In spite of everything can you do to protect yourself, all the precautions you can take, you can still be the victim of identity theft. Part of the reason is that your information is also being kept by other parties. Most of the time these third parties are legitimate. But as recent history has shown, even they can lose it or have it stolen. If you think your information has been compromised here are a few things to look for and what to do should you have your financial info compromised.

What Are The Warning Signs?

Here are a few warning signs that your financial information or identity may have been compromised.

What Do You Do?

Place a fraud alert on your credit reports and examine them very carefully. What this does is alerts creditors to follow certain procedures before opening any new accounts in your name. It also entitles you to free credit reporting. From these reports, you can determine if there has been any activity that you were previously unaware of.

Close any and all accounts that you think have been compromised with or fraudulently established. Here you will also need to contact the security or frauds departments of each company where the suspect or fraudulent accounts were opened in your name. Always remember to keep copies of all documentation regarding each account. Also follow up in writing with copies of your supporting documention.

Remember to use the ID Theft Affidavit at ftc.gov/idtheft to support your claim.

Follow up with each company to ensure that your accounts have been closed and any balances are discharged. Remember to keep records of all conversations and documents about the theft.

File a police report. This will help you deal with creditors who want proof that there actually was a crime.

Report the crime to the Federal Trade Commission.

Identity Theft Clearinghouse,
Federal Trade Commission,
Washington, DC 20580

A final note that needs to be reinforced, ALWAYS keep copies of all documentation regarding each account, when dealing with phone or face to face conversations, make sure that you have thier names, phone numbers, dates and times ofeach conversation, etc. This will be critical in helping to get your credit information back on track.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 at 1:35 pm and is filed under Identity Theft Protection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.