Find the best financial services for you at: SMARTFINANCESOLUTIONS.NET - Parental Identity Theft: Are debt or prosecution my only options? - I am in a horrible situation that weighs on me every day of my life and any helpful or expert advice would be very much appreciated.

I have roughly $30,000+ of debt which is mostly due to my father opening up credit cards in my name to pay expenses, many of which were my expenses, but also many of his when he went through bankruptcy. I found out about two years ago - he had been 'building' my credit for roughly a decade. I have made some charges on the cards, the ones he gave to me to use for food or gas, but mostly the bills are his expenses or my expenses for my schooling, life, etc. but that I was unaware of in the sense that I thought he was 'paying' my expenses as my father, not putting them on credit cards in my name. He managed my finances and taught me little to nothing, and certainly did not tell me about the debt that was piling up until I saw it in a credit report.

I believe he forged my name on the numerous credit cards as I do not remember authorizing any of them (although there may have been one or two when I was younger and didn't have any idea about what was going on, but I don't think so). He has made most of the minimum payments so my accounts are not delinquent, but my debt to income ratio is absurdly high and I was recently turned down for a car loan.

He is not malicious and he would absolutely pay off all the debt if he could - but the simple fact is that currently he is in dire straights and can barely afford to pay his own bills, let alone the debt he created for me. I know that generally my options are either a) pay off the debt, b) report the fraudulent activity to the credit card companies and shift as much of the responsibility to him as possible, or c) file a police report and press charges.

My question today is: can I successfully do (b) without doing (c)?

Once again, any advice would be greatly appreciated. -