Credit Card company sued someone else with my address?

Question

I have been receiving mails for someone with similar first name (not same) and same last name at my home address for about a couple of years now. Mostly junk mails, free stuff offers etc. In May of this year I received a collection notice from some lawyer company in this guys name (which caught my attention and I opened the envelope). There was a notice of collection of about $13000. I was shocked. I called them up and told them that there was no such person with this name. Fortunately I did not give them my name.

Anyway for the past one week or so, I have been receiving some letters from different lawyers, again in this guys name, saying that you have been sued by blah blah company (the same company as mentioned in the collection notice) and that when you are served with papers please bring them to us and we can help, blah blah.

I have also been receiving some notes on my door for the past couple of weeks for some delivery in this guys name from some courier (delivery company) I have never heard of before. They have already attempted twice and I am expecting a third attempt. After the first attempt I had called them up and told them that nobody with this name lived here. But apparently they did not listen and they made a second attempt. Fortunately or unfortunately nobody was at home during both of these attempts.

Anyway I am thinking that this is the attempt for delivering the papers. From the letters from the lawyers this delivery person is probably called the processor trying to serve this guy.

So I am a bit scared. There is nobody with this name living in my house, nor ever lived in this house, because I bought the house three years ago brand new. Apparently the credit card company having lost track of that guy changed his address to my address simply because our names are similar.

I have checked my credit history from 2 bureaus and it is clean. I don't know the social security of this person, but I am thinking that since my credit history is still clean this means that his social is different from mine, and hence this is not an id theft issue. I am assuming that if his social would have been mine (if he had used my social somehow) it would have shown up on my credit history by now.

My questions are following:

1. What should I do when the processor comes to deliver the papers? I am thinking I am going to tell him that this person does not live here and has never lived here, and not receive the papers. I am planning on not giving him my name but I am not sure what to do if he asks for it. Say "no" clearly.

2. Is the processor guy from the court or he is from the suing company. I am afraid if I gave him my name and he forwarded it to the suing company or suing company accessed it somehow, they could change the creditors name to my name and I would be in trouble. I am thinking if they could change his address to my address they could change his name to my name as well.

3. Would the processor guy have his social? Would he give it to me? May be last 4 digits.

4. What should I do now in general? Should I be getting a lawyer? Or should I totally ignore it since it is not me.

5. What is going to happen after they will know that this guy does not live at this address and they could not locate it? Would the court send police to see if it is true? I am not sure if I would like police knocking at my door looking for people.

Please help.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I do know of a great website that has everything to do with the real estate industry, mortgage lending and credit repair, try: http://www.mortgageball.com

This site can answer any questions regarding anything to do with debt, credit and collection.

Let me know if it helped.

Answer 2

First and foremost, stop opening mail that's not addressed to you.  You should write "not at this address" on it and put it back in the mailbox.

You are getting civil warrants on your door.  Ignore them, they're not yours.  You could "be nice" and tell the attorneys it's the wrong address, but they HAVE to send it to "last known address".

This is a civil matter, police won't get involved.

When the processor comes they generally say "Mr. John Doe" which people will reply "Yes" they will hand you the document and say "consider yourself served".  So, when they say "Mr. John Doe" and since you're not "John Doe" you say "No, I am not John Doe".

I would check your credit report if I were you, just to make sure someone isn't using more than your address (ie. your SSN too).

Answer 3

Instead of opening that mail that was not addressed to you, you should have written"return to sender, no such person at this address" and put it back in the mail.  It was really stupid of you to actually call the collector.

Undoubtedly, the collector did a skip trace and your name was close.  When you actually responded, he figures he's got the debtor.

When that courier shows up, you may have to show him your ID to prove you are not that person.  Just telling them there's no one by that name there won't be enough.  Process servers hear that all the time.

You may want to pull your credit report (AnnualCreditReport.com) and make sure this debt isn't showing up.  They don't have to have your SS# to put something on your credit file.  They have a close name and your address, that can be enough.