Reporting Identity Theft: The Most Important Steps

For a person to successfully report identity theft one must know in detail what identity theft is and what can be its consequences. Identity theft is basically a misnomer as one cannot literally steals a person’s identity but may pose as a different person by procuring other persons documents. The ideal term is identity fraud; however identity theft is the more popular and most widely used term and was coined in 1964. Identity theft is basically a person posing as a different person and trying to cheat other people so that if caught, the person whose identity is stolen is actually incriminated. Identity theft is also done to gain access to special places or to enjoy credits which the victim enjoys.

How does one know if he is a victim of identity theft? May be the fraud has made duplicates of ones drivers license and social security card. So a report of traffic violations elsewhere gives one a faint idea. Also if one gets erratic credit card statements and abnormal bills. It may be that ones credit card details have been procured by unfair means. Also sometimes illegal immigrants assume identities of a different person and again commit identity theft. Identity thefts have become more common and more cases are reported today than say 20 years ago because of the widespread use of electronic identification systems and computers. They are generally hacked on to and the desired information is obtained in a matter of minutes and a person can easily get access to personal detains and assume the identities of the victim without him even having a clue about it.

If a person thinks that his identity is being used by another person then he may take the following steps:-

• The first and foremost thing that one should do is report the matter to the police. A record is thus made available to the police.

• If you have sufficient evidence than the case may be started right away.

• The central trade commission has to be notified and supplied with relevant evidence so that they can carry out the necessary investigations.

• The financial setup of the victim has to be notified at once so that all transactions are jammed right away. This would include credit cards, the banks where the victim holds accounts. All loan requests made by the victim or the imposter will have to be cancelled right away.

• All pending transactions and current transactions have to be monitored.

• The passwords of all your personal accounts or files should be changed immediately. Because the imposter first gets hold of your net banking passwords and credit card details.

• The major credit bureaus have to be informed right away like Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Or at least one of the institutes has to be informed which on completion you shall receive a confirmatory mail.

• Other microfinance institutions should also be informed since the imposter may use your credit history to loan large sums of money which will ultimately incriminate the innocent victim.

• Other financial institutions like other banks should also be monitored to check if anybody has opened accounts with your details of have been making transactions with your stolen identity.

It is also advised that while making transactions, one should be thoroughly aware of the firm and always carry out transactions with reliable business houses only. One should never disclose bank passwords and credit card details to anyone. Any place where credit card details and bank passwords are asked should be checked with the local authorities and these extremely personal details should never be shared.