GE Money Bank I was added as a co-signer without permission, no contact was made to me or authorization checked. Orlando Florida

According to Reg AA guidelines, creditors are required to disclose the obligations of a co-signer PRIOR to completing the credit application.  Considering that you were not present and/or never directly contacted to be informed of the co-signer obligation how can GEMB legally process the application?  In theory, the burden could fall to the original applicant to substantiate the pre-approval of the stated co-signer; however, in accepting the information, second-hand, with no direct contact with the co-signer, aren't they directly enabling fraud?  If so, then who is more responsible:  The young woman for having provided the information or the company that didn't verify it?  And, if the act of doing as instructed by the creditor, that of simply providing personal information to validate an absent co-signer, is acceptable to the creditor, then why would the applicant be subject to criminal prosecution?  I'm sure that it's ethically wrong to encourage anyone to commit a felony but I'm almost equally sure that it's criminally wrong to encourage anyone to commit a felony.  GEMB should be sued, by class action, for you and all those in your situation as well as by anyone who's endured criminal prosecution for fraud.  If the allowable process for credit application includes the unwitting commission of a felony, how is the company responsbile for the process not responsible for the felony? 

While I agree, that it was the girlfriend/son who are initially at fault, providing the social security number, I have to lay blame with GEMB also, because of their practice of only needing the social security number for a co-signer, and no other confirming paperwork.  I too AM suffering the effects of my son giving GEMB my social security number and having me listed as a co-signer on his account.  I NEVER gave him my number, but he would have access to it from his mother (my x-wife) or other paperwork that he may have had access to.  It has been over 3 months now, and I'm mad as hell at:  1) My son for what he did, 2) GEMB for putting me on as a co-signer WITHOUT MY SIGNATURE.

I have been working with GEMB to get this cleared up, and hopefully will have an answer from them in a couple of weeks, but believe me, it has been HELL for me.  MY credit rating has gone to pot, all my creditors are dropping my credit limits, what a mess.  As I stated, yes, the girlfriend/son was at fault,BUT GEMB must be held accountable for their shody practice of needing ONLY the social security number of a co-signer.  This is an unacceptable process.

As a side note, if GEMB does not act quickly in my case on this issue, I will get a lawyer, and sue them!

You are right; there is something criminal here, and it lands on the doorstep of this young woman. If you let this one slide, do not be surprised in the future if your grandchild is used as a pawn to motivate you to do things that are not good for you, or really, not good for anyone.
How did she get your social security number? Did you give it to her (if so, why?), or did she go through your papers to find it? That alone concerns me.

So it is criminal for a bank to not verify all of the information, yet it is not criminal what your son's girlfriend did?

You have to ask yourself some serious questions and give things some thought.

- How did your Son's girlfriend get YOUR Social Security Number? The simplest answer is of course either from you or your son. It's doubtful that you would have, so your Son is probably not innocent in this.

-Who put you in this situation? I can tell you who it was not..GEMB. They did not force your son/son's GF to enter your SSN claiming to be you. This was done by one/both of them when they commited identity theft.

Unless you have a fraud alert on your credit report(which I highly recomend you do ASAP) creditors rarely verify the information(and GEMB is no different) other than running your credit report. They also treat situations like this no differently. That is in order to get out of the debt you have to press charges so that they can go after that person or persons. With family members this is tough, but you basically have 3 choices.

1)Turn your Son's Girlfriend(and probably Son) in where you will no longer owe the debt, but they will learn a lesson. If your son's girlfriend is a RA there is a good chance that she could be in more trouble, and it will get messy with children involved.

2) Don't turn them in and pay it off yourself. Of course here they don't learn any lessons and if they feel they "got away" with it one time they could do it again. A side thing would be to then go after them suing them in civil court for the money you had to pay.

3) Don't turn them in and don't pay it off. Then suffer with bad credit and the possibility that they will sue you after a few years. Again here they learn no lesson and you can expect that it will at least be tried again.

Good Luck..but the only RipOff is really the one commited on you by your Son and/or his Girlfriend.

Lenders and creditors will not write off a fraudluent charge unless you agree to press charges on the person that used your info. This prevents criminals from having their accomplices make a charge, then they "complain" about it to the creditor, it gets written it off, while letting the accomplice get something for nothing. I'm not saying you're doing that, I'm just telling you policy. My advice is to file charges or make some arrangements with the girl to pay you directly.