Q. Is there any law that states I would be responsible for a debt that was made using my personal information without my knowledge???
A. No.
Q. My 32 year old daughter in another state did this - I informed the company the account was not mine, was opened without my permission and I was not going to file charges against the mother of my grandchildren. I filled out the fraud investigation papers, gave them all the documentation required - everything but file a police report and press charges against my daughter.
A. You can't file charges. Only the DA can file charges. ID theft is a criminal matter not a civil matter. All you can do is file a police report and let the law do whatever it wants to do. All you need to do is file the report and just say that someone stole your identify and opened accounts in your name. The police will want to know if you have knowledge of who did this. Do you know for absolutely sure your daughter did this? If not, then you can truthfully say that you don't know. You will be asked to sign the police report under oath so you must be truthful. However, you should never speculate or gossip about things you do not know for fact. Say only what you know for fact -- not what you suspect or what you think. Then shut up.
Q. Now they send me a letter stating that if I do not file charges, they will assume the debt is mine.
A. They can assume what they want to assume. They can assume the moon is made of green cheese. If you just ignore this, they will probably sue you because you are the easier target. When you are sued, you then respond with a general denial and conduct discovery to make them prove the debt is yours. They will not be able to prove that since they will have no matching signature, etc. I don't see how the judge can award a judgment to the creditor in such a case. The judge may spit in your eye if he thinks you helped cover up your daugher's theft.
Q. Don't they have some responsibility to verify ID before issueing credit ???
A. Yes and no. They can do what they want. However, they bear the risk of extending the credit.
OK. Lets cut through all the crap.
Your daughter lied and stole money.
You love your daughter and her children.
Therein is a lot of conflict.
The right thing would be for you to file a police report. However, I do not believe you are required to. If you don't file the police report then don't expect the credit card company to be very happy. Expect them to try to take the money away from you. After all, they just want their money back. There is nothing unfair about that.
Regardless of what decision you make on the police report, the fact remains that your daughter is a liar and a cheat and you still love her and her family. I predict many storm clouds in her future -- and probably yours.
By the way, the credit card company could file a police report if they wanted to. All a police report means is that a citizen (you as an individual or a corporation) is making a report that says someone committed a criminal act. It is the job of the police to investigate and the job of the DA to file criminal charges as are appropriate.
Maybe you should just hire a local lawyer and tell the credit card company to call your attorney. It might be cheaper in the long run.
