What To Do If Identity Theft Happens To You

If you fall victim to identity theft, the burden of proving your innocence is on you. But the important thing to remember is there are resources available to help you. The U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Treasury, Federal Trade Commission, Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Social Security Administration, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Secret Service all have valuable information and tools to help you recover from whichever type of identity theft occurred. In addition, the Identity Theft Resource Center outlines these 10 steps to take if identity theft happens to you.

Step 1: Contact all three consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Request a Fraud Alert on your file so no new accounts will be open without your approval. You may also want to place a Credit Freeze on your file as well.

Step 2: Access the Federal Trade Commission website and file the Online Identity Theft Complaint Form. Also complete and print the Identity Theft Affidavit. This form lessens the paperwork when you contact credit reporting bureaus, law enforcement, creditors, and other companies and agencies regarding your identity theft situation.

Step 3: File a Police Report. You were a victim of a crime, so go to your local police department or state attorney general office and fill out an Identity Theft Report or a Police Report. Make a copy of the complete police report for your records and to use to make additional copies to submit to financial institutions and credit card companies.

Step 4: Close all accounts that were opened fraudulently and dispute fraudulently activity on existing accounts. You may need to close existing accounts that were tampered with, but before doing so, discuss the procedure with the company involved.

Step 5: Contact companies and agencies were your personal information was compromised. For example:

Contact the Social Security Administration if the identity theft involved your Social Security card, number, or benefits.

Contact your local office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service if you believe mail was stolen from your mailbox.

Contact the Internal Revenue Service or your state Division of Taxation if the identity theft involved your federal or state tax returns.

Contact the fraud or security department of any credit card company, utility company, or financial institution where identity theft occurred.

Contact the major check verification companies if your personal checks have been stolen or bank accounts opened in your name by an identity thief. Your bank can provide you with a list of check verification companies.

Step 6: Once you have completed and submitted all required paperwork, call your creditors and request that they send a letter to the three consumer credit reporting agencies asking them to remove the fraudulent information. Follow-up with creditors with a letter.

Step 7: Respond to any debt collectors immediately. Inform them that the debt is the result of identity theft and ask them to provide you with a copy of the debt.

Step 8: Keep track of the hours, money spent and lost hours at work trying to recover from identity theft. If the thief is caught, you may get reimbursed for your time.

Step 9: Keep a file of everything you do, indicating the dates of phone calls, whom you spoke with, the department and telephone number, and action being taken. Also keep copies of any letters you sent to companies and reports that you filled out.

Step 10: Three months after submitting reports and other paperwork, contact all three consumer credit reporting companies and request a copy of your credit report. Check to see if all fraudulent information has been removed. If it hasn’t, contact the creditors again. Repeat this process until all fraudulent activity has been removed from your credit report.

Related Topics: Identity Theft Resource