What to Do After Identity Theft Occurs

What do you do after identity theft occurs? Having your identity stolen is one of the most traumatic events that can happen to your financial life. Once someone assumes your identity and starts using it to ruin your credit, it can take months, or even years, to straighten everything out again. You’ll likely spend hours on the phone each day with credit companies and law enforcement agencies trying to get it all worked out. That’s valuable time taken away from your family and other activities you enjoy, and you’ll never get that back. Still, when your identity is stolen, you have to deal with it, like it or not. Here’s what to do:

Call all of your credit card companies immediately and cancel your cards. The sooner you get your cards cancelled, the less likelihood there is of you getting saddled with a lot of fraudulent charges. Most credit cards only make you responsible for the first $50 of fraudulent charges, but that’s still money you have to pay for something you didn’t do.

Call your bank and let them know your identity has been stolen. They can then be on the lookout for fraudulent activity on your account. If your bank account number was compromised in the theft, you may need to actually close your account and open a new one with a different account number.

Call the police. You’ll definitely want law enforcement to be involved with this. The police will take every measure to track down the person who stole your identity and will keep you abreast of developments in your case. It also helps to get the police involved immediately after identity theft occurs, because they’ll be aware that someone else is using your name, which will go in your favor if you’re ever arrested for something the thief did while pretending to be you (it’s happened to other people!).

Get credit monitoring. Signing up for a credit monitoring service will keep you up to date on anything that’s happening with your credit report. You’ll be alerted immediately if there is a change to your report, which will give you the opportunity to check out the change to see if it’s legitimate or not. If you find something questionable, you can jump right on it by investigating it and taking care of it before it becomes a big problem. Credit monitoring services are available for a reasonable monthly fee, and the small cost is well worth it for the benefits such services offer.

Knowing what to do after identity theft occurs can be difficult and confusing, especially at such an upsetting time. However, by being aware of what identity theft can do to you, and having a plan of action in mind, you can help yourself avoid much stress down the road as you work to clear your name. The people who know what to do and do it usually come out ahead when their identities are stolen. Don’t you want to be one of those people, if the worst should ever happen to you?

This is the fourth installment in our identity theft series. Be sure to check back for updates…

Filed under: Identity Theft

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