Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Stop Taking Risks Concerning Identity Theft

By Rex Simpleton

Being a victim of identity theft is one of the worst things that could ever happen to someone. However there are certain steps that you can take in order to minimize your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft and here are some of them:

1.If you think that you have been a victim of fraud, the first thing you should do is contacting the fraud department of the credit card company to make sure that a fraud alert is made on your credit report.

The fraud alert will warn creditors to contact you whenever an account is opened using your name or if ever there are some changes that are to be made on your accounts. There are actually two types of fraud alerts---these are your initial alert and your extended alert.

Initial fraud alert lasts only ninety days while the extended fraud alert can even last seven years. People can choose from both fraud alerts after analyzing which one suits their needs better. In order to report a fraud alert, costumers will only contact one of the costumers reporting companies so it doesn't require a big amount of time.

2. It will also help if you close the accounts that have been tampered with or fraudulently opened in your name. You can use the ID Theft Affidavit when you want to question new unauthorized accounts that are opened in your name.

3. Complaining to the local police department in your city or filing a report concerning identity theft can be one of the best things to do when identity theft happens to you. Also, you should keep a copy of the report to show it to the creditors as a proof of the crime.

4. Similarly don't forget to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. The commission keeps a database of all identity theft cases used and filed by law enforcement agencies for investigations. By filing a complaint to the proper authority will help you to understand better all issues regarding identity theft.

Nobody is protected from these types of frauds. All people can do is to try and be careful with their information. All over the internet criminals can take your personal information and use it to gain profit. Make sure that the companies you are dealing with are trustworthy and make sure that their methods of privacy are genuine.

If you ever receive mails that inform you about winning different things, just ignore them; what those people try to do is to gather information by making you fill a form with your personal data. Also, make sure that, if something happens to you, you will report it to the Federal Trade Commission to help protect other people by informing about any fraudulent mail.

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