Identity Theft

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Credit Reports and Credit Scoring,  Identity Theft

Contact the authorities
Contact your local police or sheriff’s department. Report the crime to the police immediately. Give them as much document evidence as possible. Get a copy of your police report. Credit card companies, your bank, and the insurance company may require you to show the report in order to verify the crime. Police departments have been known to refuse to write police reports on such crimes

Federal Trade Commission
Pull your credit report
Call the fraud units of the three credit reporting companies - Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union. Report the theft of your cards or numbers. Ask that your accounts be flagged. Also, add a victim’s statement to your report. (“My ID has been used to apply for credit fraudulently. Contact me at 555-123-4567 to verify all applications.”) THIS IS A MUST. Be sure to ask how long the fraud alert is posted on your accounts, and how to extend it if necessary.

If your credit cards were stolen, call your creditors.
Immediately call your credit card issuers. Get replacement cards with new account numbers. Follow up in writing. This protects you in case of a dispute with the credit card issuer.

Important Note: Ask that the old accounts be processed as “account closed at consumer’s request.” This is better than “card lost or stolen” because when this statement is reported to the credit bureaus, it can be interpreted as blaming you for the loss.

If your checks were stolen, notify your banks.

Cancel your checking and savings account and obtain new account numbers. Ask the bank to issue you a secret password that must be used in every transaction. Put stop payments on any outstanding checks you are unsure of. If you have had checks stolen or bank accounts set up fraudulently, report it to TeleCheck, National Processing Company or Equifax.

If your ATM card(s) was stolen, order a new one.
Get a new card, account number and password. Do not use your old password. When creating a new password, avoid such commonly used numbers as the last four digits of your Social Security number and your birth date.

Fraudulent change of address
Notify the local Postal Inspector if you suspect an identity thief has filed a change of your address with the post office or has used the mail to commit credit or bank fraud. (Call the local Postmaster to obtain the phone number, (800) 275-8777) Find out where fraudulent credit cards were sent. Notify the local Postmaster for that address to forward all mail in your name to your own address. You may also need to talk with the mail carrier.

If your Social Security Number has been misused.
Call the Social Security Administration to report fraudulent use of your Social Security number. You may want to have your Social Security number changed if you number has been associated with bad checks and credit. Contact your local office of the Social Security Administration. Caution: This step should be reserved for only the most extreme situations. You must be sure to notify all credit grantors and credit reporting bureaus of your new Social Security number. Changing you Social Security number is not a good idea for most situations; in fact, it may cause more problems that it solves because you start with new records. You no longer have a financial history, work history, or even a college records. A clean slate is considered negative by most lenders. These records are all linked to your Social Security number.

Notify the Passport Office
If you suspect mail theft, theft of mail is a felony.
Examples of mail fraud:
Your checks or your mail were stolen from your mail box
A forged check sent to you through the mail.
You mailed a check to an individual or a company who obtained the funds fraudulently.
The U.S mail service was used to commit a criminal act.

Notify the Passport office
If you have a passport, notify the passport office in writing to be on the lookout for anyone ordering a new passport fraudulently.

Call your telephone, electrical, gas and water utilities.
Alert them to the possibility that someone may attempt to open new service using your identification. Also contact your long distance company. You may need to cancel your long distance calling card if it has been stolen or if “shoulder surfers” have accessed the account number. If you are having trouble getting fraudulent getting fraudulent utility charges removed from your account, contact your state Public Utility Commission. For trouble with long distance phone service providers contact the Federal Communications Commission at (888) CALL-FCC.

If your Drivers License number has been misused.
You may want to change your driver’s license number if someone is using yours as identification on bad checks. When requesting a new number from the Department of Motor Vehicles, you might be asked to prove that you have been damaged by the theft of your driver’s license. You may need to be persistent. Go to your local DMV to request a new number. Fill out the DMV’s complaint form to begin the investigation process. Send supporting documents with the complete form to the nearest DMV investigation office. If an imposter in a scheme to issue bogus checks to businesses used your driver’s license number fraudulently, the license number may have been recorded and flagged by one of the various check cashing verification companies, for example, TeleCheck. This may result in your check cashing privileges being denied. In this case, we recommend requesting a new license number. Be sure to contact the appropriate check verification service to clear the erroneous record.

The Secret Service
Has jurisdiction fraud (18 USC 1029) but, based on the U.S Attorney guidelines, it usually does not investigate individual cases unless the dollar amount is high or you are one of many victims of a fraud ring. To interest the Secret Service in your case, you may want to ask the fraud department of the credit card companies and /or banks, as well as the police investigator, to notify the Secret Service agent they work with. Normally the amount must exceed 65,000 to 75,000 per case, depending on your location.

In dealing with the legal authorities and financial institutions
Keep a log of all conversations, including dates and names. Send all correspondence by certified mail. Keep copies of all letters documents. Provided your police report number to expedite reporting the crime. Always back up any phone calls with a letter.

Consider seeking legal counsel
If you have difficulty clearing up your credit history, or your case is complex and involves a lot of money. An attorney can help you recover from the fraud and determine whether your rights under various credit, banking, Social Security number and other laws have been violated.

Equifax
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374

Tel: 1-888-766-0008
www.equifax.com

Experian (formerly TRW)
National Consumer Assistance Center
PO Box 2002
Allen, TX 75013

Tel: 1-888-397-3742
www.experian.com

TransUnion LLC
Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022

Tel: 1-800-888-4213
www.tuc.com

Remember you are entitled to a free credit report if you are a victim of identify theft, if you have been denied credit within the past 60 days, if you receive welfare, or if you become unemployed.

Social Security Administration
If your social security number has been used fraudulently for employment purposes, report the problem to the Social Security Administration at (800) 269-0271 between 10 am and 4pm Eastern Time. You may order your earnings and benefit Statements by calling (800) 772-1213. Unfortunately, the Social Security Administration has no procedures in place related to non-employment types of Social Security Number fraud, such as credit application fraud. For extreme cases of identity theft, they may be willing to change your social security number.
Fax: (410) 597-0018
Or write: SSA Fraud Hotline, PO Box 17768, Baltimore, MD 21235
Email: oig.hotline@ssa.gov

US Post Office
To obtain the phone number of the local postal inspector call (800) 275-8777
www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect
To remove your name from mail and phone lists (Direct Marketing Association)
Mail Preference Service, PO Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11735.
Telephone Preference Service, PO Box 9014, Farmingdale, NY 11735
To report fraudulent use of your checks (contact the company which the merchant uses)
Checkrite: (800) 766-2748
Chexsystems (800) 428-9623
Crosscheck (800) 552-1900
Equifax (800) 437-5120
International Check Services (800) 631-9656
National Processing Company (NPC) (800)-526-5380
SCAN (800) 262-7771
Telecheck (800) 710-9898

Other useful resources

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) The FTC offers help to victims. File your case with the FTC Consumer Response Center, (877) IDTHEFT

FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20580
www.consumer.gov/idtheft

The FTC has an on-line form you can fill out to report identity theft:
https://rn.ftc.gov/doid/widtpubl$.startup?Z_org_code=pu03

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
3100-5th Ave, Suite B, San Diego, CA 92103 Phone: (619) 298-3396. E-mail: prc@privacyrights.org

Identify Theft Resource Center
List of local victim support groups: www.idtheftcenter.org & voices123@att.net

FBI Internet Fraud Complaint Center: www.ifccfbi.gov

U.S Dept of Justice theft information: www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html

Identity Theft Survival Kit: Phone: 800-725-0807 or www.identitytheft.org & www.treas.gov/irs/ci

The IRS is responsible for administering and enforcing the internal revenue laws. If you believe someone has assumed your identity to file federal Income Tax Returns, or to commit other tax fraud, call toll-free: 800-829-0433. For assistance to victims of identity theft schemes who are having trouble filing their correct returns, call the IRS Taxpayer Advocates Office, toll free: 877-777-4778

In 30 days I will call you to follow up: What is the net cash flow on the budget after the first month? What budget saving tips did you use or what items did you save on to net the cash flow surplus? Did you start the emergency fund with the budget surplus? How long will you be adding to this fund each month to reach your goal? After getting there, what goal are you going to save for next?

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