How To Clean Up Your Credit Ruined By Scammers
If you suspect you are a victim of identity theft or if you know you are, what should you do? Identity-theft victims don’t make the chaos but eventually they have to clear it. There’s no one who can do it except the consumer whose credit was ruined by an ID thief.
New initiatives can help identity-theft victims begin the lengthy procedure of demonstrating to creditors, collection agencies and law enforcement officials that they are who they say they are. It is up to the ID theft victim to prove that his identity has been stolen.
The first step is to report the crime to the police station where the crime occurred. Make sure the police report lists all fraud accounts. Give as much documented information as possible. Get a copy of the report and send it to the creditors and the credit-reporting agencies as verification of the crime. Keep the phone number of your police investigator handy.
Identity theft falls into three categories:
Financial identity theft:
This most commonly occurs when the Social Security number (SSN) and name is used to launch new lines of...