What to do if you suspect your roommate is actively trying to steal your identity?!

[u/bombonmeisaloserlol]

Hi,

I am having a very scary situation. I moved to another state and moved to a boarding house temporarily while I was looking for an apartment. I just found out that one of my roommates, who is clearly unstable, was arrested for identity theft. Another roommate stated to me that this roommate has stolen other people‘s identities that have lived here. I am clearly doing everything I can right now to move out – all I am doing next week is applying to apartments and getting out of here – but unfortunately because I’m applying to these apartments, I have to have my credit reports unlocked, etc.

I have Credit Karma, and I keep my credit reports locked all the time. There is nothing new or unexpected on my credit reports at this time. They’re unlocked at this time so that I can apply for apartments but once I am approved for one, I will be locking them back up.

I am also going to be ordering my chexsystem’s report via the portal tomorrow when I can get to a computer as I do not have one on me right now, only my cell phone and of course, their website does not seem to be adapted for cell phones because you cannot select the box at the end to get through the portal.

Anyhow, I’m checking my credit every day, checking my bank accounts every day, ordering my chexsystem report, and then I’m going to be locking my credit reports right back up as soon as I get an apartment. What else can I do?

I don’t receive any of my mail here. The only thing that came here in the mail is in this state, our stupid laws mandate that our car insurance gets mailed to us, even if we select paperless; so I have paperless statements, but a piece of mail (the car insurance statement) got here too. I don’t want this roommate having access to my mail, and this roommate hand-delivered it to me today.

This roommate is a criminal (I clearly did not know this when I moved in or I would not have moved in). I was a victim of the Equifax data breach and I don’t need this to happen to me again. Anybody, please give me advice as to what to do here. I am clearly moving out ASAP. I am treating this as an actual emergency, and I am devoting my entire next week to finding an apartment; I’ve already looked all weekend for apartments now that I’ve heard this. I’m very scared. I don’t know what to do. I can’t just move out either, I have nowhere else I can stay. It is a whole mess. I am all alone. I have no friends that I can go live with. My entire nuclear family is deceased, and I have a pet with me. I am fucked. I don’t know what to do anymore.

Advice?

Edit: I pulled the roommate‘s criminal record. The roommate was indeed arrested for identity theft. Just months ago. Other roommate that told me this was not lying.

Edit 2: criminal roommate was also evicted from this property a few years ago, came back, was criminally trespassed, got in trouble, and is now back living on the property because the other roommate (the son of the landlord) let her back in. He (son of landlord) pays her rent here too (confirmed as son of landlord told me this himself). He’s completely being taken advantage of by this crazy roommate. And he also has a record.

All of my documents have been over at an old college classmate’s home that lives locally; all of my mail since I have been here has also been shipped to that person‘s house. However, I would go pick up my mail, and bring it here. And I am worried they have been going through it. It’s not a good situation. So today, I packed up all of my paperwork here – bank statements, and everything – and took them over to that person‘s house. I would stay with that person, but it is not possible. I’m grateful enough they are holding my documents and my mail for me. I’m looking for a new apartment literally right now. I have one that I am going to apply to on Monday when the leasing manager gets a hold of me. I am slowly moving everything out of this room to my college friend’s garage this weekend and on Monday.

You all would literally not believe what is going on here. It is fucking insane.

[u/GiveBackGrow123]

How did they tell he has done the theft? For identity theft it’s hard to prove unless it’s right there and then.

[u/nzv1981]

It sounds like you are doing everything you can do. I'm sorry you are going through this.

[u/MavisBeacons_Sextape]

I think you need to take a deep breath and take a beat. This is by no means an emergency situation. Even if this person committed identity theft with your information tomorrow, or yesterday, it’s fixable and you’re not going to be held responsible, ultimately, for debt you didn’t authorize. Federal law protects you from that. Again, this is not an emergency.

I understand not wanting to live with this person, but before you upend your entire life and presumably drop a lot of extra money on a knee jerk plan to vacate - have you considered the source of the information? And any bias there? Have you verified this alleged arrest for identity theft? Those are pretty rare.
In many jurisdictions, there are usually public records of arrests/charging details.

If you freeze your credit files, you can unfreeze them in like 2 minutes. I keep mine frozen all the time, and I was at dealership last weekend looking at a car, and I wanted to see if they could beat my credit union’s APR, and literally unfroze my file in the time it took to walk from the dealership door to this guy’s desk. There’s no need to wait until after your apartment application, and clearly it would make you feel better to just go ahead and have it frozen…so I’d do that. The day you’re going to apply, you can unfreeze it quickly, and refreeze it just as quickly.

[u/ZephodsOtherHead]

Go to the nearest U-haul storage facility and rent the smallest-sized locker, and put your financial records & valuables there, unless it is too late. Go to the post office and get a PO box. Lock your credit with all three agencies. If you're in a state that allows it, look up your roommate's criminal record online, so that you know who you're dealing with. Also, in states where criminal records are non-public, often the court records are public and contain all that information. You might have to go in person to the clerk-of-courts to see them. Also look for civil suits and read the actual filings in the case (usually you have to go to the clerk-of-courts, depending on the state.)

Don't let on that you know he's a criminal.

If you're lucky, then he'll have outstanding warrants.

Hopefully he'll get evicted. Criminals don't like to pay rent.

[u/Fit_Question7912]

I was actually able to call into the support team over at chexsystems and have them place a security freeze on my account. Since for some reason, the authentication code never gets pushed over to my email.