Identity Theft Articles

Where to Find Help in Cases of Identity Theft

By Jim Travers

©Jim Travers - All Rights Reserved

http://www.MyIDTheftHelp.com

Identity theft is plain robbery, it is as criminal as law defines it and is dealt with accordingly. With the rise of more online transactions involving personal information using credit cards, and other such accounts, one must be aware of what must be done when one encounters such.

If you are the victim of identity theft, here are the actions you can take.

1. Report the theft immediately – when you are the victim of identity theft you must immediately report the incident to the proper agencies. This is the first step to mitigating the disasters that befall those whose private personal information is compromised.

The FTC or Federal Trade Commission is the lead agency that acts on such crimes. They maintain a database that details all known identity theft cases. The first step in solving and mitigating identity theft cases is to file, among others, a report to this agency.

The FTC identity theft hotline can be contacted at 1-877-438-4338. They will walk you through the various forms and statements you will have to fill up.

2. Cancel involved accounts – as in the case of stolen credit cards, you will have to cancel your accounts. This will at least ensure that the perpetrator of the crime can no longer abuse your credit cards.

After this, you will have to contact one of the three major credit bureaus to post a fraud alert for your accounts. They will then contact you when there is any activity among your accounts that you do not know of.

Upon contacting any of the three bureaus, they will automatically send the alert to the two other bureaus. This is on of your best shots are preventing the manipulation of any accounts to your name.

3. File a Police Report – You will have to file a police report and detail all pertinent information regarding your accounts. This is a very important step as many of the creditors will need documents from the police indicating the crime at hand.

You will also have to contact the IRS as your accounts could be used for inappropriate tax reasons. Keep a detailed log of all the forms and information you can glean from this exercise.

4. Contact Identity Theft Agencies – the scope of how identity theft can affect you life and finances may be well beyond the ken of most people. Thankfully, there are agencies that can help mitigate, respond to, and prevent such criminal activities.

These companies will help you resolve outstanding problems created by these encounters with identity theft. The problem with identity theft is that the theft exposes you to more fraud since the perpetrators now possess privileged information that can be used to put you in more trouble.

5. Disputing Fraudulent Use of Your Account – if an id thief has made unlawful credit or debit using your account, you must immediately close those accounts. Most financial institutions have departments that specifically deal with fraud and security crime.

Make sure you visit these departments. Submit a letter informing them of the fraud along with an affidavit, and police documents from step #3. But when submitting documents, make sure you send copies instead of originals.

After this you can then proceed to filing dispute forms with the financial institutions. All financial institutions have processes by which you can dispute such problems as id theft. Just make sure you have all the documents needed for proof.

While doing this, make sure that any new accounts you will be creating from now on will contain new information. Change your passwords and other compromised data if possible. This will make the old accounts being used by the id thieves outdated and obsolete.

Quite a Stress

Having your identity stolen can be a truly frustrating experience. The good thing is that there is machinery to combat it. Make sure you follow the correct procedures to deal with this situation and you can breathe a little easier knowing that your problem will be taken care of.

=========================================

Worried about Identity Theft or Online Fraud?

A complete information pack, together with self help action plans to stop ID thieves in their tracks can be found in the 'MY ID Theft Help' book package published by My Help Books. Visit => http://www.MyIDTheftHelp.com

=========================================

Attention Ezine editors/Article editors/Site Owners

Please feel free to reprint this article in its entirety on your site or in your Ezine or Article directory PROVIDED you leave all links in place, leave the content unchanged and include our resource box shown above.

You may substitute your own affiliate link in place of our link in the resource box. You will earn up to 60% on every sale you refer to us!

Affiliate details can be found at http://www.MyIDTheftHelp.com

If you use our articles and information please send us details so that we know where our site is being promoted. THANKS