ID theft victim reports fraudulent credit line

By Tim Gannon | 11/19/2013

A Northampton man reported to police last week that someone illegally opened a line of credit in his name and charged more than $500 to it - despite his attempts to alert the company.

The man said he received a letter from a company called Bill Me Later, a service of the PayPal electronic funds transferring service, on Oct. 5, saying he was unable to open a line of credit with them. The man called the company and said he had never attempted to open a line of credit with Bill Me Later and that the attempt to do so was unauthorized, according to police.

Then around Nov. 1, the victim got a call from Bill Me Later's security department telling him an account had been opened under his name, and that now there was a $298 charge to that account.

The Northampton man again contacted the company to say that this was a fraudulent account and fraudulent charges.

Then on Nov. 12, he got a bill in the mail from Bill Me Later for $586.85, according to police.

He again called Bill Me Later and the account was finally frozen, said police, who added they currently have no leads on who the suspect is, and are continuing to investigate the case as second-degree identity theft.