Thanks to MyFICO.com I was able to detect Credit Fraud on my account early enough to prevent too much bleeding. It notified me when new accounts were opened with my Social, without me actually opening them. It is hard to tell how bad the situation would be without myFICO.com watching out for me. I promise I am not compensated in anyway by MyFICO.
After being a victim of Identity Theft recently, I discovered that to be a victim all someone has to do is guess your social security number. I thought credit companies had to verify that name, addresses, and/or birthdates had to match the social. I found out I was wrong. There were 4 accounts opened under my social with someone else’s name and address. In fact the thief even made minimum payments to keep the account in good standing. Kind of makes it hard for the Credit Card Company to believe that the account is fraudulent. Who wouldn’t want to give a 100 dollar minimum payment in exchange for 3000 dollars that was charged that month. Anyhow the following will do all of what LifeLock.com will do for you, but instead you will be 10 dollars richer per month, and have the peace of mind you will not have to spend countless hours reclaiming your identity and argue with Credit Card Companies who are defending the Identity Crooks because they have made minimum payments to a fraudulent account.
1.Call one of these every 90 days and put a fraud alert on. I used Transunion, they will call the other two for ya. All will do that.
· Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
· Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
· Trans ?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = ST1 />Union : 1-800-680-7289
2.Call ‘Chex System’ every 90 days and put a fraud alert on
1-888-478-6536 Chex System (Puts an Alert for SS# for New Bank Accounts 90 Days)
3. Call every 5 years and Opt Out of Pre-Approval Letters
1-888-567-8688 Opt Out (5 Year) Credit Apps By Mail
