Jonathan H.
unhelpful response to identity theft
I was a victim of identity theft: someone used my information to take out a loan for services at a laser hair removal clinic through Healthcare Finance Direct. Despite the fact that HFD, the clinic, and I are all victims in this situation, it has been like pulling teeth to get HFD or the clinic to offer me any information that might help me get this resolved. Both HFD and the clinic keep on punting me off on the other, claiming it is the other's responsibility. HFD even claimed "We cant contact them" (the clinic). Both HFD and the clinic are refusing to answer my basic general questions, like how the loan process works and what kind of information gets provided during the loan process. HFD's response to my telling them that I am not the person who took out this loan advised me to "Please make a payment as soon as possible". None of the messages I get from their support team have an agent's name attached to them— it's all just signed "Healthcare Finance Direct, LLC". Direct questions in my messages get ignored— not even a "we cannot answer that question for you because _______", just outright ignored. I cannot imagine that HFD has never issued a loan in response to a fraudulent application before. A dispute like mine cannot possibly be a novel experience for them. I would assume they probably have an entire fraud *department*. And yet for some reason, they are completely unwilling to share any of their knowledge and experience with me, a victim. Instead, they continue to treat me like a disgruntled client. I'm frankly baffled by their behavior. In case there's anyone at HFD reading this and looking to improve their processes, the kind of response I would have expected would be along the lines of the following: "I'm sorry this has happened to you. Thank you for informing us. Please understand that we are not able to cancel the loan based purely on this communication—our agreement with our providers compels us to collect based on the information they furnished us with. If you are not the person who took out this loan, you should report this identity theft at identitytheft.gov and send us a Section 609(e) request via certified mail. In terms of what information of yours may have been compromised: the only information we have on file for you is your name, your address, and phone number; we do not have a date of birth or SSN."