Ever been a victim of identity theft? What should you do?

Question

I had calls on my old cell phone from some Indian man trying to get information on my credit cards and bank account.

Answer 1

Call and cancel all cards, debit, credit, gas, etc
get a credit report and look it over to see if any new accounts have been opened.
Get the packet from the FTC about Identity theft.

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

Get Credit monitoring, the best place in my opinion is the identity theft shield from PPL.

http://www.getprotectedhere.com

Answer 2

Contact all three credit bureaus. Place fraud alert on your account - this way, no one will be able to open credit with your name/SSN without extra verification of ID. You will also be able to get a free copy of your credit report because you're a fraud victim. Do this immediately.

Go over your credit reports thoroughly - with a fine-tooth comb! If you have accounts/balances that you know are not yours, contact each lender and sort it out. They will most likely have you sign an affidavit for the charges that aren't yours. (You will probably need to notarize it, too.)

Contrary to other's advice - don't just up and cancel all your cards. This can affect your credit rating, so no need to jump the gun. Just contact the card companies and let them know you have good reason to be concerned. Go over recent charges to see if any of them are suspicious. The companies will probably issue you new account numbers and send you new cards.

Make copies and keep records of everything - e.g., letters from your lenders/banks, the affidavits you sign. And all the other information about the person who stole your identity that you can find - e.g., when and how, etc.

Oh yeah, also, file a police report. You should be able to file it with your local police, no matter where the thief is. Provide a copy of report to your lenders, if they ask.

I've been through this. It sucks. It takes some patience and legwork and time. But I was able to fix the damage. Just remember that it happens to more people than you think, so don't panic too much. Just imagine yourself in a crazy CitiBank commercial and have a laugh to break up the icky feeling of violation you must be feeling.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Just call your credit card company and they will figure the whole thing out. The same thing happened to me and the credit card company actually called me because they said their was an abnormal amount of purchases on my card. The credit card company cancelled my card and sent me a new one with a new number. Then you have to go to the bank and cancel your account and renew it. Then you will get the money lost back in a few weeks.

Answer 4

Beside all of the credit bureau "fraud alert" and/or "credit freeze" action in addition to your existing financial institutions being notified along with filing a police report - the other key item you can pursue:

Contact your cellular service provider to report the date, time, & caller id of the offender - he may be attempting to defraud others using a fraud technique known as "pre-texting".

Answer 5

1. call your credit card companies and cancel all cards
2. contact the local/state gov't offices to report this
3. contact banks and change any passwords/acct info relating to your finances
4 call the credit services companies (like equifax and all) to get a credit report and have them put an alert on your account
5. pray

Answer 6

Way back before it became a major thing, I had a guy use my name and lost military id to get stuff from sears. I foundout where he lived, then one night me and a dozen friends paid him a vist. Took all the stuff I was billed fo, broke both his arms and legs and told him his family and he was dead if just one more bill came to me. Haven't had any trouble since then and that was 12 years ago.