What to do if Your Identity is Stolen
February 8, 2016
We all know about the little cartoon guy above, a typical bank robber. You see and hear about them all the time on the news, as well as, the car thief and shop lifter, but did you know that the number one Blue Collar crime in the U.S. is rarely mentioned on the news and the odds of you knowing the thief are pretty good if it happens to you? The number one Blue Collar crime is Identity Theft.
It’s not only the number one Blue Collar crime in the U.S., it is the fastest growing crime also. The problem is, it’s such a silent crime that no one really knows about it until it’s too late. So what can you do to protect yourself against I.D. theft? Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do to prevent I.D. theft from happening to you, however, you can freeze your credit (FICO) score as a deterrent. So IF a creditor looks up your credit score before giving you a loan or an open line of credit, they won’t be able to see anything and they will not be able to give you what you’re asking for. This will be inconvenient for you if you are still going to use credit, but if you have decided you are never going to borrow money again, this shouldn’t be a problem.
If you discover that your identity is stolen, the first thing you need to do is place a temporary fraud victim alert on your credit bureau reports and you can do that for free online at the following links…
It’s not only the number one Blue Collar crime in the U.S., it is the fastest growing crime also. The problem is, it’s such a silent crime that no one really knows about it until it’s too late. So what can you do to protect yourself against I.D. theft? Unfortunately, there isn’t anything you can do to prevent I.D. theft from happening to you, however, you can freeze your credit (FICO) score as a deterrent. So IF a creditor looks up your credit score before giving you a loan or an open line of credit, they won’t be able to see anything and they will not be able to give you what you’re asking for. This will be inconvenient for you if you are still going to use credit, but if you have decided you are never going to borrow money again, this shouldn’t be a problem.
What to do if your identity is stolen
If you discover that your identity is stolen, the first thing you need to do is place a temporary fraud victim alert on your credit bureau reports and you can do that for free online at the following links…
The next thing you need to do is call the police and get a police report. Now this is where most people refuse to follow through and pay what they legally do not owe. You have to tell the police who stole your identity if you know, and that’s what most people don’t want to do because a good portion of the time it is a relative of some sort that has stolen their identity and they don’t want to get their relative in trouble. But if you do follow through, and you give up the thief’s name, it is out of your hands on what the authorities will do with that information. When you get a copy of the police report and give each of the credit bureaus a copy, that will make the temporary fraud victim alert permanent. If you don’t give them a copy, the fraud victim alert will only stay on your credit bureau 90 days.
The next thing you need to do is call the fraud victim division of all the creditors where your I.D. was stolen and provide them with all the information, including a copy of the police report showing that your I.D. has been stolen. Now they may act like you are trying to get out of paying a bill, so don’t let them pressure you into paying something you don’t owe.
Medical I.D. Theft
This issue is even causing problems in the medical world. “A thief may use your name or health insurance numbers to see a doctor, get prescription drugs, file claims with your insurance provider, or get other care. If the thief’s health information is mixed with yours, your treatment, insurance and payment records, and credit report may be affected.” warns the Federal Trade Commission.
Medical I.D. theft has gotten so bad that an organization was formed called the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA). And in a study they did, they estimating that 2.3 million Americans suffered from this issue in 2014. Which was up almost 22% over 2013. And almost one third of those victims lost their health insurance because of it.
The bad thing is, if you’ve had your I.D. stolen, you now have a new hobby if you don’t have identity theft insurance that assigns a counselor to you, like at Zander Insurance does, to clean up the mess for you. On average, it will take you 600 hours to clean up this kind of mess. In 2008 alone, 15 million people had their identity stolen, and it has only gotten worse, so this is a big deal.
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