Q: MY SONS SS NUMBER WAS USED BY HIS NOW DECEASED FATHER WHAT SHOUD I DO
A:
You do not provide much detail here. Used how? How old is your son? Is he an adult or a child?
Since the husband is dead, there is not much that can be done in the way of prosecuting him or suing his estate.
If your son is an adult, he needs to go to www.privacyrights.org and follow the steps on fact sheet 17 - using the civil or criminal sheet depending on circumstances.
If your husband used the SSN and was charged with a crime prior to his death such that your son now has a criminal record, he needs to hire a criminal lawyer in the county/state where the criminal charges took place to get the record expunged.
If your son's SSN was used to get a credit card or other credit, your son needs to file a police report, pull his credit reports from all 3 credit bureaus and write to the creditors listed on the report, providing them notice that your son is disputing because this was fraud perpetrated by his dead father (send a copy of police report and death certificate) and ask them to send fraud affidavits. Complete the affidavits (they are notarized sworn statements about the fraud) and return to the creditor and these accounts should be removed.
If your son is a minor, how old is he? You as his legal guardian would be able to file the police reports and contact the creditors and credit bureaus. However, the debts are going to drop off your son's credit report 7 1/2 years after the debts went delinquent so if your child is very young and not going to be needing credit, then you may just want to wait and the debts will fall off. Just to make sure, your son can obtain the credit reports when is 18 and can then dispute anything if it is still there.
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