Signs of Identity Theft

Identity theft can happen to anyone, and now that our lives are so busy, we often omit the signs of identity theft.  It is important to understand that for most people early identity theft prevention often starts with the first onset of the actual theft of the identity.

Plastic Power
Have you received credit cards lately that you perhaps didn’t apply for?  This is one of the most common ways identity theft is spotted; when someone used your bankable name to obtain a credit card.

Hello, my name is…
Are you getting calls or letters from debt collectors?  Is this regarding a maxed out line of credit, or merchandise, or services you didn’t purchase?  Is some random business calling you to pay up?  If you said “yes” to even one of these questions you may be a victim of identity theft, unless of course, you decided to forgo paying your bills on time.

Credit report fallacies
Have you recently obtained copies of your credit reports?  If you have, did you notice any fraudulent or inaccurate information on your reports?  This may include accounts that are “negative,” “derogatory,” or even “open accounts.”  Make sure to check your personal information, such as: name, address, social security number, and employer information.  Does everything match?  If not, you may have become victim number… well, it’s in the millions.

Denied
Another sign of identity theft may be denial of credit.  Also, being passed up for best credit terms, such as lower interest rates, may fall in the category of identity theft.  Of course, if your credit is poor or average make sure to check your credit for any signs of identity theft.

I didn’t do that
If you spot any accounts you didn’t open and debts on your accounts that you cannot explain you may have become… you guessed it, another statistic.  These accounts may be on your credit report, but can also show up in your mailbox in a form of a statement, a bill, or a notice.

Where’s my mail?
If you are not receiving your bills or other mail you may be getting scammed.  Follow up with your creditors if this happens.  A missing bill may be a sign that an identity thief took over your accounts and changed your billing address to cover his tracks.

One last thing
If you are going to check your credit report make sure to check all three (3) of them.  If you have had credit for a while now you will notice that not all your accounts show up on all of your credit reports.  Thus, you should take into consideration that if you check the Experian credit file only, and coincidentally the ID thief chooses to apply for credit with a company that reports to Trans Union, you may miss out on very important signs of identity theft in progress.