Reporting Identity Theft

Reporting Identity Theft

The first step to report identity theft is to contact the fraud department of one of the three consumer credit reporting agencies and place a fraud alert on your credit report.

A fraud alert will let creditors know that they need to personally contact you before making any changes to your account or opening any new account in your name.  If you report a fraud alert to one of the three consumer credit agencies, they are then required to contact the other two agencies.  Although, you can certainly contact all three agencies yourself.

The initial fraud alert will stay on your credit report for 90 days.  You can also place an extended alert on your credit record that will stay on record for 7 years.

The next step in reporting identity theft is to close any accounts that you believe have been compromised or opened fraudulently. 

You will also want to file a police report and get a copy of the police report or get the report number so you can supply it to creditors.  This is needed because some creditors will require proof that a crime has been committed and reported.  You will want to file the police report in the community where the identity theft took place.

Finally, you will need to file a complaint with the FTC.  The FTC keeps a database of all identity theft reports and cases.

Report Identity Theft

1.  Contact the three consumer credit reporting agencies

2.  Close affected accounts

3.  File a police report

4.  File a complaint with the FTC

Follow these four steps when reporting identity theft.