The following post our Question reader series is a real user submitted question. To maintain the integrity of the original question, we do not modify or change the questions of readers in any way.
Q: I am on my social January last year and I've tried to do credit to apply for credit cards and they are sending letters saying that I l have already bad credit, and criminal accounts something like that and they call me asking for payments of accounts I have, and I am a mortgage loan. How can it be possible, can you help me solve this? Or give some ideas of what I can do? Thank you, I really need help.
A: Unfortunately, it seems that there is a very good chance that you have been the victim of an identity thief has opened financial accounts and committed to other crimes in your name. While recovering from identity theft can be difficult and stressful, it is impossible. Here are some immediate actions you can take:
1) Contact all three credit bureaus and ask them to place a credit freeze on your credit report . There is a small fee in most states to resolve a credit freeze, but it will completely lock your credit report and make sure there are no other financial accounts are opened fraudulently in your name . Here is the contact information for each of the three credit bureaus:
TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Division Victims, P. O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P. O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P. O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013
Another option is to put a fraud alert in place of a credit freeze. A fraud alert is a notation on your credit report that allows potential lenders that you have reason to believe that you are a victim of identity theft. While fraud alerts can be useful in many cases, your situation seems serious enough to warrant a full credit freeze.
2) Get a copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus . Your credit report will list all financial accounts that have been opened and reported to the credit bureaus in your name. You can request a free copy of your credit report from each of the credit bureaus when you set a credit freeze or fraud alert. You can also get a free credit report instantly by signing up for a free trial of a credit report service like Identity Guard. Once you have your hand in credit reports, carefully examine identify the accounts you do not recognize. Call the support service for customers of each of these suspicious accounts and let them know that you believe the account was opened fraudulently. Each company will have a different process for dealing with fraud, but make sure that each account is closed immediately.
3) file a report with the local police or sheriff's department . Call the non-emergency number for your administrative authority of local law and let them know that you think you want to report identity theft. You may be able to file your report by phone or you may have to testify in person.
Placing an identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Although the FTC can not provide assistance to individual cases of identity theft, reports of your case can help identity models in identity theft crimes that can help prevent others from becoming victims . You can file an impersonation complaint with the FTC at:
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
4) Consider a protection service against identity theft such as Trusted ID or LifeLock to help prevent victimization in the future . Each of these services will help mitigate the risk of future identity theft and may be able to provide assistance with your identity theft problems being. You can see a list of all identity theft protection services we looked at NextAdvisor.com.
We sincerely hope this information is helpful and wish you the best of luck in your recovery.