5 Tips for Clearing Your Name

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What You Must Do to Clear Your Name – Quickly!

You’ve discovered you are a victim of identity theft so now you must clear your name. Do it as quickly as possible to stop the thieves spending more money fraudulently and regain your good name.

1)  First, contact the fraud unit of a credit bureau and tell them you have been a victim of identity theft. The bureau will automatically contact the other two bureaus and send out your credit report. Check them carefully.  If you find any fraudulent accounts or incorrect information you must immediately tell the credit bureaus.

Once you have notified them of these errors or false accounts the bureaus are required to block that information from future reports, thus keeping your credit report as it should be. The credit bureau must notify the creditors of the false account.  Request the contact information of these creditors from the bureaus if it is not in the report.

You must also write to the credit bureaus and instruct them to remove any inquiries that have been made due to the fraudulent access in your name.

2)  Report the crime to the police. They may not want to take the report but you can file it under a 'miscellaneous incidents’ report. Provide the police with as much information as possible. Make sure you get a copy of the report (known as an ’identity theft report’). The report will come in handy as credit card companies and banks may want to see it.

3)  Inform the Federal Trade Commission that you have been a victim of identity theft. Give them your police report number.

4)  Complete a Fraud Affidavit. Your creditors or banks will probably ask you to do this. You also need to cancel all your accounts that may have been used by the identity thief.  Ask that accounts be tagged “closed at account holder’s request”, so you cannot be blamed as having lost your credit card.  Be vigilant and monitor all your new statements to ensure no further fraudulent activity has taken place. If it has, report it immediately.

5)  If you are being chased by debt collectors to pay the unpaid bills on fraudulent credit accounts, ask for the name of the company, the name of the person contacting you, phone number, and address. Inform the debt collector that you are a victim of fraud and are not responsible for the account. Once you contact the creditor ask them if they need you to complete their fraud affidavit form.  Put stops on all checking accounts if your checks are missing.  Cancel your accounts and get new accounts with passwords.

If all else fails and you are having trouble regaining your identity, get legal help. Unraveling the mess that an identity thief has made can take time. But the sooner you get on to reporting the crime, the sooner you’ll have your identity back.