What To Do if You Suspect Identity Theft: Step Four

If you ask a victim of identity theft (and their numbers are growing), there is really no easy way to deal with the intrusion. Many of them say the feelings are similar to the feelings of someone who has had their house robbed, except on a much larger scale.

It can take years to completely recover and most of that time will be very frustrating. On a positive note, credit agencies and law enforcement are developing better methods for dealing with identity theft and better ways to help the victims.

There are four main steps that you should take if you have become a victim of identity theft. Let’s recap what we have so far:

• The first step was to contact a credit reporting agency and notify them.
• The second step was close all suspicious accounts.
• Step three is to file a formal complaint with the US FTC.

Finally, here is the fourth step you should take:

File a police report with the local authorities. When you go to file this report, take the FTC ID Theft complaint form and give a copy of that to the police. Also, make sure that you get a copy of the police report when you are done.

Then, if a creditor requests proof of the crime, you can send them a copy of the police report.

Additionally, there is a section on the ID Theft Report which is entitled “Law Enforcement Report”. Ask the officer to sign that section. If he/she has questions, you can refer them to the US FTC’s website. It has a special section for Law Enforcement.

Keep all of this information in a safe location (possibly in a safe-deposit box at your local bank). Then you are sure it will be available when you need it.

If this information has been helpful to you, you can help us in return. Please consider subscribing to receive our content via e-mail or RSS feed. You will be helping us out if you subscribe. Rest assured, we will NEVER share any of your information with anyone and we will not send you spam. In addition, you can unsubscribe anytime. What have you got to lose?