Identity Theft Resources and Tools for Victims

While we write blogs and update our site with useful tools and information to protect your Internet privacy, 84 million people a year fall victim to identity theft. With fraud totals reaching $49.3 billion in 2007, it is very important to take the first step and proactively find ways to keep your information private. We provide blogs, articles, and products that protect you, but the 84 million people a year who have fallen victim to identity theft have little help or support.

Many victims find out within three months of the theft...that means the person who stole the identity has had a three month head start on spending your money and opening up false accounts. This fact, along with the fact that the average identity theft victim can spend 330 hours repairing their credit, shows that ID theft is a dangerous crime. 330 hours = roughly 13 full days. That means a person can spend 13 24-hour days (or 41 8-hour work days) trying to fix the damage from ID theft. The FTC has created a section of their website that contains tools and information for the victims of identity theft so they can begin the rebuilding process as quickly as possible.

If you are the victim of identity theft you should do these four steps immediately:

1. Review your credit reports and place a fraud alert (or extended fraud alert) with the credit bureaus.
2. Close the accounts that have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
3. File a complaint with the FTC.
4. File a police report.

This is the shortened version of the list, but these are the steps you should follow to ensure the situation is dealt with asap. The following tools for victims of identity theft will be useful in conjunction with the four steps:

• You must always keep a log of your actions and findings when gathering information from an identity theft. The FTC has provided a "course of action chart" to help you keep detailed information for your reference.
• FTC ID Theft Complaint form. This form found on the FTC's Consumer Protection page can be combined with the police report to create an Identity Theft Report, helping victims get the ball rolling sooner and recover quicker. The report is used to block fraudulent information from appearing on your credit report, and prevent companies from collecting debts due to an identity theft.
• ID Theft Affidavit (pdf). This form is less detailed and does not offer as much protection as the Identity Theft Report, but is still a very useful tool to have. The eight page document must be filled out in order to absolve you of any debt incurred due to identity theft, or to gain access to the information a company has on the identity thief they dealt with.
  
• Victim's Statement of Rights. This statement details your rights under federal law (and also has a link to state resources).
• You will have to write many letters to credit card companies, banks, and other companies that have been used during your identity theft. The FTC provides a list of sample letters for various purposes that are useful and time saving tools (note: Word documents):
• Requesting fraudulent transactions or account information
• Requesting credit bureaus to block fraudulent information from appearing on your credit report
• Disputing charges on an existing account that has been tampered with
• Disputing charges on an account opened by the identity thief
• Law Enforcement(pdf) cover letter that should be attached with your FTC Identity Theft Complaint

These tools will help the identity theft victim reduce the number of hours and the amount of effort needed to resolve an identity theft. Of course always remember the best offense against an identity theft is a great defense!