Identity Theft Protection

You can help protect yourself from identity theft by making it more difficult for criminals to access your personal information. There are several ways to be proactive in protecting your personal data. Change passwords often and make them hard to guess by using letters, numbers and characters. Don’t carry your Social Security card or share your number or other personal information with persons or organizations that do not have proper data security protections in place. Keep documents with personal information in a safe place or shred them if you don’t need them. Check your credit reports often to make sure no new accounts have been opened in your name. CreditWise provides you with free, regular access to your TransUnion credit report, and you are able to access your other credit reports for free once per year (or more under certain circumstances) via AnnualCreditReport.com.

Once you take steps to handle identity theft, it is important to stay vigilant. Regularly review your credit reports and check to see if your personal information may have been compromised. Take extra precautions to protect your personal information, especially if you have already become a victim of identity theft.

You can often catch identity theft early when you regularly check your credit reports to see if a fraudster has opened any new accounts in your name using your personal information. Other red flags may include: not receiving statements or bills for accounts as you have in the past; receiving statements for accounts you did not open or charges for items or services you did not buy; unauthorized bank transactions; or sudden changes to your credit score.

If you discover your identity has been stolen, act right away. First, contact your financial institutions, credit card companies or other establishments where you know an identity thief used your personal information (like utilities, landlord or government benefits agencies). Dispute any fraudulent transactions. Place a fraud alert on your credit reports and think about freezing access to your credit information. You may also want to file a report with local law enforcement. 

Next, close any new accounts fraudulently opened in your name. Change account login information or passwords. It may be wise to file an identity theft report with the Federal Trade Commission. This important step may help with the next stage: correcting your credit report. Using your identity theft report, dispute any fraudulent information on your credit reports resulting from identity theft with the credit reporting companies.