Red Tape Chronicles has a good guide for how to set up a credit report freeze at each of the three major credit bureaus. A freeze means no one can access your credit report unless you “thaw” your .. more …
Many people who have been victims of identity theft have been at a loss for what they should do in this situation. Identity theft can happen to anyone and many times you have done nothing wrong to cause this.
If you think that you have been a victim of identity theft it is important that you take immediate action and start to work on the damage that has occurred by an identity thief.
The first step you can take is to determine what actually has happened. Missing credit cards, driver’s licenses, and other financial items, or identification items should be reported and canceled immediately.
Canceling these can insure that they can no longer be used by anyone. You should also be sure to make sure that no purchases have been made that were not made by you. You can work with your credit card company to get through this tough identity theft situation and to ensure that you are not held responsible.
You should also be sure to check your credit report as soon as possible. You can actually get your credit report online and it is very important. You should be sure that everything on your credit report is accurate and if it is not you should report the identity theft.
Checking your credit report can either put you to rest that you have not suffered from identity theft or can show you where to look when your identity has been stolen. If you ever find accounts listed that you are not aware of it can be a sign that you have been struck by identity theft.
Also make sure you check the addresses listed to be sure no one has tried to get credit under your name using a different address.
If you do find any problems with your credit report it is important that you get in touch with the lenders to find out what is going on and to let them know that you never opened that account. You can find the numbers of these lenders actually on the credit report to make it easy to contact lenders about the identity theft.
After you have made the initial reports you will need to go on working with the lenders to get to the bottom of the problem. At times you may even need the help of an attorney to help you get through some of this identity theft process. It is important that you take measure to protect yourself and be aware of what you can do if you ever are the victim of identity theft.
The concept of identity theft has been on the rise since around 1990. As internet use continues to increase so has the number of related cases. Since then millions of people have lost their money, .. more …
Unsavory characters may be attempting to steal your identity by sending spam email to thousands of unwary recipients. Due to the popular nature of these accounts, hundreds of thousands of Internet users are account holders. By sending such e-mails en masse, at least a few newbies will probably fall victim to their ruse. Make sure you are not one of them.
There are several identifying markers of a phishing (pronounced “fishing”) scheme used in Identity Theft. Here are a few of the more obvious traits:
1.) “Undisclosed Recipients” – Check the “to” field of the email. Is it addressed specifically to you?
A legitimate source would not send a specific threat to account holders in bulk. Confirm that the message was sent specifically to the address you have on file with the company and/or addresses you by the name on file with them.
2.) Sense of Urgency – Many emails attempting to steal your identity will do so by creating a sense of urgency. They may threaten to limit or restrict your account if you do not comply with their request within a short period of time (midnight tonight, within 48 hours, etc.)
3.) Misspelling of words – It’s hard to believe with the many spell-check programs available today that a scammer would go to the trouble of sending out a mass-email without checking the spelling of common words first. A poorly written email sent to you by a major legitimate corporation would not be a good public relations move. They understand that Identity Theft is a huge concern and tend to be extra careful to alleviate this concern. As such, correspondence from an honest vendor should be error free.
4.) Request for account login information – Such an email scam will undoubtedly include a request for you to click on a link and provide your account information. Many legitimate requests from a company may also include such a link, so this is not always a tell-tale sign.
5.) URL redirect of link is an IP numeric address – (e.g., http://92.148.60.20/…) While we don’t recommend clicking on a link in a suspect email, a good way to check where the link connects is to “hover” your mouse over the link itself and see if the URL address links back to the known
address for the company (e.g., eBay = www.ebay.com). This may not always work, and scammers are getting more creative in their disguise of the link. We don’t recommend clicking on the link itself as it may open up a website designed simply to execute a virus on your computer. Believe it or not,
some scammers are more eager to “mess with you” than to steal your confidential information.
6.) “No Reply” message – Many email scams will instruct that you not reply back. Look for a statement such as: “Please do not reply back to this email as your message will not be seen/read.” The only link provided is the one on which they want you to click which will redirect you to a phony site. From here they will ask you for confidential information to confirm your account.
To see an example of an eBay scam letter attempting to secure eBay account information Click Here. We have highlighted
several of the traits to look for and added our comments as well. You’ll notice that the message appears to have been written by someone for whom English is a second language. Note too the misspelling of common words and grammatical mistakes (if legitimate, they should fire the
eBay employee who wrote it!)
Here are a few more examples:
Paypal Scam
VISA Scam
Wells Fargo/Bank Scam
Scammers are getting more creative in their attempts to steal confidential data. Hopefully these tips will thwart at least a few of their successes and prevent identity theft. An educated public is their worst enemy.
You don’t need to pay a fee to get a copy of your free credit report from the three (3) major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site set up by the big three credit reporting agencies in the United States, to furnish free annual credit reports, as required by federal law.
Individuals can now fight identity theft when they monitor and review their credit report. You can request your free credit report online, by phone or through the mail. Free credit reports requested online are viewable immediately upon authentication of identity.
Don’t be fooled by other companies that try to get you to commit to a monthly service fee.
