Someone used my SSN – What do I do?

[Helen]

I tried to get a loan, but the bank called and told me they have someone else on file with MY SSN. What do I do now?

[Darius]

Identity Theft First Aid

Your first action should be placing an Initial Fraud Alert on your credit reports and scores with the 3 major credit bureaus. This will attach a warning to your credit information, notifying everyone that pulls your information that they should take extra security measures (such as contacting you directly) before issuing new credit in your name. Consider Freezing your credit reports as an extra protection.

You then need to pull your credit reports from all 3 major credit reports (Equifax, Experian & Trans Union) and check then thoroughly. You’ll have to dispute any account that is not yours, but to do this you will first have to file a police report (identity theft report) with your local police department. A police identity theft report is mandatory for disputing accounts not opened by you, closing accounts, blocking creditors, placing extended fraud alerts etc.

For a detailed Identity theft recovery guide please see ../how-to-report-identity-theft.

Additionally, you may want to apply all or some of the measures to better protect your identity in the future.

[Author]

Posts