Recovering From Identity Theft
Within the last twelve months, 9.3 million Americans were victims of identity theft. While this may seem like a lot, it’s actually a decrease from past years. But what is growing is the monetary loss associated with each theft. Fewer identities are being stolen due to more people knowing how to protect themselves. But if you are ever unlucky enough to be struck by identity theft, here are a few things you can do to gain back your good name.
If you are ever the victim of identity theft, first go to the police and file a report. The reason you need to do this is simple: to establish the time of discovery and what actions you have taken since the theft. Give the police copies of all relevant documents pertaining to the case. Be as detailed as possible when listing all your creditors, cards and anything else affected. And obtain a copy of the police report, to refer back to later.
The next step is to contact the credit reporting agencies; Experian, Equifax and Transunion. This will place a 90 day fraud alert on your identity. If anyone tries to open a line of credit, you will be contacted to verify your information. They will also issue you your credit reports. Once you get a copies of your credit reports, review each report and list all creditors affected. Contact those creditors directly and tell them of the theft. Close the fraudulent accounts and dispute any charges.
Lastly, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. By sharing your identity theft complaint with the FTC, you will provide important information that can help law enforcement officials across the nation track down identity thieves and stop them.
During this whole process remember to always keep copies of everything. Every form, paper, note, bank statement and so on. If you need to send in any document to you creditors, always send a copy unless otherwise requested. To learn more about what do do if your identity is stolen, read what the FTC says about recovering from identity theft.
Chances are you you will never be affected by identity theft but if you’d like to protect yourself before your identity is potentially pilfered, try the Lifelock service. LifeLock is the industry leader in the rapidly growing field of identity theft protection. They offer solutions that prevent your identity from being stolen before it can even happen.
But like I said in the beginning of this post, identity theft is surprisingly on the downturn but the monetary loss from each victim is rising. While the number of victims of identity fraud decreased from 10.1 million in 2003 and 9.3 million in 2005 to 8.9 million in 2006, the total one year fraud amount rose from $54.4 billion in 2005 to $56.6 billion in 2006. The mean fraud amount per victim rose from $5,993 in 2005 to $6,278 in 2006. And the mean resolution time has also grown 7 hours from 2003 to 2006.
Find more identity theft statistics at PrivacyRights.org.
This blog supports