If you’ve just experienced the terrible feeling of having your identity stolen - there are millions of others who know how you feel. ID theft is one of the most common financial crimes and is on the rise. Here are the essential steps you need to take to react to an ID fraud:
- Notify affected all affected creditors and banks
- Place a fraud alert with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion
- Check your credit reports
- Put in a credit freeze if you believe your credit cards have been compromised
- If needed, contact the FTC
- File a police report
- Send your police report to creditors
- Contact the credit reporting agencies
- Change all your account passwords
- Call Social Security fraud hotline
- Apply for a new driver license
- Last but not the least, contact utility companies
Notify affected creditors or bank
If your existing credit line or bank account is feeling the brunt, shut it down. You can save plenty of money by working in collaboration with the bank or credit card company. It has been noticed that number of credit cards has zero-liability policies. On the other hand, according to Fair Credit Billing Act, maximum liability for unauthorized charges is $50.
ATM or electronic transfers from your bank account comes under the category of Electronic Fund Transfer Act. According to Electronic Fund Transfer Act, it’s the responsibility of consumers to act fast. The significant factor here is that reporting a lost or stolen ATM or debit card before any sort of fraudulent activity signifies that you are not responsible for any activities.
In the case of buying and withdrawals, you have an opportunity of two business days to report the unauthorized charges. Once the time period of two days is over, there is a $500 liability limit for up to two months after the statement depicting the fraud is received by you. After two months, you are exposed to unlimited liability.
Place a fraud alert on your credit report
If experts are to be believed, you need to contact any one of the three credit reporting agencies and request a fraud alert. When you follow this route, a fraud alert will be put on all three of your credit files. The most intriguing thing about fraud alert is that it is only applicable for three months. Once you have taken the assistance of police or submitted a complaint form to the FTC, you get an extra time which normally lasts for seven years. As compared to fraud alert, credit freeze is a much better option as it offers more protection. The only drawback of credit freeze is that it can be pretty restrictive when it comes to applying for credit.
Checking credit reports
Once you have installed a fraud alert in your credit file, you are going to get a free credit report from each of the three agencies. Furthermore, you will be opted out of preapproved credit card and insurance offers. When you get your reports, it is of utmost importance that you store unique number safely somewhere which is given to your account. This can come in real handy when you are communicating with the agencies.
Analyze your reports carefully for signs of fraud. It includes, accounts that you didn’t open and hard inquiries that you are not accustomed with. You also need to take into consideration the payment history. If you are not happy with your payment history, tell agencies clearly that there is something wrong with your report. Take the help of identity theft report in order to erase fraudulent details from your reports.
Place a credit freeze on your reports
A credit freeze is the way to go if you are clear in your mind that you are a victim. When you opt for credit freeze, all your credit details will be lock down. The best part about credit freeze is that it prevents the credit-reporting agencies from releasing your credit report to new creditors. You need to spend $10 in order to put a credit freeze on your reports. Credit freeze is going to be free of cost when you can prove in front of agency that you are an ID theft victim.
Contact the FTC
You also need to contact the FTC at (877) 438-4338. No doubt, main responsibility of federal investigators is to focus on bigger and more sophisticated fraud cases but that does not mean they do not monitor identity theft crimes of all levels. Fact of the matter is that they monitor identity theft crimes of all levels.
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