Following are the first signs people usually observe to recognize Identity Theft:
You could be the victim of mail theft if you don’t receive your bills on time. Call your credit card company and all the others that are late, to know whether the bills were dispatched. Contact your local Postal Inspector’s Office and inform them of missed billing cycle. Besides, if you haven’t received your monthly bank statement, you might be the victim of mail theft. Contact your bank and ask when your statements were sent.
Tip: Use the Calendar feature in Microsoft Outlook to keep track of bills. You can enter the date the bill arrives and then determine when the next is due.
Reconcile your bills every month with credit card receipts. Follow these steps if you see unknown charges on you bills:
Call your credit card company and dispute the charge.
File a dispute letter. www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/downloads/dispute-letter-for-exisiting-accounts.doc
Order a credit report and review it carefully.
Review all you bank statements and balances to make sure that they’re correct and show no signs of tampering.
If you suspect that you are an identity theft victim, complete an identity theft affidavit.
Contact the fraud departments of your credit accounts and explain that you have been a victim of identity theft and are interested in further precautions they may have to offer you.
File a police report.
Sorry! You were not approved for the loan. You heard this surprising
sentence at a car showroom. After reviewing your credit report, you’re
shocked to find credit card accounts you did not know you had, and you own
two other cars you never drove. What happened here is that you
may be the victim of identity theft and didn’t know it.
Review your credit report, credit card and bank statements regularly. When
you perform the checks constantly, you will know instantly if something is
wrong. The sooner you find out, the easier it is to minimize the fallout.
When you find an issue on your report, you should report it immediately.
You may receive surprising bill from a credit card you didn’t apply for or didn’t even know you had. The charges on the card are for things you haven’t purchased and for a trip to a place you have never been. Do the following right away:
Verify that the credit card company is legitimate by using the online yellow pages, your state Attorney General’s office, or the BBB.
Order your credit report and review it carefully.
Place a fraud alert on your credit report.
Complete a fraud affidavit and send it to the credit card company that sent the bill.
Your telephone rings, a bill collector on the other side calls about a bill. You don’t know what he is talking about. You start checking, but you know you didn’t purchase the item the bill collector is talking about. Receiving a call from a bill collector about a delinquent bill for something you never purchased is a definite sign that something is wrong. If this happens, you most likely are the victim of identity theft, and you need to address the situation immediately. Here’s what to do:
Ask the bill collector to send something in writing.
Order a credit report; review it carefully for any unknown charges and put a fraud alert on your credit report if you suspect you are a victim of identity theft.
Call your credit card company, get the new charges since the last billing cycle, dispute any charges that aren’t yours, change your card or account number if compromised and contact the fraud department of your credit card company.
Review all your bank statements and balances to make sure that they’re correct.
Send an identity theft affidavit to all your credit accounts and your bank.
You received a bill in your mail indicating purchase of a laptop for $1,500. You looked at the bill and said, “What is this? I didn’t buy it at the ABC store on an ABC store credit card.” Follow these steps:
Make a quick call or online visit to the Better Business Bureau or your state’s Attorney General’s office to verify the legitimacy of the ABC store.
Call the store’s credit department to obtain the purchase details. For example, date, place of purchase, shipped address etc.
Tell the store retail credit representative that you’re going to dispute the charge and then order your credit report.
File a fraud affidavit that shows where you were on the date of the purchase and send it to the ABC store credit department.
Ask store credit department to close the account.
Follow up with a written identity theft affidavit to the store credit department to close the loop.
Immediately place a fraud alert on your report.
Check with other credit bureaus to see whether any other accounts have been opened in your name by ordering credit report.
Immediately send an identity affidavit to any account opened without your knowledge.
Check with the Social Security Administration to see whether your Social Security Number (SSN) was used to obtain a job.
Inquire at the United States Postal Service to find whether a change of address form was filed on your behalf and report the information to the Postal Inspectors (the Law Enforcement Division of the post office).
Keep a written record of all the correspondence, phone conversations, affidavits sent, and so on.
During monthly review, cross check your credit card bill against credit card receipts. If you see a big charge that you did not authorize, immediately contact your credit card company.
Check the date, location, and the amount of purchase and inform the representative you didn’t make or authorize the purchase.
Send a dispute letter or the completed statement/affidavit or forgery/fraud
Send the dispute letter within 60 days of when the disputed charge appeared on your bill. Dispatch it to billing inquiries through Certified Mail with a receipt request to make sure that the credit card company received the letter. You can find the address for billing inquiries on the back of your monthly bill. Enclose a copy of your monthly bill and circle the charge(s) you’re disputing. Keep the original bill along with a copy of the dispute letter and the return receipt in your file.
After receiving your dispute, the credit card company must recognize it within 30 days and must settle it within two months of receiving your letter but not more than 90 days after receiving your dispute letter.
Obtain your current balance every week from the credit card company until your next bill arrives in the mail. If there are charges that you do not recognize, talk to a representative and let him know. You may want to cancel the card, as well, and ask for a new account number.
Prevent surprises, check your credit report and closely monitor your bank statements and other investment accounts. Stay on top of the situation so it doesn’t escalate into a bigger mess.
If unknown charges appear every month on your bill handle it the same way you address an unknown purchase.
The charges on your monthly credit card bill may not be large, so they could go unnoticed if you not made a habit of checking your monthly bill closely. The thieves limit the charge amounts in hopes that they won’t draw attention to themselves, and they bank on the chance that you pay your monthly bills without closely reviewing them.
