You might find out that you’ve been a victim of identity theft through a call from a collection agency claiming you have a debt or if you were denied a credit due to a poor credit score.
It's estimated that as many as 12 million Americans fall victims of identity theft each year.
Here are the steps you need to take as soon as you discovered that you are part of the above statistics.
Notify one of the Credit Reporting Companies, Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion that you being a victim of identity theft. When you notify one, it will notify the other two for you.
Establish fraud alerts.
A fraud alert means that every time a creditor wants to check your credit report, it will need to call you. A fraud alert will be effective for 90 days.
Instruct the credit bureaus to block information about the fraudulent accounts from future reports.
Also ask them to remove inquiries that appeared due to fraudulent requests.
Credit bureaus also allow you to request a freezing of your credit report which means no one will be able to access it. The security freeze is free to victims of identity theft in most states.
Report the crime to your local police department and FTC (Federal Trade Commission)
If you credit report shows fraudulent accounts, contact the creditors and notify them of the identity theft.
If a bill collector contacted you regarding a fraudulent account, inform it that you are a victim of identity theft, and ask for their address. You will need to send them a fraud affidavit that will tell that you are not responsible for the account and that account needs to be closed.
Check if you are missing any ATM or Credit cards. If yes, report the lost cards to your creditors.
To avoid being a victim of identity theft, know how your personal information could be stolen and exercise caution when displaying, publishing, and otherwise giving out your private data.
How your information might get into wrong hands:
Your mail could be stolen from a mailbox.
If you don’t have a habit of shedding sensitive information before putting into trash, your bank statements might be available to a “dumpster diver”
Lost or stolen wallets, credit and ATM cards.
Trojan horses and other viruses might steal information from your computer.
Your personal data might be stolen from a company you have business with.
Other pieces of information such as your phone number, date of birth, and address might be picked up from social network websites such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, hi5 and others.
I have a important question, what if you have done everything mention above and some, and still being harrassed ,what if they caught the person who stole your identity,and your still be hound by the ones that claims,you owe them money, what if you done all that was asked of ya,but than you was called a lair and laughed at and ignored, and being threated to be sued..
whats the next step, when you can't even afford a attorney.
Ladyrose
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Lisa
| 16 replies
Send them a certified return receipt letter requesting that they ceast and desist from calling you. Also ask them to valdiate the debt. Tell them to sent you all the contracts with your signature where you opened the account. Give them thirty days. If they do not send what you want, then send a letter to all three credit bureaus along with copies of the letter you sent them and a copy of the return receipt and have the bureaus remove the debt from your credit. It's time consuming but it works.
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rosequeen
| 2 replies
Another important tip is to NEVER email personal information in reply to the scam emails that claim you won a lottery you never entered or offer you a fabulous job doing data entry work. They are most likely foreigners trying to get you to wire them money after you cash their fake money order or check. They will probably try to steal money from your bank account or open up accounts under your social security number.
Also if you are selling something via classified ads be VERY careful in doing business with people who call you through IP Relay. The IP Relay service is supposed to be for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, however, foreigners use it to perpetrate the scams I mentioned. Be nice to the IP Relay operators, but don't sell your stuff to the scammers. Just hang up.
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wathoo
| 22 replies
You need to go to your local Social Security and take to information stating the identity theft. Feel out the paperwork for a new social security number. They allow a new number to those with your problem. They won't tell you that because they want you to suffer with higher interest rates and such. Corporate dogs... Once you have your new ssn call your valid creditors and have them transfer account over to new number. Old Number will become inactive and you should be fine.
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bb
| 3 replies
I am dealing with ID theft right now through paypal. And so far everyone i have talked to, including EQUIFAX is when they do call you harrassing you for the supposed $ you owe is to tell the to ceast and desist from calling you. That will make them from not calling you again... hope that helps.
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joelimcc
call your state legislators and demand that Identity theftissues are brought before the house of congress to get stronger laws to support you in #1strong penalty towards the theif #2 guidlines for the fruadlent debt collector to follow #3 safety tips consumers can follow for prevenative theft.
+1
teachr14206
| 10 replies
I have an elderly relative in her 90s who had her identity stolen, to open several credit accounts that were never paid a penny, by her own niece! This woman was "helping" her with her bills & shopping etc. Adult Protective Services will do NOTHING about this...WTF good are they? All they did was take over her Social Security check & become her payee & dole out her own money to her in dribs & drabs now, because their take on it is that she's "incapable of handling her own finances because she allowed her niece to rip her off". I don't see how trusting that your own niece won't screw you over translates to "allowed", certainly she was unaware her niece had done this until the collection agencies found her. Because she is all but deaf, I tried to help her out by calling these collection agencies & explaining about the identity theft. They were all asked to validate the debt & not one of them did it. Unfortunately, I made the calls from my own home phone & you guessed it...now they are harassing ME for these "debts" with their stupid recordings! It's like they are deliberately obtuse & don't understand English. They'll never get her on the phone because of her deafness, but they continue to fill up her mailbox & call me about this. How do I get these people off my back & hers when even Adult Protective Services refuses to do something as simple as contact the credit bureaus & file a police report on the behalf of an elderly disabled person?
i second that. i used to work as an ip relay operator. i can't talk about the phone calls but i can say that the operator is just doing their job and relaying messages for the supposed hard of hearing. and if you're wondering why they can't hang up when they think it's a scam instead of putting the call through to you, it's because our constitutional rights protect us, but also protect them. funny loop hole huh? not all ip relay calls are scams. many are valid, and many of those valid calls are ignored because of the scams being used through their lines of communication.
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Tina
My Husband I have been victims of ID theft and creid card fraud. It was his daughter who did it. Law isn't any good. A few months in prison and she's out doing all it again. She's been to prison 5 times for the same theft and fraud. She's still doing it. It's been real rough tring to get any Govt. agency or law enforcment to do anything. Just have to keep calling the credit reporting agencies and keep putting fraud alert on our credit.
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Christy
| 2 replies
How do you prove that the collections is not really you? I have tried to dispute it several times and it comes back as all information verified. The number for the collection agency is disconnected so I can't even get their documents saying that I opened anything.
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jessica
| 4 replies
my mom has been using my social security number to get things in my name and now my credit is bad
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tiredMT
STolen mail led to ID theft for my husband & I. This is the second time...make sure you report it to the police, get a case number from them & get an Identity theft passport from your state. This protects you from all this crap that falls onto you with ID theft. We had to hire an attorney as it is so bad. Think I'll apply for a new SSA number. Collection agencies just want money & don't care how much stress you are under. Our attorney says to take the calls, record them (make sure you tell them you are recording if your state is a one-party state), write cease& desist letters like suggested above. Document everything & they are liable to you for all costs.
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Tess
| 1 reply
STOLEN DRIVERS LICENSE WITH IMPERSONATOR PHOTO GAINED ACCESS TO MY BANK ACCTS AT BRANCH BANKS - ACCESSED ALL FUNDS EVEN CD. BANK SAID CAN'T BE SURE WHEN IMPERSONATOR WILL USE ID AGAIN. YEAR LATER, GOT CALL WANTING TO "GO OVER" MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER ...FOREIGN CALLER...THAT IT WASN'T BEING PROCESSED. Does anyone know if I can use my middle name as first name without getting into big Name Change Petition, court filings, etc. or use my nickname with a/k/a.....
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Al
| 2 replies
F.Y.I , YOUR IDENTITY and Job Seeking via the computer...Speaking about theif and protecting yourself...
If seeking a job and going on line for the application process(If you can call it that)or if applying in store via the "In Store Job Application Computers"...Pay attention to all the "disclaimers and notices" that pop up from time to time during this job application process. READ them, taking down names and numbers within these "slipped in" documents even if you are "timed out" or "forced to quit" the timed application process again and again.
Most of these on line applications are run by "HIRED" Third Party Companies outside of the company in which you are applying for. They will list their names and contact numbers, within or after the application process. They will ask you to give up certain rights for your right to apply for a job forcing you to agree upon their "contract terms" granting them permission to take all your "free" personal infomation you listed within this job application (Information left in Good Faith for Employment Seeking) and use it for profit! Unless you contact them in certain ways and within certain time limits they will then sell your information to other compainies and who knows who for things such as market research, credit reporting, credit cards and so on. If you decline to accept these terms during within this on-line application process then you do not get to fill out the application! Fair... Right?
You can find these on-line applications almost everywhere. Its been the "in-thing" for places such as Lowes, Target and even at your hometown local food stores. Somebody gets your very personal information and is getting paid for your Job Application Efforts, then afterwards makes a quick buck off of you too!(It seems these on-line applications ask for EVERYTHING... makes an old fashion paper application blush!) If you do not get the job, they still made a buck and have all your information passing it on to others. If it is also one of those applications that ask you 80 plus twisted repeated psycho questions, since you have to answer them all to complete the application, they now have your name and number then know how you think...good or bad, along with all your information forever.
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Helio
| 5 replies
I got LifeLock. 10 bucks a month. Cheap insurance for this stuff.
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