What is the priority for addressing credit card application identity theft made in my name?

Most victims of identity theft know the identity thief. Many identity thieves are friends or family members of their victim. It is completely understandably that these victims identity theft are reluctant to file a police report against their friend or family member. But this in no way means that the identity theft victim (you) are legally or morally responsible for paying the debts. You are not.

You need to complete a FTC Fraud Affidavit. The FTC identity fraud affidavit can be used to document and communicate facts related to identity theft in order to formally dispute identity fraud and release an identity theft victim’s responsibility for the debt occurred as a result of the identity theft. To ensure a complete documentation and communication of identity fraud cases, a group of credit grantors, consumer advocates, and attorneys at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) created a document called Identity Theft Affidavit. Although, the identity fraud affidavit was mainly developed to document and communicate facts related to unauthorized new accounts opened under consumer names, the document can also be used to refute charges on existing accounts.

Although, a police report may be sufficient to document an identity theft case, I think that an identity fraud affidavit is a good starting point for documenting all the facts, evidence and witnesses before contacting the police or the affected companies.