Think You've Been the Victim of Credit Card Fraud?

Last November my husband came home from work and asked if I had applied for any charge cards. I just looked at him, and said no and then I got angry and asked why he asked such a dumb question. Well it seems a x-friend of mine stopped by my husbands place of employment to drop off some of my junk mail I had been receiving at the address that a family member and I were in business together at one time. This x-friend lived with the family member. Well he proceeded to tell my husband that I applied for a charge card on November 16, 2006 and that was all that was said.

When my husband told me this I flew into and immediate panic as I knew this x-friend had a function out of town in a week or so. I would not have put it past this person to have tried to get a charge card. I also know that this weekend entailed a hotel room for 3 days, and that said person loves to spend money. I was so angry, that someone would try to do something like this and since I was already on the Internet I immediately typed in how to report that someone possibly was trying to open a credit card account in my name. Up popped all the information I needed including other areas of concern to cover.

Trans Union- 1-800-680-7289.
Equifax - 1-800-680-7289
Experian: 1-800-682-7654

The Major credit card company phone numbers are below:

Visa: 1-800-VISA-911
MasterCard: 1-800-823-2181
Discover: 1-800-DISCOVER
American Express: 1-800-528-4800

If you have lost your credit card, think it was stolen or that it is either being used or applied for fraudulently contact the above 3 phone numbers for Equifax, Trans Union and Experian, this is there fraud assistance phone numbers.

I contact Equifax, and had a wonderful lady on the other end of the phone. She asked all of my information, name, complete address, which credit card company I thought it might be, which I had no Idea, because I had, had formerly had 3 charge cards. She told me to call the police department to make them aware of the situation, and that she would call Trans Union and Experian for me. She told me they all work together. She also said that there would be a block on any charge card applications for 90 days, and in this time I could get a free credit reporting that I could request them to send to me. The only way they could OK any credit card applications or transactions she told me was by Equifax, TransUnion or Experian contacting me to see if I had applied for a credit card, or made a purchase. I was also told to contact my credit cards companies as well.

I then contacted our local Police Department and told them all the details of my story, and why I thought that it could possibly happen that someone would apply for a credit card in my name. They told me to contact Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Which I had already done. Then they also told me to contact my Bank. They told me I did not have to file a report as we had no proof of any fraudulent action yet. But, I was told if we found out there was any activity to come in and file a report and they would take action. One nice thing they did do was take the information down that I gave them over the phone, just in case.

Well this was late evening so I was unable to contact my bank, so I called my credit card companies to report the possible incident. They said that they would put a freeze on all purchases and that I would have to verify them. I said No Thank You, I want the credit cards canceled right now. They tried to talk me out of it saying I would lose all my points I had on my cards. I told them, I don't care about the points it is more important to cancel the cards for now. So they were canceled right when I was talking to them on the phone.

You also need to contact any companies such as utilities, banks, and lenders to report that your accounts may have been or going to be tampered with or fraudulently opened. I also contacted the Hotel that I knew that this person would be staying at, as I stayed there the year before. I talked to the Desk clerk told her the situation and that I had stayed there last year with this person. I asked her to put on there registration that No Credit Card by my name was to be used. I also gave her my phone number to let me know if this person had a credit card in my name. She was more than happy to help me out.

I finally could breathe a bit easier. I also contacted some friends that I knew that would be at this weekend long function and explained the situation. They said they would keep and eye to see if a credit card was used as this person could not get a credit card because the had no credit.

I am thankful to my husband for coming home and immediately confronting me with this issue as I was able to nip it in the bud before anything happened. I can say that I am thankful that over the next 90 days we never received any calls. We still check over our credit card statements very closely and I never reopened those other accounts just in case there is still some old junk mail being delivered to the wrong address. Oh, one other thing, I did go down to the post office and put in another change of address and took it to the clerk and told them the situation. They marked it with a red stamp for top priority. Now that I had all of my bases covered I could stop panicking.

For more information on identity fraud, stolen credit cards, what a thief looks for go to:

http://www.creditreporting.com/identity-fraud.html