Identity or what we shortly called as “ID” is your personal identification that differentiates you from anyone. If such a person took away your own data with its back principle of committing fraud, then this what we called identity theft.
File taxes, gather clinical administrations, or falsely apply for credit are just one of the underlying elements of identity theft. These demonstrations can harm your money and time. As such, this can also put danger to your credit status.
The Precautions and Ways for Identity Theft Report
Identify theft has its principle of dropping your credit scores or charging your credit card with some purchases you didn’t make at all. As such, you need to carve within yourself on what are some strategies and ways on how to prevent identity theft.
Precautionary Measures
- Your Social Security Number or SSN must always be secured. Thus, when you carry your SSN with you, make sure that you handle it well by not losing it or letting other people take a peek of it.
- Do not share birth dates, bank account details and numbers, and your Social Security just because a person asks for it. Avoid sharing these pieces of information or just limit it by yourself knowing it all.
- Collect and check your email on a daily basis. Whenever you are going on a trip or casually traveling for some business work, keep track of your email transactions.
- Attend your different billing cycles by carefully monitoring it. Financial statements must be sent to you from time to time with no delays. If there are such delays, ask the company behind it.
- Do not casually lend your mobile phone to someone. You must also put some security features every application that contains your personal details.
- If possible, always utilize a VPN (Virtual Private Network) application when you connect to open WiFi. Whenever you browse not using your internet connection, prevent sharing such crucial and sensitive data.
- Any bank statements of yours must be reviewed from time to time when you use it. Additionally, it is best to do it weekly, or if you have the time, then you can review it daily.
- Do not easily throw receipts and make sure that the amount on it is the same as what card you’ve used. You need to be careful about some unauthorized transactions.
- Before throwing expired credit card and bank statements, shred this into pieces as some random people may use it when they have the habit of stealing information.
- You must put a password or store your personal data on a vault. If you don’t have a vault, you can place it on the safest part of your house.
- A back-up of your personal details must be at hand, and when your personal computer or mobile phone has it, then you need to install some virus-detection application. This software can be the way for some robbers to take away your information.
- You can also install firewalls on your personal devices, as this can prevent the robbers from penetrating your personal data. As well as encrypted system can be utilized.
- When utilizing passwords, do not use some words that can easily be decoded. The best passwords are those complex words with some numbers or characters on it.
- Make sure that your bank should never create such a new account without your permission. As such, you need to check your credit card reports to prevent it.
- You can also freeze the files within your credit card, as this method will prevent any person from applying fraudulent moves. If they wanted to, a confirmation would be notified to you to make sure it is really you.
The Ways for Identity Theft Report
- The principal or initial stop is by reporting to the Federal Trade Commission when such identity theft has happened. The Federal Trade Commission site has the tab on what are the ways to report and its needed information from you.
- Always be alert and active on reporting to the bank or organization you’ve issued your credit card. You must notify them after such a thing occurs so that they can give another card and expel false charges.
- Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are just one of the bureaus that you can report when an incident happens. Seek some help within a trusted friend or company when you are not familiar with the bureaus that handle identity theft.
- Reporting it to the bureaus will execute any additional fraudulent happenings. They will now bring to your door easily on what are some transactions had happened as the move to ensure it is done by you.
- When you finish reporting to the appropriate authorities, contact back your bank and start the procedures of settling your bank account. On this part, you will be given the best option of freezing your card for a while to stop new false charges from robbers.
- Always discuss it thoroughly with the bank or the organization on what are the best alternatives to this incident. Sometimes, your wants may not be what the organization thinks best or vice-versa. Therefore, you need to meet between to ensure safety.
Whenever this incident happens, you can also report it to the police department. However, doing this so would require such details or pieces of evidence to completely consider this case. You must possess these three elements before reporting it to the police department.
- First, you have known or has some instincts on who is the identity thief. You need to bring pieces of evidence or witness that can testify that this person has the ability to do it so.
- Second, ask permission to know such data from the police department if your name has been used by anyone. For instance, the robber/s is/are involved in violating the traffic rules. They may use your name and identity to be safe from it.
- Third, another party that can be debt collector, creditor, etc., insisted you report this within the police department. The third-party participants can also be affected worst on the situation.
Your country may imply IdentityTheft.gov, which is a site that helps you to report identity theft. As such, know the government agencies within your country who really handle this to avoid another bad incident.
Reporting will always be the best thing to do and is a must move as your personal information is at stake. Knowing some of the importance of reporting identity theft will help you to make an action as easy as when the situation happens. These are some of the following elements on how filing must be a necessary move.
- This concludes that you are an innocent person or the real victim of it.
- The investigation process can then start as the time you’ve done making a report about it.
- A sworn statement bestowed by the police department that your name is not the primary doer of such action. You will not be held responsible for the crimes that your stealer has used.
- A hint while filing to the police, you must only tell the truth as altering such facts will not result in a good ending. You may be in prison together with the thief as you also act such criminal ways.
- If you are a qualified client to make a report, then here is the second major variety of steps that you need to do. You must note that the qualifications must be based on the three elements above, already acquired, before finally reporting it to the police department.
- Go first to the local police office to make a report and then report also to the police officers on the place where the incident happens.
You must bring the original copy of the Identity Theft Report from FTC. Some countries may don’t require this as sometimes they may only require a report on what the government issued. Yet, here are some things which you need to bring while filing the report and must have at the end of filing the report.
- A valid ID that is recognized by your country.
- Pieces of evidence like billing statements or mortgage bills that it is really you.
- If you have the evidence against your robber, then you need to bring it with you.
- You can attach the FTC report papers or your government report papers onto your case to ensure the data being recorded by the police.
- You need to ask spare copies from the police department as the bank, or your creditor may require it. Also, you need to have a copy by yourself as a proofing statement.
I will give you some tips on how to make sure that your report will be handled as much as they can, as police departments may face some struggles to finish such hard reports.
- Make sure you are calm and firm when talking about it. Do not be that bossy or demanding person as no individual would like it as they are also handling other cases.
- You need to be flexible as some offices may want the information in a form. If you think that a form is not enough, then try to convince them that you need to share it personally.
- Seek help from the attorney’s general office as some police departments are not able to take on some reports. The attorney’s general office has the hand and details to explain to you as clearly as possible.
- Your information must be detailed and always be specific when giving answers. Provide some pieces of evidence on your bank statements that you did not open and utilize the parts made by the robbers.
- Always make sure your report statements have been recognized and from the police department as this will serve as the gateway to clear disputes.
- You must spare some copies of your FTC complaint and police report, as this will serve as proof when you are going to resolve disputes. The companies may want to have this at some point; therefore, you need to spare more copies.
Conclusion
The ideal approach to make authorities be aware of such fraud is by reporting it to the Federal Trade Commission. If ever your country or your government provides you such things to do first before filing it to the police, then you must follow it first. It’s additionally essential to put an active device on your credit card that will protect you from identity theft. Settling identity theft will not always be an easy case; however, following the process is the vital point to correctly do this and not taint your name. You need to track each progression and any proofs that you go over with, as this will make things easier. As such, you need to consider and put in your mind what are the stated precautionary measures above, as this will bring you a huge benefit to not encounter this incident as possible as you can.
