Basic Steps To Follow If You Are A Victim Of Identify Theft

Over 100 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen as the result of separate data breaches at Target and Home Depot.   Ultimately, many of these card numbers were offered for sale on a black market website specializing in selling stolen credit cards.

You may wonder what identity theft protections exist under the law, if one of your credit or debit cards is used by an identify thief who bought your number on the black market.

You should know that the law known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act provides identity theft protections.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued an excellent article on what to do if your identity is stolen. This article is available at the following link:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0274-immediate-steps-repair-identity-theft.

In addition, the Federal Trade Commission makes available for download a comprehensive guideline called, “Taking Charge, What To Do If Your Identify Is Stolen”. This guideline can be found or downloaded by following this link:

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/pdf-0009-taking-charge_0.pdf

These guidelines explain that if you believe that you are a victim of identity theft, you should follow these basic steps: 1) Place an initial fraud alert on your credit file at the credit reporting agencies; 2) Order your credit reports; 3) Create an identity theft report; 4) Review your credit reports; 5) Report errors with the credit reporting companies; 6) Request that certain information be “blocked” on your credit files; and 7) report the errors resulting from identity theft to the businesses that are reporting them.

Please understand that the Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes important responsibilities on consumer and credit reporting agencies in protecting consumers against the harm caused by identify theft.

For a free consultation on what to do if you believe you are a victim of identity theft please contact Jim Pietz at 412-281-8400 or by clicking on this link: Contact Us.