Thanks so much for the information and cautionary points, I appreciate the paranoia with the level of identity theft these days! A couple of things help, I should have said first that during the phone call with their Litigation and Recovery supervisor, she asked only for the last four of my SSN and then my birth year. There is someone's SSN and DOB on the loan, and seems my name and address on it (that's how I got the 1099 in the mail). Full birth dates are pretty easy to find in public records with a name and address if she wanted it, but anyway what I gave her (last 4 and birth year) are the critical pieces of info, enough to establish that the account belonging to whomever took out the loan and then defaulted is not the person (me) who they sent the 1099 to. This is why I suspect someone has hijacked my identity for the loan with at least my name and address, thus they sent the 1099. Pretty shoddy loan validation if you ask me. I'm able to surmise based on the company's name and "Equipment" in the Debt Description box on the 1099 that the loan is probably related to farm equipment, and bankruptcy was declared in March 2025.
Thanks for confirming that the IRS can't tie me to this bogus debt without a valid SSN. The ITIN is the main red flag loose end at this point--- the finance officer could not say if it is registered at the IRS under my name and SSN, only that it was with the account for the loan which has a different SSN and DOB from mine. I checked my credit reports with the 3 main bureaus, there is nothing about the loan and my credit score is sparkly. I went ahead and froze my credit reports. What the finance company will do next, I do not know, or if they sent the 1099 to the IRS,and if they did whether the IRS will kick it back or whatever they do. I take your advice to not file it with 2025 taxes. I may separately follow up with the IRS about the ITIN, it seems inconspicuous enough just to see if I have one. If I do, then I'll file the identity theft affidavit to get me disconnected from that tax number.
Thanks again!
