| How to Behave When You Are a Victim of Identity Theft, Part 2 |
|
Put a fraud alert on your credit report. Under new federal law, fraud alerts take on an increased importance. If you think that you might be the victim of identity theft, you can have a fraud alert placed upon your credit report at the credit reporting agencies. The alert stays on your report for up to ninety days but can be extended for up to seven years. When a fraud alert has been put on your credit report, you are entitled to a second free credit report during that year in order to monitor your credit for further irregularities. In the past, people placing a fraud alert on their credit reports found that to be effective, they had to call each of the three major credit reporting agencies to have fraud alerts independently placed on each company's record. Now under FACT (the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), all you need to do is call one of the credit reporting agencies and they are required to notify the other two to place the fraud alert on your file. Go to the Federal Trade Commission web site to obtain the FTC's ID Theft Affidavit and use it to report the crime. Contact all your creditors by phone and then follow up with a letter sent by certified mail, return receipt requested. Get new credit cards with new account numbers. Change your PIN number and your passwords. Close tainted accounts. When opening new accounts with these creditors, use a password that is not easily connected with you. A word to the wise: Do not use your mother's maiden name, or to be particularly safe, do not even use my mother's maiden name. People think that their mother's maiden name is difficult to find. It is not. It is on your birth certificate, a public record. When you close accounts, make sure that the accounts are designated as being closed at the customer's request due to theft so that when information is transmitted to the credit reporting bureaus, it is clear that the problems are not of your doing. Ask your creditors to notify each of the credit reporting agencies to remove erroneous and fraudulent information from your file. |
Discuss this item on the forums. (0 posts)
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|