<prompt> Human: I found out about a year ago that my mother had taken out several credit cards in my name when I was between the ages of 18-20 28 now. Her reasoning was to help my credit. She has paid off one of the cards and cancelled it, the second card she has paid off and given to me and the third card has 8700 on it. The last card was a home depot card that she used to charge at first 14K onto in order to put wood floors in her house. When I found out about these cards she had paid this card down to 8700 and was making minimum payments on it every month. 4 months ago my parents marriage started to fall apart and she stopped making payments on that card. Today I received a letter in the mail notifying me that this card has been turned over to a debt collector. The debt collector said in the letter that I can settle and only end up paying 3500. What do I do? I was furious at when I first found out about these cards but, its my mom. I figured she would pay them off. I dont want to send my mother to jail or press any charges if I dont have to. She cant make the payments on this card anymore since she doesnt have my dad as a source of income. Is there any way I can just speak to the debt collector and explain to them that I didnt sign up for this card and didnt make these charges or will that do more harm than good? I need help.  <response>: Unless you file an identity theft report with the police, the debt collector will come after you for the money.You must accept this as what it is - identity theft. She used your identity to financially benefit herself, not to help you build credit. You do not get a good credit score by having large debts on credit cards. You were used and the person who used you wishes for you to just accept this.Yes, it is your mother and how terrible it must be knowing your mother would hurt your future and then try to burden you with her debts.File the report or else this collections debt will stay on your report even if you did pay it off. 