck through.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by RevSmoke

Will keep you and Lisa in our prayers. Peace of the Lord be with you.

Thanks, Todd!!!

[Dave128]

Boy, Scott, I just saw this. What an aweful thing to have to go through. Seems that you two have things pretty much under control. I hope you can get this garbage cleared up as quickly as possible.