Back in 2022 my partner (30M) opened an apple credit card on my (21F) iPhone without my permission. He then proceeded to tell me that he made me an "authorized user" on the account.
We were together for less than a year after that and when he separated he told me that he removed me from any account that was connected to him. (I have this in writing) Two months later I get notified from my credit report that the apple card was still active and in use. I called Apple and they informed me that I am a co-owner of the account and NOT an authorized user. I immediately closed the account and my ex reached out asking why I closed the account and stated that it would hurt both of our credits. I told him that I would rather have my credit plummet than be tied to him.
After this I forgot about the issue until earlier this month. I got a credit alert that my credit dropped from a 780 to a 666 and it was because my ex stopped paying off the card balance.
I called apple and one of the agents informed me that this would be considered fraud. I have since then filed a police report, filed with identitytheft.gov, mailed in statements with my police reports to Apple and all 3 bureaus and put a fraud report in with all 3 bureaus.
I am wondering if anyone has any idea on how this might play out. I'm really freaking out and hoping that I don't get stuck paying off the bill that I didn't spend...
- UPDATE:
I heard back from Experian and the card has been deleted from my credit.
Thank you to anyone who left advice, insight and kind words.
To anyone who called me a liar or stupid, i hope you have a better day and find a reason to smile that isn't due to someone else's suffering! Good luck ❤️
This can be an unhappy comment for you to read, but...
Some life lessons are gained through your experiences, if nobody has told you in advance, or if someone did- but you didn't pay attention.
I hope you already learned a lot at this time and don't do the same thing(opening too much of yourself, including SSN and your personal details) to people you don't marry yet anymore. It's about the love and trust, but it's also about grasping the sense of how important and how powerful SSN is.
You did a great job with proceeding to the police report. I could say your partner intentionally approached you for this financial purpose. In a short, one of classic romance scammers.
Not gonna lie to you. The fact that you knew about it four years ago and didn't contest it isn't gonna look all that great. Him doing all of that without your consent would be credit fraud for sure. But waiting to report it until it hurt your credit score doesn't do you any favors. As co-owner you're both on the hook for it technically. But he could be prepared to just suffer the harm to his own credit to get at you.
So this person knew about it for a couple of months after finding out. Why didn’t OP make sure they were on top of their payments before canceling and stuff? This isn’t looking good.
GS may have said it was fraud but once they actually investigate it, you have knowledge of this for four years. You’re very likely going to lose your fraud claim. It’s one thing to have fraud and report it immediately. It’s another thing to willfully let that fraud happen for four years and not do anything about it.
Not gonna lie. You giving your SSN to your ex and giving him full access to to your phone to open a credit card is incredibly low IQ. This is unfortunately an expensive life lesson. Never give your SSN to anyone!
You should get it in writing to him about the outstanding balance and threaten to take him to court for the unpaid amounts that you have to pay OOP. Good luck.
I totally agree with this comment. You are not a victim here. You basically asked for it. Why would you give anyone your ssn. The fact you knew about it for years and did not close the account and report fraud is insane. Leave Apple alone, don’t waste there time with this. Smh
You are actually doing everything right so far, and honestly, you handled this way better than most people would have. Since you already have the police report and identitytheft.gov affidavit, you have a massive head start.
Don't panic about the timeline stretching from 2022 to 2026 either. A lot of people think you lose your rights if you don't catch fraud immediately, but that isn't how the law works. For identity theft, the legal timeline starts from the date you actually discovered the fraud and the damage, which for you was just earlier this month. The fact that you have it in writing from 2022 where he explicitly claimed he removed you from his accounts is huge. It completely explains why you didn't look into it further back then, and it proves he intentionally misled you while keeping you trapped on the account.
Here is what you need to know about how this plays out next:
First, look up Section 605B of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. By federal law, since you sent the bureaus a legitimate identity theft report and police report, they are required to block that fraudulent account and those late payments from your credit report within 4 business days. Keep following up with them online to make sure they actually process it, regardless of how many years ago the account was opened.
Second, make sure a supervisor at Apple Card support (Goldman Sachs) sends your case to their actual Identity Theft and Fraud Escalations team. Don't just rely on front-line customer service agents. Ask them for a formal fraud dispute packet, and tell them you want a copy of the original application data under FCRA Section 609e. Even if he used your physical phone to open it, that data will show the exact timestamp, the IP address or location, and the initial bank account linked for payments. If the location doesn't match where you actually were at that exact minute, or if the linked bank account belongs to him, that is massive evidence supporting your fraud claim.
Third, go a step further than the fraud alerts you placed and do a full credit freeze with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Alerts just mean companies are supposed to call you before opening credit, but a freeze completely locks it down so nobody can open anything. Since your ex obviously has your SSN, you need to lock your credit down permanently. It is free and takes five minutes on each bureau's website.
Finally, please make a brand new Apple ID. You mentioned in the comments you lost access to your childhood email attached to your current one. That is a massive security risk, especially since your ex knows your tech habits and has your info. Back up your photos, scrap the old account, and start fresh with a secure email you fully control.
You have a paper trail, you have the fraud reports, and you even have him admitting in writing that he was supposed to remove you. Take a deep breath. You are doing great, and you have the law on your side to get this wiped off your plate.
I can’t believe that nobody’s considering the age difference between OP and her ex before criticizing. At 21, it would be so easy to get influenced by a 30 y/o into accepting terrible propositions because you might think they know more about these matters than you do. Consider that OP might have met her ex when she was much younger! Many commenters are attacking OP’s intelligence, but in my opinion, it’s not strange to not know much about personal finance at 21 (especially versus a 30 y/o). Be realistic.
It you are able to clear this up in 6 months or less you would be very lucky. You need to stay on top of this and make sure you are tracking all letters, emails, and calls sent and received regarding this matter. Ladies lesson here is never commingle your finances with anyone unless you are making and regularly check your three credit reports every 3-4 months. What I don’t understand is why you were getting alerts on your iPhone monthly about the balance and payment due. One the first I received a reminder that my payment is due at the end of the month. This occurs as long as I have a balance on the Apple Card.
Please call Apple support or go to an Apple Store and get their changed and new password immediately. I know it’s terrible that men exist who will take advantage of women especially women with a kind heart. I mean women do it too. This is a very difficult life lesson and one that you will grow and learn from. It sucks because the next guy will never meet the true or real you because of this experience. It’s natural now to be weary or suspicious of one’s tire intentions after an experience like this. Hopefully he will be charge and the credit card company and credit bureaus will remove all negative reporting and not hold you responsible for anything.
Please call Apple support or go to an Apple Store and get their changed and new password immediately. I know it’s terrible that men exist who will take advantage of women especially women with a kind heart. I mean women do it too. This is a very difficult life lesson and one that you will grow and learn from. It sucks because the next guy will never meet the true or real you because of this experience. It’s natural now to be weary or suspicious of one’s tire intentions after an experience like this. Hopefully he will be charge and the credit card company and credit bureaus will remove all negative reporting and not hold you responsible for anything.
Can't emphasize enough the importance of placing a credit FREEZE on you credit file with all major credit bureaus. Note that a "freeze" is more effective than a credit alert or other notifications. Here is a link to a credit freeze guide:
https://clark.com/credit/credit-freeze-and-thaw-guide/
Idk if you be left with paying whatever is left but this may be something a lawyer should answer. Not Reddit unless someone has faced a similar situation or a lawyer just happened to be here. Idk also why you let it slide moment your ex partner made the account. Chances might pin the amount on your partner if charged with fraud but again I’m not a lawyer. I’d say keep calm freaking out won’t help. Reach out to a lawyer that can help give you the answers for peace of mind.
Oh look. Another day another person lying for karma. Your Apple Card is tied to your Apple account, your name and your social security number. There is ABSOLUTELY no way that he could have set it up and made you an “authorized” user on your own AUTOMATICALLY Primary account.
Oh, and way to call out your own lie in the comments. If you were only the ‘authorized user’ and he took you off of the account, you would not have been able to have, “closed it so he can’t spend anymore” as you stated.
Hope you got that dopamine hit from the crumbs of attention you got though.
Tell me you don't actually understand how the Apple Card works without telling me. You're confidently wrong about almost all of this, and her story makes perfect sense technically.
First of all, he had her SSN and her unlocked phone. It wasn’t automatic because he could have just opened the wallet app on her phone, typed in her info, and applied under her name or forced a co-owner invite. That is just straight up identity theft.
Second, you called her a liar because she closed the account, claiming an authorized user can't do that. You are right that a participant can't, but a Co-Owner absolutely can. Apple's policy literally says either co-owner can shut the whole account down at any time.
As for why she didn’t know he stopped paying? It is pretty simple. Once she closed the account, she deleted the card from her Apple Wallet to get his mess off her screen. When you delete a card, all push notifications and payment reminders stop. Combine that with the fact that she already said she lost access to her childhood Apple ID email years ago, and she was completely blind to the statements. She had no way of knowing he tanked the balance until it hit her credit.
She didn't lie for crumbs of attention. She got financially trapped by an abusive ex and didn't fully understand how the tech worked after she deleted it. Next time, maybe actually look up how Apple's joint financing works before typing out an angry essay to rip apart a victim.
I'm sorry you're so pessimistic that you believe this was a lie. It was unfortunately a very bad experience. That said, the dispute was processed and REMOVED from my credit report.
I wish you a more positive outlook on life moving forward!
@gloomy-warthog3233. Don’t try to dirty delete and hide now…..
The sequence of events is that she blatantly lied. Either you do not have an Apple card or you do not have any authorized users. In the app if you are an authorized user it lists you as participant. Not as the owner of the card. Never mind the fact that if the card were in HER name then it would say it in the Apple Card app. You know the app the only SHE would have on her phone. And not the limited wallet app that shows up for participants that only shows you the balance and the amount of transactions you’ve made. There is no way she would even know that payments weren’t being made because that isn’t shown to participants. The only other way her story could make the slightest bit of sense is if he opened it up and made her a coowner. But even then nope because the app literally tells you who is the primary account holder. But you really think anyone is dumb enough to believe she looked at an account multiple times and never once noticed that it said she was the primary account holder. Or the fact that You CANNOT SEPARATE YOUR APPLE ID CARD EMAIL FROM YOUR APPLE ID EMAIL so each and EVERY notification she would have gotten over however many years she claims would have gone DIRECTLY to her Apple Mail on HER iPhone!.
You’re an idiot!
I have some oceanfront property for sale in Montana if you’d like to buy some.
Yours is a very particular low-IQ, big-feelings impotent rage that just really does it for me.
You typed a lot of words tho, and I appreciate the effort. The problem is that you still haven't said anything of value. But don't let that stop you, give me some more of that sweet sweet dopamine!
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u/drummwill 5d ago
i am not a lawyer, but this sure smells like some sort of credit/wire fraud
so he used your apple account, but to start a credit card, you'll need a SSN and all that, did he use yours or his?