Victims of I.D. theft How did you handle your situation

[Anonymous]

I have been the victim of I.D. theft several times. My daughter even more often. Never have I gone to the police to report a crime. I contacted my CCC and explained the charge was not mine, it was investigated and promptly removed. I have never paid for a charge that was not mine. My daughter has had her debit card lifted and money withdrawn from her account on at least three occasions. She went to the bank involved and within a couple of days or so, her money was returned. Again, no police report was needed nor required.

How have you handled your I.D. theft?

[K-in-Boston]

This sounds like fraudulent credit card use, rather than identity theft.  Identity theft is when someone is granted new credit in your name.

[Anonymous]

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@K-in-Bostonwrote:

This sounds like fraudulent credit card use, rather than identity theft.  Identity theft is when someone is granted new credit in your name.

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Exactly.  A fraudulent charge which happens to a lot of us from time to time is FAR from identity theft.

[RobertEG]

The importance of a police report is when the debt has been reported to a CRA, and you want it removed from your credit report.

FCRA 605B was added to the FCRA to permit consumers to get credit reporting removed from their reports without any consent, agreement, or involvement of the creditor or debt collector who has reported the information to your credit file.

You must, in order to get the information blocked, put your assertions that you did not authorize an account or transaction into a police report executed before a law enforcment agency, as such reports carry criminal penalties for knowingly false statements, and thus have added weight.

See the sticky post in the upper section of the General Credit Topics portion of this forum for a detailed discussion of the indentity theft process.

[JVille]

My husband (now 66 yrs old) has been a victim of identity theft for over 45 yrs. A former college “friend” whose Americanized name is the same as my husbands. To make matters more interesting he married a woman whose first name was the same as mine.... well long story made short this man has lived his life using my husbands birth certificate, collage transcripts, and professional designations. He renewed my husbands drivers license using his picture. Well you get the picture we have spent 45 yrs dealing with this crook who has caused yrs of legal issues to include my husband being arrested for identity fraud, yes!!!! Tried to say he was the crook and not the victim.
Having a compromised credit card is a far cry from Identity Fraud, trust me our story is ugly!