A Redditor recently asked how to recover after their parents did a number on their credit score.
The original poster shared that while on break from college, they discovered a letter from a collection agency addressed to them. It referenced an unfamiliar unpaid account.
They soon learned their parents had taken out multiple credit cards in their name without permission to help cover household expenses. Their parents had allegedly charged thousands of dollars in debt, left it unpaid, and now the collections agencies were calling.
The Redditor wanted to know: What’s the best way to rebuild and protect credit in the wake of this kind of experience?
Unfortunately, familial fraud — when one family member steals the identity of a child or other family member — is relatively common, even though actual numbers are hard to come by, says Axton Betz-Hamilton, who wrote…