Here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
- We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
Keep them in a safe or a safety deposit box. See above.
- File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here's what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)
- Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations and the Social Security Administration immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. Posting this alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.
By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away. (This weekend someone turned it in.) It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.
Here are the numbers you will need to contact if your wallet or any other credit or identity information has been stolen:
- Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
- Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
- Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
- Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271
Per Snopes: The phone numbers given in the message above for the top three credit bureaus are correct.
We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything. But this information could really help someone that you care about. Pass it along!
Snopes adds: Our advice: Take some good advice.
Additional suggestions from the National Check Fraud Center:
- Contact the post office if you suspect that an identity thief has filed a change of address form for your name, and is diverting your mail to another address.
- Alert all utility companies that someone has been using your identity fraudulently and inform the appropriate authorities that someone may be abusing your [Social Security number] and/or driver's license number.
- Take action to have any criminal or civil judgments against you that may have resulted from your identity thief's actions, permanently removed.
- Keep a log of all your contacts and make copies of all documents. You may also wish to contact a privacy or consumer advocacy group.
Article comments
1 - mds
>otherwise there is nothing to stop the
>thief who has your wallet from simply
>using your own photo ID.
Other than that it's a photo id?
2 - DrPat
So, they dress the way you did in the photo, or locate a buddy who looks like you...
Besdies, have you ever seen the purely-cursory look given to your driver's license when it is requested to validate a credit card purchase? They give a lot more credence to the fact that you can whip out a photo ID and present it than they do to the photo itself.
For example, I wore heavy black eyeglass frames in my DMV photo once, and contact lenses thereafter for the life of the license. I was never challenged when I produced that license as a photo ID. Not once.