4 Must Do Steps After an Identity Theft

It's a beautiful day. You and your friend decide to go for hike. You pull into the trail head parking area and start the process of getting ready to hike. You brought your young child along, so it takes some time to get your stuff together. After 5 - 10 minutes of wrestling with your equipment and your child's equipment, you start your hike. When you return an hour later, you find your car window broken and your wallet stolen. You thought you had it with you, but you were so busy getting your child and you organized, you forgot to bring it along. What a sickening feeling. Your money and identity were stolen.

The above scenario happened to my daughter. The only bright spot in this episode is her husband is a police officer so she had some information more readily available to her. Indeed her identity was stolen and within the same day, some fraudulent charges were made on her credit card. Here are the four 'must do' steps to take. Keep a detailed record of all your conversations and copies of all the correspondences and forms.

1. Contact the toll-free fraud number of any one of the three consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report, too. This fraud alert that you've given will notify all the creditors that you have been a victim and will not allow accounts to be opened in your name without permission from you. The permission is often done by the credit company calling you and asking if you indeed want to open an account.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285;
Experian: 1-888-397-3742;
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289

2. Close the accounts that you know or suspect have been opened fraudulently. This may be a good time to photocopy all the contents of your wallet and keep in a safe place. This way you'll know what credit cards you were carrying. Call and speak with someone in the security or fraud department of each company. Follow up in writing, and include copies of any supporting documents. It's important to notify credit card companies and banks in writing. Send your letters by certified mail. That way you have written evidence should you need it at a later time.

3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can file a complaint with the FTC using the form found at their website (See Resource Link: the https site); or call the FTC's Identity Theft Hotline, toll-free: 1-877-ID-THEFT (438-4338); TTY: 1-866-653-4261; or write Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580. Be sure to call the Hotline to update your complaint if you have any additional information or problems.

4. File a police report in the community where the identity took place, not where you live. You'll need numerous copies of this police report so be ready when people start asking for it. In some areas, the police may not be allowed to give you the actual report. If that's the case, they can issue some form that lists the police report number of the official report.

It is my hope that you never need to follow these four steps because you haven't had your identity stolen.