My "public service announcement" NPR

[Mellifluous]

My mom has had her identity stolen. She was not sure where to begin as far as getting it back. This blindsided her and she would never have known if Ford Credit had not noticed an anomaly in her account.

She was completely unaware that she was entitled to a free credit report from the 3 agencies yearly. I went ahead and got her equifax report for her so she could see how much damage was done. I recommended that she break things up so that she gets one report every 4 months instead of all 3 at one time. This way she gets the one from each agency that she is entitled to and can keep a regular check on things. I keep an eye on mine because I live on a road with some shady characters and they could easily get some of my mail and take off with my ID. It sounds a bit paranoid but I just want to stay on top of things!

I am sure that most of you know about this, but I wanted to share just in case any of you didn't.

I do not believe that every state is participating, but it is great for those who are. Most people don't go to the right place for their credit report and end up pay $10 or more. This is the link to the site that you are supposed to go to for your free report. This is not one of the imitation sites.

http://www.annualcreditreport.com

I learned about all of this on the Clark Howard show in case any of you know who he is! Great consumer advice.

http://clarkhoward.com/

[finolover]

she was entitled to a free credit report from the 3 agencies yearly.

yes but........i was charged 79.95 for the next year...for not taking my name off their list........ :mad:

[Mellifluous]

she was entitled to a free credit report from the 3 agencies yearly.

yes but........i was charged 79.95 for the next year...for not taking my name off their list........ :mad:

That is what happened when you go to one of the "scam" places. This does not put you on a list or take any credit card or billling information from you. This is the LEGAL way to get a truley FREE credit report. There are a lot of shady people trying to use the legislation to find a roundabout way to charge people for their credit reports. Kevin got duped by them. I think one of them has an ad on tv...www.freecreditreport.com - that is NOT a legit site for an acutal free report.

I think all of these scams are why people are not getting what they are entitiled to. It makes me mad that there are so many crooks out there.

[Mellifluous]

Here is a blurb on this from Clarke's site

Oct 26, 2005 -- 60% of people ignoring free credit reports
Remember when credit reports were a mystery? A few years ago, we didn’t have access to our credit reports. Then, after some hard work by certain individuals, we gained access but we had to pay. Now, our credit reports are free! But recent statistics show that 60 percent of people haven’t bothered to get their reports. You need to get at least one report a year from each of the bureaus. You just go to annualcreditreport.com and plan out a schedule so that you get a new report from a different bureau every four months. You don’t have to buy anything else on the site, so just skip over all those extra options. Go there for your report only. You should get your credit score once a year and you have to pay for this. But Clark suggests that you get it from Equifax because it's the true score.

Here is another little article
Aug 17, 2005 -- Experian must pay fine for bogus "free reports"
You’ve probably seen the ads all over Web sites and on TV for “Free Credit Reports.” Most of them are bogus and Experian, one of the three credit bureaus, recently got its wrist slapped for this very thing. Experian was offering “free credit reports online in seconds,” but the company was actually ripping people off for $79.95 each time. By opting for the “free report” people also signed up for an annual credit monitoring service. The company made off with about $80 million, but it’s only being fined about $1 million. That’s pathetic. There is only one legitimate site that offers free reports with no strings attached. It is annualcreditreport.com and it was designated by the federal government after the law making credit reports free went into effect. It started last year in the West, and effective Sept. 1, everyone in America will be able to get one credit report a year FOR FREE! In Georgia, people can see reports from each bureau twice a year. Shame on Experian for trying to dupe people, when the organization is supposed to be a legitimate credit bureau.

[PASOFAN]

Being in the loan business I need tosay that it is VERY important to get your credit report and ck it at leased 1x a yr if not more!

www.equifax.com if one of the major bureau's, we pull directly from them for loans. U are intittled to 1 free report a yr, plus there are many other loop holes in getting a CR for free, and FRAUD is one of them. I suggest ONLY going directly to the bureau's for thses because they wont try to sell you anything plus they are the actuall Bureau's..

MEL: it is a terrible thing, we see and catch identity theft almost DAILY here at our credit union in MN.. Number one thing you mom needs to do is contact all her creditors to flag her accts. and then the bureau. File a police report on the thefts. Document everything!! I sure hope her CR isnt as bad hoping u guys caught it early..

Identy theft is outta control, be careful!!!

If you need ANY advice on this PM me I deal w/this stuff all the time..

Good luck and my sympathy goes out to your mom...

[Dave]

Received this e-mail, thought I'd pass it along.


A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED."

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check-processing channels will not have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks, (DUH!). You can add it if it is necessary. However, if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Also carry a photocopy of your passport when traveling either here or abroad. We have all heard horror stories about fraud that is committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

6. When you check out of a hotel that uses cards for keys (and they all seem to do that now), do not turn the "keys" in. Take them with you and destroy them. Those little cards have on them all of the information you gave the hotel, including address and credit card numbers and expiration dates. Someone with a card reader, or employee of the hotel, can access all that information with no problem whatsoever.

Unfortunately, as an attorney, I have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer and received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online. Here is some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. The key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one). However, here is what is perhaps most important of all (I never even thought to do this.)

3. Call the three national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet and contents being stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

[Mellifluous]

www.equifax.com if one of the major bureau's, we pull directly from them for loans. U are intittled to 1 free report a yr, plus there are many other loop holes in getting a CR for free, and FRAUD is one of them. I suggest ONLY going directly to the bureau's for thses because they wont try to sell you anything plus they are the actuall Bureau's..


Thanks for the good tips! Once mom figures out how much damage was done, I may pm you to get osme advice. The poor woman has so much on her now, this is just another straw!

And I wanted to clear up that the site I have given out is a gateway to the free reports from the bureau's sites. It just gets you in without all of the buy this and buy that crap that you get hit with by going in directly to the site. I just went to the equifax site and they want you to sign up for their credit monitoring service with a "free trial" ($79.95 after your month is over) If you look at the upper right portion of the page, you will see the link for info on the Fact Act. You click there and they tell you to go to the annualcreditreport.com site to get your info for free.

It can be very confusing!

Funny how they try to get money out of you in other ways since folks can get free reports now.

[Jane Hurl]

I am sure that a lot of the info given (above) is good ... but I have to warn you about that "letter from a lawyer". At least ONE part of it is not true, which, of course, makes the rest of it suspect.

The untrue part? About the key card you use at a hotel. It does NOT contain your personal information. (www.snopes.com)

My personal thoughts on that: first off, there's no good reason for the card to contain that info, but there is a powerful reason to NOT have it, and that is, it would be an easy source of your info to crooks. Hotels aren't stupid.

So now, I guess we need to check out the rest of that info for validity.

[PFRydr]

THANKS MEL!!!!!!!!!!!!
pfrydr