If I have suspicious that I am a victim of Identity Theft, what can I do?
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at
12:09 pm
gdubchicago asked:
I have recently done a background check on myself and have found an unknown name and address associated with my social security number.
I have recently done a background check on myself and have found an unknown name and address associated with my social security number.
What does this mean and what should I do? I assume it means that someone tried to use my social security number and their address to receive credit cards. But where do I go from here?
Tagged with: Credit Cards • Name And Address • Social Security Number
Filed under: Identity Theft
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get a credit report and check you activity. if you see anything that you haven’t done report it by calling equifax, experian, and whatever the third one is and file a report. Your info will get monitored for a year. Make sure and let them know what info appeared that isn’t yours. You might be asked to contact whatever places that person did business withusing your info. Call all your credit card companies etc.. and let them know.
Are there credit accounts associated with the name and address?
If there is you should be able to call the three major credit bureaus and get some assistance.
Trans Union
Equafax
Experion
Those are the major three. I know in some states you can get one free copy of your credit report every 6 months to review for errors.
Start with your local police. Take your credit report to the station and speak to them. They are the best place to start.
You may need to talk to your bank. Any one with your SSN can take money out of your account if they have the password. You do not want any one except yourself spending your money. Ensure they check your signature each time you are doing business in person at the bank.
Do not do any business over the Internet. You pass too much personal information over the wires and they may be monitoring you.
Call the 3 credit reporting agencies to find out for sure. Call the police.
Also contact Dateline. Ask them about the program they did on “How to catch an Identity Thief”. They mentioned a link in which a fellow checks out who is using your Identification and SSN. They say your ID can be sold more than 30 times.
Contact your local police department IMMEDIATELY. Also, you should do a credit check from the 3 reporting bureaus and all of your bank accounts. You can also contact your bank and let them know whats going on so they can work to change account numbers and such so the thieves won’t have access to your account anymore if they do have it now. Defiantly step 1, police. They’ll give you more info and will work to track down and apprehend the thief. A police report will also come in handy after wards when you go to get the bad things they likely did to your credit expunged from your rating. Identity thieves can absolutely ruin you financially.
The FTE is now saying you will need a lawyer to clear up id theft.
Call your bank and tell them, close your accounts down, call the credit reporting agency and alert them, make sure you do this fast to!