Have you been the victim of Online Fraud, Identity Theft, or some other form of Internet Abuse? The following outline contains steps you may take to help re-secure your information.
I.) Your Credit Card: If your Credit Card has been compromised, contact your card provider.
A.) Contact the telephone number usually listed on your credit card.
B.) Have them cancel your card number and issue a new number. Some providers also allow you to place a "security lock", or "fraud-watch" on your account. Ask your provider if they offer any such service.
C.) Review your credit card statement for any fraudulent charges and dispute those charges through the card provider.
D.) Contact any vendors who post these charges as they may not be informed by the card provider that the purchase was a fraud, and may forward any account created with your information to a collections agency. This may then result in a blight on your credit report.
II.) Your Identity: If accounts are created fraudulently using your name/contact information.
A.) Contact your local law enforcement agency (start with your local police).
1.) File a claim of "Identity Theft", and provide them with all the documentation you have regarding the incident. While the local authorities may not actively pursue smaller claims frauds, getting a police report gives legal documentation of the incident.
i.) Changing your credit card information is easy and stops the initial credit card fraud. However, a malicious person has already pretended to be you, and likely has your contact details. They may continue using your information fraudulently as their own. Having police report gives you evidence that you have been the victim of Identity Theft. You can show this documentation to future agencies attempting to collect on further accounts which may be set up by this other "you".
2.) The local law enforcement may also contact or direct you to contact the FBI Cyber crimes division. At which point you would need to report a complaint through the "Internet Crime Complaint Center". This site is available at the following URL: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
It's also important to contact all 3 major credit reporting agencies to put an alert on your SSN and name. This way before any credit can be granted they have to contact you via phone. I had someone open 6 store credit cards using my name, birthdate, SSN and address a few years back. It took a lot of time and paperwork, but I didn't end up having to pay any money. If you want to extend the alert with your credit reporting agencies they require a police report copy, so that is definitely the best place to start!
ReplyDeletethank you for the comment @Chelle. I was going to include the alert by/to the 3 major crediting agencies, but i figure that is part of the "security lock", or "fraud-watch" services that should be taken care of (or direct you to) by your credit card provider, and/or law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteagain thank you @chelle.
for every one else, here is a pretty good link with contact information to those 3 agencies