Today, in our digital society, there is a new risk: identity theft. This is an increasingly common problem and it’s estimated that up to 27 million people have been a victim of identity theft in just a 5 year period.
There are some things you can do to protect yourself such as shred all important documents before you throw them in the trash, don’t carry your social security card with you, don’t give out sensitive information over the phone unless you’re the one who made the call, and check your credit reports – from all three bureaus- at least once a year.
If, despite your best efforts at prevention, you still become a victim here are some things you can do to help restore your good name:
1. File a police report immediately. It’s very important that you start keeping track of everything so you will have that information later. Once you’ve filed a police report you will be able to get a fraud alert placed by all three credit bureaus.
2. Once you have a fraud alert placed you can get a free credit report from all three bureaus. A fraud alert can last anywhere from 90 days all the way up to seven years. When you have a fraud alert on your account any bank or credit card company will have to meet with you in person or take extra steps to make sure that it really is you who is applying for credit and not an identity thief. Carefully look over your report and immediately notify the credit bureau if you see anything that is incorrect or looks suspicious.
3. Immediately close any accounts that you think have been tampered with or have had fraudulent activity. Call the fraud departments of the companies where the accounts are, explain to them what has happened and send them copies, not the originals, of any paperwork that backs up your belief that there has been fraudulent activity on that account.
Ask the company to provide you with all the paperwork you need to dispute any fraudulent charges that you’ve found. Once you have resolved the dispute with the company, make sure they send you a letter explaining that the account was closed due to fraudulent activity and the fraudulent debts have been discharged. You want to keep this letter in case this information shows up on your credit report, this letter will provide proof that it wasn’t your fault.
4. File a complaint with the FTC. This will allow them to share information with other lay enforcement agencies and hopefully track down the thieves before they can ruin someone else’s credit.
Recovering from identity theft will take a lot of time and patience, the good news is that since so many people are a victim of identity theft that the problem is more well known and the steps to correct the damage aren’t as difficult as they once were. Just try to prevent it by being smart with how you store and use your personal information. Protect yourself and hopefully you will never need the tips above.