Man 'Freaking Out' After Dad Stole Identity, Opened Credit Cards

A man on Reddit discovered his father stole his identity and tanked his credit after defaulting on several credit cards he opened over the last year.

"When I went to get a pre-approval for a mortgage, I was told by the lender they wouldn't be able to give me a home loan because of the defaulted credit cards. They also said I probably wouldn't be able to get a loan from any lender because of it and gave me a sheet of paper explaining what I'd need to do in order to fix it," he wrote.

The man tried to dispute the charges with the credit card companies, however, they disregarded his claims.

"I told my (divorced) parents about it and their answers were wildly different. My dad said that 'these things happen' and that I should be more careful in the future with my social security number. Seeing as I've always been careful, that made me pretty mad," he continued.

But his mom told him she believed his dad was responsible as "he ran up about $50,000 in credit card debt on secret credit cards," which led to their divorce.

"A few days ago, I ended up casually telling my dad I'm going to have to file a police report for the credit cards. He told me I probably shouldn't do that because $15,000 isn't 'that much' in the grand scheme of things. When I told him it was keeping me from buying a house, he said I could just wait a few years until they fell off of my credit report. He said it would only take another four and a half years," the man shared.

After insisting he planned to file a report, his dad finally admitted what he had done and warned his son to "be more careful in the future."

"Once I told him I already got the paperwork together from the credit agencies, he told me he had opened the cards to pay for living expenses over the last year. He said his work slowed down a little bit but he'd do what he could to help pay it off. He said it would ruin his life if he went to jail," the man concluded.

Users in the comments blasted the man's dad and urged him to contact the police.

"[He] wasn't going to come clean until doing so became a Hail Mary to beg you for mercy. It wasn't even a problem for him to consider that he'd put you in that position, until he realized he might actually have consequences to his actions, which means he learned nothing and would do it again in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it," one person wrote.

"Yeah. It’s going to ruin his life. What about how his actions have ruined your life? The nerve!" another commented.

"Report him for fraud," someone else advised.