The sixth in a series of informational articles entitled, Awareness of Identity Theft, This article covers problems faced by Identity Theft victims and should be read by anyone who has established a good credit rating or wishes to attain a good credit rating and is determined not to surrender it to Identity Theft.
This is the sixth in a series of articles which will increase your awareness about Identity Theft.
It’s a typical weekend. You drove to your friend’s house, asked your
friend to hang out with you at the mall while having a shopping spree. The two of you then met a group of your friends at the local bar to have a few drinks and some food while you all talked about what happened during the past week. Before you left the bar you paid the bill with your credit card. After a great night you all went home and slept.
The next morning, you checked your mail which included your credit card billing statement. As you looked at it, you were shocked to see
that you had been charged on your credit card for things that you never purchased. You called the bank to advise them of the problem and asked them to remove the charges that you were disputing, from your account. The bank advised that they would look into the matter and get back to you when they had investigated the charges. At about this time you are getting upset, because you expected the bank to take your word for the disputed charges and clean up your account without delay, and you are wondering how these charges could possibly have ended up on your account.
If you have suffered through this kind of experience then you know that you may have been a victim of Identity Theft. This crime is called Identity Theft or identity fraud. Identity Theft is a crime perpetrated against you after someone obtains and uses your personal data, such as your name, credit card number, address, social security number, etc., without you knowing about it. In many cases, because you were using your credit card, the bank, after making enquiries, would probably have refunded the amount of the disputed charges, leaving them as the victim of the theft.
If you think that you have been a victim of Identity Theft you
should try to proceed as follows:
• File a police report. Be sure to obtain a copy of the police report. You may need to show it to third parties to help substantiate your claim that you have been victimised.
• Advise your local credit bureau, by phone and follow up with a written report. You only need to contact one credit reporting agency, as they will automatically pass on the information to other credit bureaus. Once you have filed your complaint you can request that any new credit enquiries be reported to you as they arise, so that you can provide input into the response that the credit bureau needs to provide.
• If someone is using counterfeit checks drawn on your account, then also file a report with any local check verification companies.
Identity Theft is a very serious crime. If you ever suspect that you
are a victim of Identity Theft, it would be prudent to immediately report the crime to all authorities concerned.
Attempting to have your credit history restored to its previous level of respectability, after suffering from Identity Theft can be a very time consuming, expensive, and difficult task.
John Ritchie,
Copyright to this article belongs to John Ritchie.
http://www.johnritchieonline.com
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