Identity Theft

1. Call up the fraud departments of all your credit cards and ask them to temporary stop your credit cards.
2. Place a fraud alert on your credit report.
3. Close all bank accounts that has been compromised and open new ones with a different PIN number and passwords.
4. File a police report on the incident.
5. Contact your bank if your personal checks have been lost, stolen or misused, ask them to list all checks that has been issued, and stop all checks that are suspicious to you.
6. If you suspect that someone else is using your SSN number, report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission. The Social Security Administration’s Fraud HotLine does not handle complains on identity theft.

If your personal information has been accessed by unauthorized 3rd party, placing a fraud alert on the credit report would stop the identity thief from opening any new accounts using your name.

To place a fraud alert, you can contact any of the following companies:

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

Just contacting ONE of the above company is sufficient as they are required to inform the other two for you, where they will also place a fraud alert on their reports.

You are also entitle to one free credit report from each of the companies above, they will be sent to your address, and you could also request that only the last four digits of your Social Security Number is displayed on the form.

Review the report once they arrived, check for any accounts that you didn’t open, loans or debts that cannot be accounted for, also ensure that your personal information such as the Social Security Number, your house address, names or initials, and employer’s details are still current and accurate. If you find anything is that inaccurate or has the possiblity of being fraudulent, remove them by following the instructions here.

Check your credit reports at least once every 3 months, especially during the 1st year after you discovered the identity theft, to make sure there will be no additional fraudulent activity.

http://www.avvo.com/identity-theft-lawyer.html
Avvo is the world’s largest online directory, provides rating and profiling of more than 85% of US law practitioners. Users can access free information on lawyers contact details, their specialization (criminal law, divorce cases, litigation or identity theft), states where they can practice law, the fees and payments they charge and most important of all, reviews from their past clients on their performance and experience. This is a very helpful resources when you are looking for a identity theft lawyer.

http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practice/Identity-Theft
Find Identity Theft Lawyers in the US, list law practioners by state.

In the unfortunate event that you become a victim of identity theft, hiring a identity theft lawyers can help regain the control of your bank accounts and credit records. Identity theft lawyers would start by placing a fraud alert on your individual’s credit file, close all fraudulent or compromised accounts, make a police report about the identity theft incident and also file an FTC complain. They will also further check for more instances of fraud.

• Every year, request and check over your credit report to see if there is any unusual activity or drastic drop in credit rating that you do not know about.
• Use a paper shredder, shred or tear up all your bank slips, account statements, letters from your credit card merchant, as well as any other unwanted documents that contain personal information.
• Report lost or stolen credit cards immediately.
• Do not keep information such as your PIN numbers, passwords, or your SSN in your wallet or anywhere that is easily accessible.
• Do not give out personal information over the telephone or the Internet unless you initiated the contact.
• Do not use passwords that are generated using easily guessed or accessible information such as your birthdate or phone number.

1.    Understand debit card dangers: Greater liability than credit cards.  When it comes to fraud, debit cards carry much greater personal liability than credit cards, depending on how quickly you report the loss of the card.  If you fail to report unauthorized use within 60 days of receiving your bank statements, you could lose all the money in the account and be held responsible for the amount of money that has been tapped from your line of credit.

2.    Rethink check writing: That little slip of paper has way too much information. Some experts advise against check writing because it gives away your address, bank account number, signature and license number to complete strangers.  On top of that, there’s no federal legislation to limit your liability for forged checks (each state has its own set of rules).  Experts advise that you look into automating your bill paying.

3.    Secure your mail: Your mailbox is a goldmine of information.  Between bank statement, bills, and all those pre-approved credit card offers, your mailbox is loaded with personal data which identity thieves can use to easily apply for a credit card in your name.  Unless you diligently check your credit report, you may never even know about it.  One way to avoid this is to have your mailbox under lock and key, but most of us in Santa Clarita have our mailboxes at the curb in front of our house and the postman frowns on carrying dozens and dozens of keys around.  The other solution is to have a rented mailbox, or to foil “dumpster-diving” thieves by buying a shredder and destroy documents before discarding.

4.    Go virtual: For shopping online, there are “virtual” card numbers.  These are randomly generated credit card numbers that are disposable and that on-line shoppers use once and throw away.  It’s linked directly to your real credit card account so purchases show up on your monthly bill.  The service is easy to use – and it’s FREE!  All you need to do is register with companies offering the virtual card, and they are MBNA, Discover, and Citigroup.

5.   Create an emergency identity kit: Would you know how to contact your credit card company in an emergency?  Create an emergency kit that contains: your account number, expiration date, issuing company name, and emergency contact number for each card you own.  While you’re at it, make copies of your driver’s license, social security card, birth certificate and passport and store them in a locked box or file cabinet, or a safe deposit box.  I like the safe deposit box best, because this gives you protection in the event of a catastrophe such as fire, earthquake, etc.

There are two types of identity theft:

1. Account Takeover

This is where the thief either managed to get your credit card or has access to your card number & expiry date, then they use it to make multiple purchases of services and goods. Most of the time the victim will not suspect that something is amiss, until they receive their monthly statement at the end of the month, usually by that time the thief has gotten away and the card limit has been used up to its maximum.

2. Application Fraud

Also known as “true name fraud”, this is where the thief uses your information to apply for loan or a new credit card. In order to be successful in this kind of fraud, the thief would have to gain access to quite a lot of your personal information such as your Social Security Number (SSN), full name, address, place of work, salary, driver’s license number, date of birth etc.

This type of fraud is particularly dangerous as there is practically no limit to the amount of damage the thief can do to your credit rating. Information could be used to apply for fast cash loans, purchase a house in your name, buy a car or gain access to withdraw money from your bank account.

If you have been encountering any of the following, chances are you will have to perform a identity theft check to see if your personal information has been breached:

• The balances of your bank accounts or credit card balances shows unusual changes or withdrawals that is not initiated by you.
• You have been missing your bills, bank statements or credit card statements for more than a month. Make sure you receive all your bills, bank statement and credit card statements every month, file them up. If you miss a letter, call up the bank or the billing company to find out if they have mail out the statement.
• Watch out if you receive any credit card that you did not apply, call up the bank to find out who initiated the application.
• Your loan or credit application has been denied for no apparent reason, check your credit report again.
• You have been contacted by debt collectors or businesses about large purchases that you did not buy.
• You have been receiving phone calls or correspondence from credit reporting agencies or collection departments for no apparent reason.

Some people have not heard of identity theft, the term feels kinda “high-tech” so maybe it is some stuff that IT geeks talks about. Unfortunately, identity thefts happens to everyone, and most of the time it might not involve a computer at all.

What happens is that someone steals your information, it can be your name, your bank account number, your credit cards or any other of your personal information, and use it to either to buy things at your expense, withdraw cash from your account or even borrow money from the bank without your knowledge. By the end of the day, you might realized that your bank account is empty, your credit cards have thousands of dollars amount in spending that you have no idea about, and the bank informs you that your loan is rejected because you have borrowed a lot of money from many banks in the past two months.

Hollywood illustrated identity theft in the most extreme scenario in this film by Sandra Bullock. Though I think most scenario won’t go as far as that unless someone really hates you *grin*.