How can someone open up a credit file with your social security number but they use their own name? some one please help.?

You don't get how this works. The credit bureau has nothing to do with who opened an acct. under your name. All they do is report gather data from the credit card/car companies etc on who paid when. This lady went to a store or car place or got a credit card & someone keyed in her social wrong. The reason I know this is because if she gave the wrong social sec. # (yours) then it would be reporting wrong on all 3 credit bureaus, not just Equifax. I woke in the mortgage business & see this all the time. Send them what they need & this will be fixed. If you don't it will haunt you for life. Quit blaming the credit bureau though.. they are just being told what to put..

First of all, all the credit bureaus do is collect information from their subscribers, mostly banks, credit unions, and collection agencies.

If one of their subscribers reported someone named Mary Smith using your social security number all they do is keep Mary Smith's file.

When you dispute something with them, they are required by law to investigate. They will contact their subscriber to find out what is going on. What will happen is that the subscriber will answer that Mary Smith applied for credit using the social security number she gave them, and since everything check out at that time, they had no choice to let her. Banks have no way to match up anyone's name with a social security number, all they can check is if the number is valid.

What is most likely to happen is that you will have to contact your local police and file identity theft charges against Mary Smith.

Good luck

This is going to take a lot of time & patience to resolve. And probably a lot of letters to equifax. Think in terms of 6-18 months.

You are the victim of child-identity theft! Millions of children have their identities stolen every year, most commonly by illegal aliens. Children's identities & SSNs are particularly valued by illegal aliens and criminals because there is no existing credit records, and they have a long time to charge up huge debts before the true owner can uncover the theft. There are documented records of as many as 57 illegal aliens all using the same stolen SSN!

You need to report this to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission keeps records of identity theft). You need to identify yourself as the true owner of the SSN at all 3 major credit reporting agencies, and get a full credit report from each one. There should be some data on there as to name being used, addresses, employers, etc. You may be able to use this to file police reports in the jurisdiction where the perpetrator lives, works. Try to get the person prosecuted - they are committing major felonies. Go in person to nearest Social Security office with your original Social Security card, birth certificate, IDs; they need to correct their records, or may be able to issue you a new SSN. However, since identity theft rings "make up" SSNs, it is possible the newly issued SSN is already being used by illegal aliens who purchased false/forged ID & Social Security card.

Write to the two US senators from your state, and the US representative in Congress for your district, detail facts, and demand they support stricter enforcement of identity protections and stricter prosecution of identity theft. AND tell them to support very strict enforcement of immigration laws with deportation or mandatory departure of all visa & immigration law violators. Up to 90% of identity theft is now perpetrated by illegal aliens.

They can't investigate the number to know whom it belongs to. The official government records of who has which number are not available to them until the person dies. All they can do is to check whether the number has already been used by someone else.