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Identity Theft: What to Do

By Joe Farinaccio

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 15Aug2008 Word count: 725 Viewed: 327 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

"What can I do when it comes to fixing identity theft?" ask many victims?

This question, of course, comes after the fraud takes place. Most software programs being sold today tout their ability to either prevent it from happening altogether, or alert you if any red flags are raised -- such as new credit accounts opened in your name.

The Federal Trade Commission does offer a slew of great information on it's website. The challenge, however, is trying to gather all of it and then piece together everything that needs to be done in order to stop the fraud in the first place, and then clean up affected records afterwards.

For example, the first piece of sage advice you'll most often read about will say something like, "Call the credit reporting agencies immediately." This is absolutely correct. The phone numbers of the big 3 credit reporting agencies are listed as follows: Trans Union - 800-888-4213, Experian - 888-397-3742 and Equifax - 800-685-1111.

But then what?

There are several importing things that you should request during this call. For example ...

1) You need to request a free copy of your credit report. (Anyone may request a free copy of his or her credit report from CRAs each year. And if you're denied credit, employment or insurance as a result of identity theft then you're entitled to an additional free copy of your credit report).

2) Request that a "fraud alert" be attached to your credit profile.

Now comes the more detailed actions. After your credit reports come you must do several important things. Among them are:

3) Specifically identify fraudulent accounts and inquiries and ask that each one be removed from your credit profile. (The CRAs may tell you that you need to do this in writing, which we'll cover in the next section). Then ask the CRA to send you a copy of the notification(s) of fraud sent to each credit grantor who they contact regarding suspected fraudulent activity.

4) Ask each CRA for a list of names, phone #'s and addresses for all businesses and organizations that looked at your credit history in the past year (and perhaps even longer, depending on how long the fraud has been going on).

5) Ask the agency to contact you whenever an attempt is made to apply for credit in your name. The alert can say something like, "Please contact me immediately at this phone number before issuing any credit. All new credit applications must be validated and personally authorized by me."

6) Ask the Credit Reporting Agency to contact every company that has received your credit report in the last year and tell them you're a victim of identity theft. Request that copies of these notices be sent to you in order to make sure the CRAs follow through with your request.

7) Now you need to call the credit grantors your information search has revealed the identity thief has set up fraudulent accounts with. Tell each one you're the victim of identity theft and indicate the account(s) in question.

8) Ask each one to stop issuing credit to the fraudster who has stolen your personal information.

9) Request that fraudulent accounts be closed immediately, then ask for their removal from your credit profile. If an identity thief was able to use a valid credit account (one opened by you), such as a credit card account, then you'll either have to get a new card issued (with a new number) or cancel the card altogether. It's better to have the request worded something like, "Account closed at customer's request," than for it to read, "Card number was stolen or card was lost." Wording such as that might negatively impact your credit score in the future.

10) Request all documentation associated with the fraudulent accounts (including original application). Companies are required to send you this information under federal law. Fraudulent applications often contain forged signatures and other information that might be useful to you or law enforcement. Such documentation includes: false application with forged signature, all billing statements, address and phone number where credit cards were mailed, all correspondence between a creditor and the identity thief, plus electronic, audio or video evidence related to the crime.

11) Don't forget to ask the credit grantor, company or agency to verify your requests ... in writing.

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