Identity Theft - What do you do if you’re the victim?
By Richard K. Gustafson II
I want to share with you a short story about identity theft and how to combat it.
One of the clerks here at the law firm relayed a story of a friend of hers who was the victim of identity theft and asked me for advice. Her friend had been unable to get apartment leases despite a solid work history and decent income. Her friend was unable to finance vehicles without co-signors and couldn’t get an unsecured credit card. He had struggled to try to correct his credit report and had used his credit responsibly throughout his life. Understandably, he was frustrated and felt hopeless to ever resolve this situation. I told her friend to take the steps below.
STEPS TO TAKE WHEN YOU SUSPECT YOU ARE THE VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT:
1) Keep records! Keep all communications you receive regarding your identity theft. Make sure when you send any information via certified mail. Keep track of how much time you have to spend dealing with the issue.
2) Call the police. Report the theft and make sure you get a copy of the incident report.
3) Contact the Federal Trade Commission. You can go to their website at www.ftc.gov and fill out the identity theft affidavit. You can also call them at 1.877.IDTHEFT (1-877-438-4338).
4) Contact the Social Security Administration and report the theft, just in case the thief has, and is using, your social security number. There are disadvantages to getting a new social security number, so you may want to consider just reporting it instead of getting a new number. Consider how the thief is using your social security number before you decide what you want the social security administration to do.
5) Contact all three of the major credit bureaus and report the theft and ask them to put a fraud alert on your credit report. You can place an initial 90 day alert on your credit reports. You may also place a 7 year extension on the alert. Anyone attempting to use your credit (including you) will have to show extra picture IDs. The three major national credit bureaus are TransUnion (1-800-680-7289), Equifax (1.800.525.6285) and Experian (1.888.397.3742).
6) Freeze fraudulent accounts. Contact the credit card companies of any stolen credit cards and immediately have them issue new cards and cancel the old ones. Follow up with written requests. You may also need to close your bank account if the thief has stolen your checks.
7) Contact the Postmaster. If you suspect someone has changed your address with the post office or used the mail to commit identity theft, notify the US Postal Inspector.
Once you put these wheels in motion, the authorities will investigate and hopefully they will find and prosecute the perpetrator. If you keep all of your records and can show vendors and banks what happened, you shouldn’t be liable for fraudulent charges. Realize that financial institutions are taking financial losses perpetrated by the thief, so they will want you to verify your claims with records, so you need to be prepared to provide them the information about the theft they will need.
The story of my co-worker’s friend has a happy ending. The thief was arrested, charged and convicted of identity theft and mail fraud and other crimes. It turns out that the thief had stolen the identities of at least three people. He is currently awaiting sentencing for his crimes. The friend got his life back and is now able to obtain unsecured credit cards, finance vehicles without co-signors, and do the normal credit transactions most of us take for granted. The old Schoolhouse Rock saying, “knowledge is power,” turned out to be true!
I hope none of you ever become the victim of identity theft, but if you are I hope this blog will arm you with a little knowledge that can save you a lot of aggravation.
