Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft
By Rick Hazeltine
Staff Editorial Writer
One of the best ways to protect yourself from identity theft is to monitor your credit report. Many times, being refused a loan, credit card or even a job is the first indication you may be a victim of identity theft.
There are many ways to get copies of your credit report, including signing up to receive your credit report quarterly from the three major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. There are also private companies that charge a fee but allow you to access your credit report at any time, day or night.
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act that was passed in 2003 requires the three major credit bureaus to provide requesting consumers one free annual credit report. In response, the three bureaus launched the Web site, annualcreditreport.com, where consumers can take advantage of this program.
Getting a credit report is only the first step in order to protect yourself from identity theft. Knowing what to look for and how to locate the important information in a credit report is crucial if you want to protect yourself from identity theft.
If you get a credit report from all three bureaus, don't be surprised if each gives you a different score, there is differing information and the location of the information is different.
The Identity Theft Resource Center - a non-profit organization that helps any victim of identity theft and offers tools to educate consumers about the crime - recommends that everyone with a Social Security number view a credit report once a year. This will help protect you from errors reported to the bureaus, as well as possible identity theft.
Here are the key areas of a credit report that the ITRC recommends a consumer look at so you can protect yourself from identity theft:
- Make sure that all of your personal information, located in the header, is correct. Action: Be on the lookout for addresses of places you never lived or were not living at the time indicated. This can be an indication of fraud.
- You should find all of the accounts you have opened, even if they were later closed, under the 7-year credit history section. If you closed any accounts, they should be noted with "Closed by Consumer." Action: Make sure that accounts you have closed are noted as being so. Also, make sure that all of the open and closed accounts are yours. Any accounts you don't recognize could be a sign of fraud.
- Collection agency and bankruptcies may appear under a separate section or within the 7-year credit history section. Action: Even if you have never filed for bankruptcy or an account go to collection, it is important to review this section. It is not uncommon for identity thieves to rack up debt on credit accounts and then default. This can also happen with car loans, so be diligent in order to protect yourself from identity theft.
- You will likely see several indications of when you, or a credit company, made an inquiry about your credit. Whenever you apply for credit, regardless of whether you are approved, it is noted on your credit report. The same goes for credit companies that send you pre-approved offers of credit. Experian and TransUnion separate these inquiries into two sections; Equifax includes them under the same section but has different code numbers so you can differentiate between the two types of inquiries. Action: If under the area indicating inquiries made by the consumer you see a request that you did not make, immediately contact the credit bureau. This could be an identity thief applying for credit in your name. You may or may not recognize the inquiries made by credit companies because they don't need your permission to do so.
