Cheat Sheet For Id Theft Victims

Just as soon as you suspect that your identity may have been compromised by some unscrupulous crook, reach out to these key sources to begin clearing your good name and fiercely protecting your credit.

Contact All Your Creditors
First and foremost, immediately call the banking institution or the creditor that maintains the financial account which was fraudulently accessed or compromised. The account should be shut down immediately and a new account should be opened. If you have payments which are on an auto debit arrangement from your bank account or credit card, you must remember to provide your new account number to those other creditors so you do not have an interruption in service or coverage or miss a bill payment.

Mail the Credit Bureaus
When you send copies of your identity theft reports to the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian), the fraudulent accounts on your reports should be immediately removed from your credit report; or at least classified on the report as fraudulent accounts that have been compromised by identity theft crooks. Many identity theft victims have discovered that using an identity theft alert service has made this process a lot smoother.

You Must Call the Police
Consumers who are victims of identity theft must focus on obtaining a police report because it is so important to documenting the facts to satisfy creditors with an explanation of what has occurred in your credit reports. Most creditors will likely request a copy of the police report when you report the identity theft to them.

You Must Contact Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
It is advisable that victims of identity theft visit the Federal Trade Commission web site and complete an online affidavit which asks you to document all the details about the identity theft. We recommend that you also print several copies of this report and send a report to each of your creditors along with a police report which you have obtained.

You Must Call Social Security Administration
The Social Security Department has a fraud hotline. Identity theft victims must report any case where your social security number has been used fraudulently. Identity theft certainly falls into this category.

Many folks have been fortunate enough to avoid identity theft by taking some preventative actions to protect themselves.
By subscribing to a monitoring service, these consumers are able to obtain one or all of the following:
a 3 in 1 credit report;
all 3 credit scores;
triple bureau credit monitoring.

So, the choice is up to you as a consumer who is concerned about being victimized by identity theft. Take the actions now or later.