You are here: Home Finances Identity Theft: ... What To Do If You ...
Information For Living With: Choose condition »
Information about all aspects of finances affected by a serious health condition. Includes income sources such as work, investments, and private and government disability programs, and expenses such as medical bills, and how to deal with financial problems.
Information about all aspects of health care from choosing a doctor and treatment, staying safe in a hospital, to end of life care. Includes how to obtain, choose and maximize health insurance policies.
Answers to your practical questions such as how to travel safely despite your health condition, how to avoid getting infected by a pet, and what to say or not say to an insurance company.

What To Do If You Are The Victim Of Identity Theft

1/1

According to the Federal Trade Commission, the appropriate steps to take if you suffer identity theft are:

Step 1: Contact the national credit reporting agencies.

  • Contact the fraud departments of any one of the three consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert tells creditors to follow certain procedures before they open any new accounts.
  • The company you call is required to contact the other two.
  • The names and phone numbers of the three agencies are:
  • Once you've placed the fraud alert, you're entitled to order one free credit report from each of the three companies. If you ask, they will display only the last four digits of your Social Security number on your credit reports.

Step 2: Close accounts.

Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. The credit card companies can give you new account numbers within 24 hours.

Step 3: Dispute unauthorized accounts and transactions.

To dispute a new, unauthorized account, it is advisable to Use the FTC's I.D. Theft Affidavit. See: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/affidavit.pdf offsite link.

Step 4. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

You can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) via:

  • http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft offsite link
  • Telephone:  877.ID.THEFT (877-438-4338) or TDD at 202-326-2502
  • Mail to Consumer Response Center, FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

Step 5. File a local report.

File a report with your local police or police in the community where the identity theft took place. Give the police a copy of your FTC ID Theft complaint form. Get a copy of the police report (or, at least, the police report number).

If the police are reluctant to take your report, ask to file a "Miscellaneous Incidents" report. Alternatively, try another jurisdiction, such as your state police.



Please share how this information is useful to you. 0 Comments

 

Post a Comment Have something to add to this topic? Contact Us.

Characters remaining:

  • Allowed markup: <a> <i> <b> <em> <u> <s> <strong> <code> <pre> <p>
    All other tags will be stripped.