While doing loans in Sylmar and Van Nuys and California we attempt to educate where we can. Here are my thoughts regarding ongoing identity theft in Sylmar and Van Nuys.
Fraud in Sylmar, Van Nuys and California is increasing at an alarming rate and new ways to separate you from your money are being invented every day. Identity theft is big business. Millions of Americans have been the victim of some form of identity theft. You are the first line of defense in keeping your personal information secure. There are steps you can take to minimize the chances that your personal information will fall into the wrong hands:
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Buy a shredder. They are inexpensive and shred items with your personal information. That includes charge receipts, bank statements, expired credit cards, credit offers, etc. Identify thieves have been known to comb through trash looking for just such information. We shred everything while doing loans in Sylmar, Van Nuys and California.
Do not carry your Social Security card, birth certificate or passport with you.
Don't give your credit card or bank account number over the phone, through the mail, or over the Internet unless you confirm you are dealing with an actual representative of a legitimate business.
Get the receipts from your credit card transactions and check your credit card statements for unfamiliar transactions.
Shield the keypad when entering your PIN.
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With the expansion of the Internet, your personal information is more accessible than ever and the number of "phishing" scams sent out to consumers is continuing to increase. Phishing lures unsuspecting Internet users to a fraudulent website by using authentic-looking emails in an attempt to steal passwords, financial and/or personal information. Check to see that the business is legitimate and you can conduct transactions on a secure website. You can identify a secure website by the address. It should begin with the https; the s means the site is secure. Be extra careful about what you reveal about yourself when you are online. You never know who is watching. Identity thieves could be cruising these sites for clues to piece together just what they need to steal your identity. If identity theft should happen to you, do the following immediately:
Cancel all credit/debit/ATM cards.
File a police report in the jurisdiction in which your identification was stolen.
Place a fraud alert by calling the three credit reporting bureaus so that you will be contacted before any new credit is authorized. The three bureaus are; Equifax, (800) 797-7033, Experian, (800) 583-4080 and TransUnion, (800) 916-8800.
For further information regarding any type of fraud you can visit the Fraud Center website at www.fraud.org. |
Keep your personal information private. Taking steps will help protect you and keep fraud and identity theft an unlikely possibility.
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And what to do after becoming a victim? A few short paragraphs in the proper preparation of the FTC Affidavit of Identity Theft to those that have been victimized may go a long way.....
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the FTC Affidavit MUST have a valid law enforcement report attached to be most effective when filing your dispute with the credit reporting agencies. With that said, most law enforcement agencies do not properly prepare said report.
When we have an identity theft client at Credit Restoration Consultants, we insure that the FTC Affidavit is properly executed listing each and every offending account. If the client has not filed a police report, we direct them in the filing of a proper report. A proper report should list IDENTITY THEFT as the offence and not "information only" for the purposes of notifying the credit reporting agencies. Thereafter, the report should detail each and every account by creditor or collector name and detail the account numbers. If a follow-up investigation is conducted, the results should be atttached to the oringinal report.
Once you have your FTC Affidavit, properly prepared police report with supplements, as well as the results of your own investigation - you can file your disputes. We have found that the most effective way of disputing the entries is to contact each creditor or collector in addition to each of the consumer reporting agencies. Send your written dispute by certified mail detailing your complaint and attaching the FTC Affidavit and full police report. Your complaint letter should demand to block the accounts as a result of identity theft. Since your FTC Affidavit is sworn and references a valid law enforcement report, the credit reporting agencies must take immediate action to block the information from your personal credit profile. The letters to the creditors and collectors are merely back-up to have the entries deleted more expeditiously.