How To Protect Your Identity From Identity Theft?

Identity theft has become very common throughout the world and specially in United

States where the ID thieves take advantage of the daily opportunities to find your personal information to be used in their benefit either to commit crime or for funds. It is quite easy for the thieves to steal your identity and you might not even know that you are a victim until you find your accounts being hacked.

The thieves would just slip off your wallet or search in your trash bin to find any credit card or banks statements or your social security number. Additionally it can actually get really difficult for you to fix up your credit and restore everything back to normal.

Using id theft hotline number

Despite this the good news is that the victims of id theft have more and easily accessible options than before in protecting and reporting identity theft. According to the FTC or Federal Trade Commission there are 4 crucial actions that you must take in order to minimize credit damages being caused due to id theft.

Firstly you should contact any of the 3 major credit bureaus through their hotline number or through email. This can get you to speak to their identity fraud department and can also request them to place a fraud alert on your credit report. After the credit bureau confirms the fraud alert the remaining two agencies would automatically place alerts instantly.

When there is a fraud alert placed on your credit report the creditors will have to contact you before they can open any new account under your name or change any detains of the previous accounts. This is all possible through the identity theft hotline number.

It is important that you check your credit report every year to find out if there are any errors in the report. In case you find any errors or a suspicious activity then immediately contact the creditors through their hotline number so that they become aware about the unauthorized activity in your account.

This can include informing authorities of your bank accounts, loan lenders, credit card companies, phone companies, utilities and even internet service provider. You must also contact the fraud department of the company by phone so that proper action is taken.

In case you find that thieves are running bad checks by your name then immediately close the account and inform your bank. In case you are not sure about their hotline number then visit their online website for details. Most of the people are actually not aware about identity theft hotline numbers which is important in case of emergency. This means that if you have lost your wallet then you will instantly want to place fraud alerts on your credit cards and bank accounts.

Therefore the best and the fastest method would be thorough phone. In case you are not aware about the id theft hotline numbers then you can visit the official FTC website to find contact number of all the major credit reporting agencies including banks.

by: John Goldman

POST COMMENT

What Is The Role Of Various Agencies In Providing Help To Identity Theft Victims? What Is The Impact Of Identity Theft On Victims? Identity Theft Protection And Prevention Guide Prevention For Identity Theft Victims How Serious Is Identity Theft Crime? Stop Identity Theft By Regular Paper Shredding Do I Need An Attorney? Comprehending Criminal Identity Theft What Is Dumster Diving Identity Theft? Dodging The Next Identity Theft Bullet Are You Ready For An Identity Theft Attack? Taking A Look At Credit Identity Theft The Serious Malady That Is Identity Theft