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This scenario may be hypothetical, but similar situations happen to people all over the country daily. Many people are victims of identity theft and dont even realize it until they need to use their credit for something, such as buying a car or a home. However, it doesnt have to be that way. If you check your credit reports yearly, you can make sure that no unauthorized activities are ruining your credit. Now that you can receive a copy of your credit report free, the only possible excuse for not monitoring it is that you cant understand how to read it and thats what were going to discuss now. The credit report is divided into four parts. The first part contains your personal information, such as name, social security number, and employer. You may want to check over this part for mistakes, but if youre interested in catching identity theft activity you wont find the evidence here. Instead, one of your focuses should be on the second part of the report. This is your credit history, which includes a list of all your creditors. For each account, youll find the date the account opened, the type of account it is, the amount the account was originally for, the amount still owed, the amount of the payments, the status of the account, and your payment history. Go over each entry in this section of your report carefully. If you find any accounts which you do not remember opening, make note of them. If any information, such as amount owed, on the accounts does not match your expectations, then make a note of that also. Once youve reviewed the credit history portion, youll find the public records section. Again, this probably wont be of much use to you if youre tracking down identity theft evidence because it includes liens, bankruptcies, etc. However, do make sure the information in this section is accurate. Some lenders believe that almost 80% of all credit reports do contain some types of errors and since this section is important you want it to be accurate. The last section the Inquiry section should also be evaluated carefully. You see, each time you or a potential creditor checks your credit report, a note of that inquiry is made in this section. Victims of identity theft are likely to see a number of inquiries, which he or she cannot account for. Now do keep in mind that there are two types of inquiries reported in this section. The soft inquiries, as they are called, refer to inquiries made by potential creditors that you did not request. For example, a credit card company may check your credit history before sending you an offer for a gold card. The hard inquiries are the ones you need to be interested in because these are the inquires that you supposedly requested. If theres anything on that report you dont agree with, then make a note of it. Once you have checked your report, contact the credit bureau and the creditors about any mistakes or discrepancies you notice. If you think youve been a victim of identity theft and need to know what steps to take next or if you want more suggestions on how not to become a victim, you need to read Identity Theft: A Resource Guide from PCSecurityNews.com. The ebook is available at http://www.PCSecurityNews.com. |
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