Identity Theft: How to Recover
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Part 4 of a 4 part series.
By Brooke Worthen
Identity Theft can take countless hours of recovery, but some don't even know where to start. This article will walk you step by step through recovery from identity theft. Please note that every case is different and additional steps may need to be taken.
There are four main steps to recovery from identity theft, but first be sure to record all conversations, names, contacts, and details of your correspondences.
Step One: Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review your credit reports.
Fraud alerts help prevent any fraudulent accounts to be opened after you've noticed the identity theft. To do this, contact one of the following numbers: 1-800-525-6285, 1-800-680-7289, 1-888-397-3742. These are the toll-free fraud numbers of all three consumer reporting companies. You must only contact one of these companies to place the fraud alert. Once you place a fraud alert you are entitled to one free copy of your credit report, while on the phone, ask for your free copy to be mailed to you immediately so that you can check the extent of the damage.
If you find fraudulent information on your credit report, get it corrected. To correct your credit report, use an Identity Theft Report and a cover letter explaining your wishes. An Identity Theft Report is an in-depth police report explaining the crimes and what you know about how they may have happened. You should send this report to the businesses involved and the credit reporting companies. Send these reports by certified mail, receipt requested, so you can be sure they were received. Add these receipts to your notes for future reference.
Companies have the right to ask you to verify your identity theft, but there are time frames.
They have to make their request within 15 days of receiving your Identity Theft Report. The credit reporting company or business then has 15 more days to work with you to make sure your Identity Theft Report contains everything they need. They are also entitled to five days to review any information you give them. For example, if you give them information 11 days after they request it, they have until day 16 to make a final decision.
Continue to check your credit report periodically, to make sure no new fraudulent activies have occurred.
Step Two: Close the accounts that you know, or believe, have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
Call and speak with someone who specifically deals with fraud at each of the companies. Always record names and contact information and any pertinant details the person(s) can tell you about the fraud. To further protect yourself in the future, add passwords or personal identitification numbers to any accounts that do not already have them, change the ones that do. Ask the companies about their policies for disputing fraudulent accounts. Also ask to receive any forms you may need to dispute the transactions.
Step Three: Filing a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
You can file a complaint form online at: www.ftc.com, or call ad request a copy of the complaint form by calling 1-877-438-4338. Filing a complaint form with the FTC can help law enforcement officials track down identity theives across the nation. You may also submit a printed copy of your complaint form to the local police to add to your report.
Step Four: File a police report.
If you haven't already completed this step, be sure to do it now. Call your local police department and tell them that you want to file a report about your identity theft. Ask to file it in person. If the police department is reluctant to take the report you can also contact another jurisdiction such as the state police. When you go to the police station to file your report, have all documentation with you that you have recorded or investigated into at this point, including all reports or complaints you have submitted. Tell the officer that you need a copy of the Identity Theft Report for your records (make several copies if you can).
After completing all four steps, you will want to make contact with the agencies you have filed reports with to be sure that no further information is needed and to check the status of your credit report to be sure that all fraudulent information has been removed (this could take some time).
Once identity theft has happened to you, it will most likely happen again. Theives of this nature do not hold on to identities long, they will often sell the information and move on to assuming a new identity. Expecting that the worst is not over will help you better protect yourself.
If you can, purchase a program to keep your identity safe such as Life Lock. Programs such as these are relitivily inexpensive. Life Lock for example costs $15 a month or $165 a year, a small price to pay to keep your name safe.
These programs can protect you from future dilemmas and in some cases, can back track and find out how the first theft occurred.
For example, a local couple found they had been victims of identity theft. They took the necesarry steps explained here and immediately purchased Life Lock. They were later contacted by the company and told that their identity had been stolen through a file sharing network. While downloading music through the file sharing network a file was uploaded without their knowledge, this file enabled all the files on their computer to be uploaded to the file sharing network. Their tax documents were saved on the computer and were accidently uploaded to the network. A person later discovered these documents on the file sharing network and was able to get a pay-day loan in one of their names, change their cell phone plans, and extracted money from their bank account. Whether it was all done by the same person or not is not currently known.
As stated before, each incident is different and may require you to take additional or different steps towards recovery. The process of recovering from identity theft may take many hours and will most likely be different for each individual person, so do the best you can to protect your identity now before the theft happens to you.