What to do if you are a victim of Identity theft

Since Identity theft spikes during the Holiday Season and it's here folks, many people are already doing online shopping for Christmas.  I decided to repost this blog here.  If you are not in the US, you would need to contact your country's consumer protection agency to find out the specific laws and additional steps to take.

The average ID theft is discovered 12 ? months after it occurred which gives the thief plenty of time to do major damage to your credit and reputation. It can take years to restore your identity at a cost of around $1,600 not counting attorneys fees.

The FTC oversees ID theft complaints but will not restore your identity. Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft is an FTC publication that is basically a ?do it yourself? kit for identity theft victims. When you read this publication you realize that you CAN be held liable for fraudulent charges. Your liability is determined by how quickly you discover and report the theft.

With electronic thefts, your liability is $50 if reported within 2 days $500 if reported between 3-60 days Total loss of the theft is reported after 60 days.  Credit card liability is outlined on page 19 You must

?send your letter so that it reaches the creditor within 60 days after the first bill containing the error was mailed to you. If an identity thief changed the address on your account and you didn?t receive the bill, your dispute letter still must reach the creditor within 60 days of when the creditor would have mailed the bill.?

List of actions for the ID theft Victim

? File a police report

? Place fraud alerts on your credit reports and review them

? Close all compromised accounts

? File a complaint with the FTC

? Notify all creditors of disputed charges

? Send all mail certified with return receipt requested

? Keep all receipts from post office

? Keep a detailed phone log

? Keep all phone bills with the calls concerning your ID theft case highlighted

? Keep copies of all correspondence and the originals of things like your police report

? Have an organized filing system to keep track of everything

? Even if you believe your case has been resolved, keep everything just in case

Phone log

? The best thing to do is to purchase a large spiral binder to use as a log book. Each entry should contain the following information:

? Date and time of call

? If it is an incoming or outgoing call

? Business name

? Full name of the person you speak to

? Detailed synopsis of the conversation

The previous plan is reactive. You wait until you are a victim and try to clean up the mess as best you can. By the time you find out about the theft, digging your way out can be overwhelming. Especially if the thief has had your identity for over 60 days. 

*This was taken from a power point presentation I did covering what you must do to recover from identity theft. For all the work involved here this is recovering a financial identity only. It does not cover other non-financial areas of restoration.