The Federal Trade Commission is the official governmental department in charge of properly educating the public on how to protect their identity from being stolen, what to do in the case that it is stolen, and how to go about correcting any damage done when the consumer does become a victim of identity theft.  In a program called Deter, Detect, Defend, the Federal Trade Commission has laid out some very easy to follow and seemingly common sense tips and guidelines in order to assist the American consumer in protecting his or her identity.  In the Detect portion of the plan, there are four steps to take in order to stop any fraud once you have discovered that there is a chance you have become vulnerable to it.  The first step is to call one of the three credit reporting agencies to place a fraud alert on your credit reports.  Once you have done that, the next step is to close any accounts that you know or even suspect have been altered, or opened without your permission or intent.  Every credit company has a fraud department, so call and ask to speak directly with a member of that department.  Take that communication one step further and send copies of supporting documentation to the member of the fraud department with whom you spoke.  Be sure to use the secure certified mail option at the Post Office and request return receipts so that you can begin to build your records with documentation of when your correspondence was received by the credit companies.  Document everything.  Take no chances.  The more vigilant you are in proving you are who you say you are, the greater the chances for resolving the issues quickly and with little irritation.  When it’s time to open new accounts or change the passwords or login information, choose new, complicated and intricate new passwords.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.