My Dad Used My Credit For Loans And Cars While I Was In High School.

Location: Washington

My dad left our home when I was 13. Growing up, I didn't learn a lot of crucial aspects to adulthood, like the importance of credit. It wasn't till I was maybe 20/22 that me and my mom learned that my dad had been using my identity (we share the same name) for car dealerships and loans. I had not used my credit at all up till then (and still haven't as of being 24 years old).

While I understood this was bad, I didn't seriously understand what this meant. I was told I should freeze my credit and file disputes to remove that history, which I did. I still have reports showing all the businesses that accessed my credit and my poor score from the time.

The severity of this only hit me recently when a close friend of mine told me that this was outrageous, and that he's shocked at how I and everyone in my family has been so passive with this. He suggested that I should seriously consider taking my dad to court, hiring a lawyer, and doing whatever I need to do to make this right. Now, I feel really fucking stupid, and I'm worried that my inconsideration has hurt my situation even more now that years have gone by and I'm not a teenager anymore.

So now what? I assume everyone would agree that this is something I should absolutely pursue since it's technically identity fraud anyway, but what am I getting myself into with this? What can I expect? Have I fucked myself into a worse position because of the time gap and inactivity? I just have no idea where to start. There's too many questions.