9 Things To Do When Your Identity Stolen

Tom, not necessarily. With your name, YOB, state you live in, scammers can still zero in on additional info on you through pubic databases until they gain what they need. Where they will take the additional time to do this or not is unknown, but possible. Best thing is to just not answer incoming unknown numbers and let voice mail pick it up. Never return uninitiated contact. And if they leave information in a message that sounds legit, say Bank XYZ which you happent to bank at, never return such a call with the number they leave you. Go to your Bank Statement and get the number from there and ask if So-In-So in fact works there.

WOW! Marge, thank you for posting that very informative and eye-opening post!!! To other posters, I too have been a victim of IDT, SS number only, not financial so far, I think that applications for creadit were made, but not sure as they were denied, and the person is a convicted criminal unknown to me.

I came upon a site by a a very involved attorney, Mari Frank, out in California and got her tapes and have gone through most of the processes. The laws are slow to change but advancement keeps going in a positive direction. Get involved in making a difference on this front in any way you can. It can effect you in so many way, it has cost me employment within the financial industry.

LifeLock, despite any controversy you may have heard through the grapevine, is terrific. I got it about a year ago after discovery that someone was using my SS#. I go it for their cease and desist efforts, not necessary the insurance since I figured they are not responsible for what has already happened. It is great, no mailings, no calls, info out of those public databases, alerts with all the credit agencies, etc. Eventhough these services can be performed for nearly free if done by yourself, LifeLock has saved me immense time, effort, and peace of mind for only $10 bucks a mo. Thank g-d!

Police report,
FTC Report, and
Social Security- can't beleive this does not come up as a deceased record at the DMV.

Also read Dave Ramsey's web site. Harassment by bill collectors is ILLEGAL. Also, it's not illegal for you to get rude when you know full well they are lying. They know you aren't responsible, but try to get you to pay it anyway because they know the person actually responsible will never pay and he (the collector) works on commission.

Another means of identity theft I didn't see mentioned is using card reader machines (skimmers and older credit card terminals).  

A year ago my bank account that should have had $1100 in it was in the red $200 from 1 day to the next.  I live in Utah, the withdrawals were made in California.  I couldn't understand how someone could have gotten my pin number and how they could be using my debit card at an ATM in another state while it was in my possession.  

So I started researching and it turns out that all of the information on the magnetic strip of your card can be stored by various devices.  This information is incredibly sensitive, e.g. date of birth, pin number, card number, bank account number, billing address, etc.  What is worse is that this stored information can be printed out or uploaded to the net and used to create fake cards, and more.  Then the ATM and shopping spree begins.  

This is what happened to me.  I swipe my card as little as possible now, never surrender it to someone else (like a waiter) and pay cash for most transactions.  Luckily, my bank was willing to replace the funds, but it still took 2 weeks for the replacement funds to be put permanently back into my account and my rent ended up being late by 2 weeks because of that.  I have an understanding landlord, however, something most folks don't have and for a lot of you, I would wager your bank won't be so forgiving, making the use (overuse as I see it) of credit/debit cards a very risky move.  It also ruins your credit from charges made with the counterfeit card, but mine has been ruined for years and years, so I'm used to not being able to apply for credit anywhere.

Just keep in mind that every swipe of your card can surrender your most personal information to the workers at that location.  

http://identitytheft911.org/articles/article.ext?sp=67

A SHOCKING STORY ABOUT IDENTITY THEFT AND BANK OF AMERICA
My message comes with a caveat:  DON'T TRUST YOUR MONEY TO BANK OF AMERICA IF YOU'VE HAD FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY IN AN ACCOUNT HELD THERE. IMMEDIATELY CLOSE YOUR EXISTING ACCOUNT AND OPEN A NEW ACCOUNT AT SOME OTHER BANK...ANY OTHER BANK.
My friend tried to warn me, but I thought it was impossible, "BofA would never do that, I said."
Well, listen and learn:
I don't know who your bank was, but some number of years ago my car was stolen when I was moving and among the load of things they stole was a new box of checks. The long and the short of my story is that the moment I discovered electronic checks were being processed through my account, I went in to the bank, filed all the ACH paperwork, closed the account and opened a new account to safeguard my money (My BIGGEST MISTAKE OF ALL was opening that new account at the same old bank). Bank of America closed the account for me. And opened it again... In fact, I witnessed a branch manager bring the balance to zero and close the account, on 6 different occasions. Despite taking the appropriate actions, BANK OF AMERICAN never returned my $1498 and even took funds from my new account to cover additional fraudulent activity from the old account, which they continued to reopen.
I hope you are sitting down, because according to the Liaison from the President's Special Group (from BofA), Believe it, or not, BANK OF AMERICA will reopen your CLOSED account EVERY TIME THERE IS ANY ACTIVITY THAT COMES IN AGAINST THAT ACCOUNT.  They don't return the transaction saying "this account is closed."  They reopen your account and process as normal!!!!!
I closed this vulnerable account in Feb of 2006.  It is now August of 2008 (2.5 years later) and BofA is STILL accepting charges to that account, for which they say I am responsible!!!!  There are currently about $2,800 worth of overdraft fees on that (closed) account!!!  Every few months a new creditor calls me about this "sum I owe BofA". I laugh at them: My position is that I closed my account and after I did so, that account and account # reverted back to BofA and is the property of Bank of America's to do with as they choose; after Feb 26, 2008 it became THEIR ACCOUNT AND THEIR BUSINESS, NOT MINE.
Despite all this, Bank of America INSISTS that I must pay these fees.
I think they should use the $1500 they never repaid me for the stolen funds, their President's Special Group and shove those, along with the still accumulating overdraft fees, where the sun doesn't shine and leave me alone, once and for all.
BEWARE BANK OF AMERICA if you should experience Identity Theft.

So what happened to me i was out of the country for few years and just came back few months ago and now i just found out that I'm the victim of identy theft and I had no idea. Long story short I got married and have a different name you think i can get a different SSN # b/c the amount been changed on different credit cards are scary and i never had all those credit cards some one used my name and SSN to open whole bunch of credit cards and used them so as of now i owe more than $13,000.00.
Its been soo hard on me I'm really stressed out can't even get a job right now as every one check the credit and all that. Please help me

Warning: This is a scam to beat all scams.  I met this guy online on a dating site.  The reader's digest version: 1st month he asked for credit card info and wanted me to open an account with Citibank, 2nd he said his daughter had to have emergency surgery in England for $4,000+, then he sent a forged/bad check through a friend (which he said he didn't know about the bad check...yeah right!) he said to keep 200 and send the rest to his daughter in Africa (funny how she is in Africa after major surgery!!) to buy things, then the flights were
"missed" to come from England to the states, the final blow...was he said he was kidnapped and if there wssn't $50,000 given to the kidnappers then he would be killed in 10 days. Well, everything has been given to the police and now it is an FBI matter.  I am meeting with the police on this monday coming.  Can you believe this?  No money given.  I turned in everything to the police for the FBI.  What a scam!  We played along to see if we could get as much info for the police and the FBI as possible.  Crazy!  But, it is hard to let go because I want someone to catch these people (team of scammers) and put them in jail!!  Dawn

Well, that explains a lot!  I started getting harrassed by a collection agency for a BoA account.  I used to have a credit card with them but canceled it.... 6 months after i closed it a charge went through on the closed account.  Never heard from BoA about this (no statements, nothing), only from the collection agency.  Now I understand that this is typical of them.  My credit is trashed because it looks like I'm delinquent on an account I no longer have.  Trying to get this fixed has been as effective as banging my head against a wall.

In the end, they need a signature, without your signature, there is no contract and you are not liable. They can say all they want, you just ask for a signature.

All the messages i've read seem to be people from U.S.A. I live in Scotland, United Kingdom, and have had the calls and survey as described, any others in my neck of the woods?

My son opened an account at bank of america. before he even used it once it had fradulent activity. it was reported and they were instructed to close the account...they didnt do it till after yet another fraudlent charge went through. then they keep insisting he pay the over draft fees even though they admit there was fraud invovled outside his control.  someone stole the bank accont number and routing number before it even left the bank. bank of am. has someone inside stealing bank account numbers. beware! my son never even used the account. nobody knew the number but him. it was used online.

they also turned him to a collection agency over the overdraft fees that were only generated because of the fraud! bank of am. is evil. we reported them to the FTC.

The editor,
Re: 9 things to do when your identity Stolen
Below the 9 things to do you have six bullets.  The second bullet is "If you don't have a habit of shedding sensitive...."  should be shredding.  A dog sheds his coat, a smart person shreds sensitive data.

my mother did that too...and the entire family coddles her and gets mad at me for wanting to file charges....si I haven't. Nice ,huh?