Did you know that more than about 22% of Americans report being victims of identity theft? The most common types of identity theft that victims have experienced include financial (73%), employment (13%), and synthetic ID theft (10%).
Identity theft is a serious crime that occurs when someone uses your personal information without permission to commit fraud. And its consequences can be damaging to the victim’s life in many different aspects, including financial and emotional aspects.
According to an identity theft attorney in Houston, identity theft can be charged as both a state and federal crime, which often includes heightened penalties. And early discovery of identity theft is essential to limit the damages and secure your accounts.
But if this happens to you, what steps should you take to restore your financial security and prevent further misuse of your information?
Let’s learn the essential steps below!
Report to the FTC and Consider a Police Report
IdentityTheft.gov, a website run by the Federal Trade Commission, is free for victims who wish to report their cases and receive a personalized recovery plan. The recovery plan guides through the steps taken, generates pre-filled letters to creditors, and can be updated as changes happen. Opening an account at the FTC should be near the top of the steps chart.
A police report might be of some use, although it is not mandatory. Having such a report may help the victim of identity theft use an alert as an added precaution for a good eight years. This is instead of the normal twelve-month fraud alert.
According to identity theft lawyer Doug Edwards, state authorities are especially keen to arrest and prosecute persons misappropriating other people’s Social Security and Taxpayer ID information, as most of these cases can fall under federal identity theft.
It is your responsibility to save all reports and correspondence and to continue doing so in the future.
Freeze Credit and Place Fraud Alerts
You can use two prevention tools to prevent future accounts from being opened in the victim’s name: a credit freeze and a fraud alert. Both serve these purposes and may be used together.
A credit freeze freezes your name so no credit account is opened under it. This costs nothing, whether it be for putting one in place or lifting it. A credit freeze does not affect a person’s credit score. An individual will have to alert each of the three main credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to initiate a freeze. A freeze must be established online or by phone in no longer than one business day.
An initial fraud alert lasts for a period of one year. This may then be renewed. One must contact just one of the three credit bureaus to place the alert, considering that this one bureau will notify the other two. Additional protection may be requested by an identity theft report victim, extending the duration to seven years.
Notify the Bank and Review Accounts
Contact your bank immediately. The bank will activate its fraud detection system, freeze suspicious transactions and/or accounts, give account numbers new ones, or, indeed, issue a new card for the account holder itself in the event of any fraud. They may also open investigations into fraud in-house. Any unauthorized transactions should be documented and then reported to the bank in writing whenever possible.
With respect to federal law, the abused amount on a credit card is subject to a maximum of $50 by the cardholder if such abuse has taken place. In the event that a credit card was not used at all when stolen, the cardholder is not responsible for any unauthorized charges.
It had several protections against unauthorized use of a debit card and bank account, all varying and based more on how quickly the unauthorized use is reported, giving prompt communication in support of reporting it.
Monitor Credit Reports for Fraudulent Activity
Under federal law, consumers are entitled to one free credit report every twelve months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting agencies. Also, a consumer can make one free credit report every week from each of the bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com.
So, after a theft, all three reports are important since fraudulent accounts may be found in one but not in the other two. If any unfamiliar accounts or inquiries were found, disputing them directly would be a better idea. The FTC recovery plan can actually send you dispute letters already prepared by the FTC.
Secure Online Accounts
Compromised personal information often includes login credentials. Changing the passwords for your financial accounts, personal email accounts, and all accounts connected with your payment information supersede all other priorities.
Every single account must have a unique password, instead of a shared password. Two-factor authentication elevates the security to an entirely different level, particularly with respect to the security of the email account, as it is often used to perform password resets from other places.
Also, review any connected applications on your phone or tablet. Remove any unknown connected devices, and validate account recovery settings, which should now be through your phone number or email.
A password manager can help maintain strong, unique passwords for many accounts. You should retain separate passwords for every account. This helps in case one password gets compromised. And choose encryption for the password manager service.
Consider Long-Term Monitoring
Identity theft protection services monitor personal information to alert victims of suspicious activities before the actual theft to try to combat whatever is starting to happen. It is often with the help of credit monitoring, fraud alerts, and identity recovery assistance and sometimes with identity theft insurance that helps defray recovery costs.
Snap off to IdentityTheft.gov without further delay for a personalized recovery plan and pre-filled forms. Place a freeze on all three credit bureaus and an alert to banking institutions as soon as possible, as limited credit-billing liability applies to charge services when reported very quickly, while debit card theft is dependent on the speed of notification.
If your accounts are opened fraudulently, you can review all three credit reports through your free weekly access at AnnualCreditReport.com. Reset passwords and set up two-factor authentication on all accounts.
Think about long-lasting fraud alerts or identity protection services for additional protection coverage. There are also free alternatives that offer meaningful coverage.
