There are four main steps that you should take if you think you are the victim of identity theft. The first step was to contact a credit reporting agency and notify them. Here is the second step:
Close any account that you think was tampered with or opened fraudulently. The US FTC has a formal document called the ID Theft Affidavit. You should use this document if you are disputing a new unauthorized account. (NOTE: This document is a PDF file, so before opening it, make sure that you are protected from the recent Adobe vulnerabilities). Here is a link to the ID Theft Affidavit on the US FTC web site.
Contact the fraud department of any company holding an unauthorized account. Usually, they will have specific forms that you must fill out and return. After you get this information from them, send them copies of any documents that support your claims. Send all correspondence via certified letter so you can verify what they received and when they received it.
After your dispute has been resolved, ask the company to give you a letter stating that they have closed the unauthorized account and that you are not responsible for the fraudulent charges. Then, if you are ever contacted again about these debts, you have written proof that the matter has been resolved.
Tomorrow we will go over step three: Filing a complaint with the US FTC.
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