Hard pulls for credit I didn't authorize, two on the same day -- what next?

[Anonymous]

Today I saw that there were two hard pulls to my credit, both a couple of days ago, from Fingerhut and Walmart. I didn't authorize any credit pulls, and I don't shop at either of those companies. At least one appears to have used an old address from about four years ago.

There are no new accounts posted on my credit report -- yet -- just the inquiries so far, but I suspect attempts at identity theft.

What do I do to prevent these fake accounts from being authorized and added to my credit reports? I tried calling the phone numbers listed for the companies. Fingerhut isn't open on Sunday. Walmarts require an account number before they will put you through. But I don't have an account number.

I put a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies, and I put a credit freeze with each of the three agencies too. I guess this should prevent any further damage, but how can I prevent these two inquiries from resulting in new accounts and problems?

Is there any chance that the companies -- with the credit pulls being so recent -- will be notified of the fraud alerts or credit freezes and refuse the new accounts on this basis? Or is it too late? I just want to resolve this as painlessly as possible.

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Today I saw that there were two hard pulls to my credit, both a couple of days ago, from Fingerhut and Walmart. I didn't authorize any credit pulls, and I don't shop at either of those companies. At least one appears to have used an old address from about four years ago.

There are no new accounts posted on my credit report -- yet -- just the inquiries so far, but I suspect attempts at identity theft.

What do I do to prevent these fake accounts from being authorized and added to my credit reports? I tried calling the phone numbers listed for the companies. Fingerhut isn't open on Sunday. Walmarts require an account number before they will put you through. But I don't have an account number.

I put a fraud alert with the credit reporting agencies, and I put a credit freeze with each of the three agencies too. I guess this should prevent any further damage, but how can I prevent these two inquiries from resulting in new accounts and problems?

Is there any chance that the companies -- with the credit pulls being so recent -- will be notified of the fraud alerts or credit freezes and refuse the new accounts on this basis? Or is it too late? I just want to resolve this as painlessly as possible.

Thanks.

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I'd file an identity theft report with the police.  That way the CRAs are prevented from adding those accounts or if they do they are legally required to remove them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply -- can you explain a bit? I did just finish my police report online although I do not have a case number. How would the CRAs hear of it -- do you mean, once I get the final case number on my report, I sent a copy to each CRA? Or are they notified automatically? Or what? I guess I'm just not sure how this process works. Thank you so much for your time.

[RobertEG]

Read the "Victim of Identity Theft?" sticky topic at the top of the General Credit Issues forum for a complete discussion of the identity theft process.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, and indeed I did, before posting. My specific situation, with pulls caught early but no new accounts, did not seem to be covered. I'm wondering whether freezing everything now would prevent those pulls from resulting in new accounts, or whether I have to go whole hog. For example, I found a form that I could use for the Walmart identity theft, but it requests things like account numbers, which I do not have yet. Even the Walmart phone number listed with the pull requires an account number before it will let me talk to a real person. So my specific question related to being in this no man's land of "hard unauthorized pulls but no accounts yet" where I want to prevent the accounts. The sticky doesn't talk about that.