A 23-year-old caller from Houston stunned listeners on a recent episode of “The Ramsey Show” after revealing that her mother took out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans in her name without her knowledge and appears to have spent at least some of the money herself.

The caller, Amanda, said she initially believed she had just one $20,000 student loan tied to her final year of college. But shortly before Christmas, she discovered a second loan of more than $20,000 had been opened in her name, sending her credit score tumbling and leaving her confused, angry, and overwhelmed.

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A Shocking Discovery After Graduation

Amanda said she only learned about the second loan after receiving a credit alert from her bank. Until then, she did not even realize she had a credit score.

“It popped up that my credit had gone down,” she said. “I didn't even know I had a credit score because I have no other debt.”

While Amanda acknowledged she reluctantly agreed to the first loan, the numbers never quite added up. Her tuition that year was about $17,000, yet the loan totaled $20,000. She assumed the extra money may have gone toward basic living expenses.

The second loan, however, made no sense at all.

“There's no way my living expenses were $20,000 for that year,” she said, explaining she lived in a run-down rental shared with 10 other girls. Amanda told the hosts she did not sign for the second loan and had no idea the debt existed until it appeared on her credit report.

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Her parents are recently divorced, and she said her relationship with her mother is strained. When Amanda quietly asked her father about the loan, she said her mother lied to him and falsely claimed she had been making payments, something Amanda later confirmed was untrue.

Personal finance expert Dave Ramsey did not mince words.

“If you didn't sign it and someone else signs your name, that's called fraud,” he said. 

Ramsey grew visibly angry as the conversation continued, repeatedly stressing that taxpayer-backed student loans were being abused.

“Stealing money using my taxpayer dollars; I'm the one freaking paying this,” he said. “It pisses me off cause your mother’s scummy. She’s a criminal.”

Ramsey and co-host Jade Warshaw laid out Amanda's two options, neither of them easy. The first would involve reporting the loan as identity theft, filing a police report, and turning the case over to law enforcement, even though the person responsible is her own mother.

The second option, Ramsey said, is to “shut up and pay it,” absorbing the $21,000 balance to avoid legal and family fallout.

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Ramsey urged her to request the promissory note for the loan to confirm who signed it, warning that the decision would ultimately remain the same either way. He also emphasized that parents do not automatically have legal authority to borrow money in their adult children's names.

“Your parents do not have power of attorney over you because they bred you,” he said. “That is not how the legal system works.”

Even if Amanda decides to repay the loan, Ramsey said she must draw an unbreakable boundary.

“If you ever use my name again, go to jail,” he said. “I'm not going to screw around.”

Stories like Amanda's hit home for a lot of people because they show how money problems can start right inside your own family. 

If you're someone who earns a good income and wants to avoid messy surprises, working with a professional can really help. A service like Domain Money can match you with a certified financial planner who helps you catch red flags early, set firm boundaries, and build a plan that protects your money before anything goes sideways.

For Amanda, the damage is already done. The only question left is which painful path she chooses and how she protects herself from ever facing something like this again.

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