Ron Burley ON YOUR SIDE
YOUR MONEY
Credit Woes From a Typo
T
“They said I was bankrupt, but I wasn’t!”
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Your Number
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own private ID
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: ART STREIBER; ILLUSTRATION BY JOE SNOW; ADAM VOORHES
It sounds far-fetched—
an attorney files a client’s
bankruptcy papers using
the wrong Social Security
number and ends up ruining an innocent person’s
credit. Yet that’s what
happened to Doris Hart
of Bainbridge, Georgia.
Hart’s troubles began
in March, when a vendor
refused her Visa card. Her
account had been closed,
she learned, “because my
credit report indicated I
filed for bankruptcy.” But
she hadn’t. In fact, until
then she’d had a nearly
perfect credit rating.
Turns out K. Todd Butler,
a lawyer in Cairo, Georgia,
transposed two digits of
another woman’s Social
Security number in a bankruptcy filing. That wrong
number was Hart’s, and
somehow that alone led
credit agencies to conclude
she was down-and-out.
Hart made countless calls
and spent more than $200
on certified letters to creditors, credit agencies, and
the courts to straighten
things out. A friend helped
her find the errant filing by
Who really needs to
record your Social
Security number? Only
those who report your
earnings (employers, financial firms) and some
government agencies.
With doctors, schools,
and the like, cut your risk
of identity theft by offering your own nine-digit
number. Use 000, which
the Feds don’t use, for
the first digits, or try
sprinkling in letters to
help make yours unique.
Butler—who, she says, told
her not to worry. The state
bar dismissed Hart’s complaint about the error.
When I called Butler, he
agreed to pay Hart $200.
But his check came with
a letter stipulating that
by cashing the check she
waived any future claims.
She demurred.
Hart ultimately restored
her credit, but she and her
husband, Charles, decided
to sign up for credit moni-
toring, to let them know
if the bogus bankruptcy
resurfaced. I told Doris’s
story to a contact at Bank of
America, and even though
the Harts are not custom-
ers, the bank enrolled them
in its monitoring program
free for two years, saving
them about $600.
Read a new On Your Side
column twice a month at
aarp.org/money.
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COMPLAINT?
E-mail your customer-service problem
to Ron at
aarp.org/ronburley.
AARP.ORG/MAGAZINE 33
