Protect Your Identity

Early detection of a potential identity theft can make a big difference. Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity by routinely monitoring:

Your Financial Statements.

Monitor your financial accounts and billing statements regularly, looking closely for charges you did not make.

Your Credit Reports

Credit reports contain information about you, including what accounts you have and how you pay your bills. The law requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting agencies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. To find out, order a copy of your credit reports.

Once you get your reports, review them carefully. Look for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, accounts you didn’t open, and debts on your accounts that you can’t explain. Check that information, like your Social Security number, address(es), name or initials, and employers are correct. If you find fraudulent or inaccurate information, get it removed. See Correcting Fraudulent Information in Credit Reports to learn how.

Continue to check your credit reports periodically, especially for the first year after you discover the identity theft, to make sure no new fraudulent activity has occurred.

You can file a complaint with the FTC using the online ID Theft Complaint Form; you can call the FTC’s Identity Theft Hotline, toll-free: 1-877-ID-THEFT (438-4338); TTY: 1-866-653-4261; or you can write to the Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580. A printed version of your complaint is available only if you file your complaint online.

Please do not send the FTC your printed ID Theft Complaint Form, ID Theft Affidavit, police report, credit reports, financial information, or any other documents relating to your case. The FTC does not keep these materials on file or forward them to law enforcement agencies. If a law enforcement agency decides to open an investigation on your case, they will contact you directly and let you know what documents they need.

The ID Theft Complaint Form is used by consumers online to file a complaint with the FTC. The FTC makes the ID Theft Complaints we receive from victims available to other federal, state and local law enforcement officials nationwide. The printed ID Theft Complaint can be used in conjunction with a police report to create an Identity Theft Report that will help you recover more quickly.

The Identity Theft Report is a detailed police report that gives enough information about the crime for the credit reporting companies and the businesses involved to verify that you’re a victim of ID theft. When you file your Identity Theft Report with the credit reporting companies or creditors, you get several important legal protections that will help you recover from ID theft. However, the credit reporting companies and businesses can decline your Identity Theft Report if it does not contain enough detail.

The ID Theft Affidavit is a less detailed version of an Identity Theft Report. If you request copies of applications or transaction documents related to your ID theft from companies that opened fraudulent accounts for the thief, they may require you to give them an ID Theft Affidavit and a police report before they give the records to you. And, if you don’t want to file a police report, you can use an ID Theft Affidavit instead of an Identity Theft Report to request that companies remove your responsibility for debts where an identity thief opened a new account in your name. However, an ID Theft Affidavit doesn’t give you as many legal rights as you get with an Identity Theft Report.

via www.ftc.gov

An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

To order your free annual report from one or all the national consumer reporting companies, visit www.annualcreditreport.com, call toll-free 877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print the form from ftc.gov/credit. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually; they provide free annual credit reports only through www.annualcreditreport.com, 877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

Under federal law, you’re also entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance or employment, and you request your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company that supplied the information about you. You’re also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; you’re on welfare; or your report is inaccurate because of fraud. Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $9.50 for any other copies of your report.

To buy a copy of your report, contact:

Equifax: 800-685-1111; www.equifax.com

Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742); www.experian.com

TransUnion: 800-916-8800; www.transunion.com

From www.ftc.gov