Recovering From Credit Fraud
What to Do
Have you ever been in the middle of a Fraud Attack? I have and it's no fun. It's not only a hassle to repair the damage done to your credit files but that personal feeling of being violated. After all your hard work to obtain a good credit score, paying your bills on time and just being a conscientious consumer, it is taken away in a matter of hours.
In todays world where technology is available to all comes the birth of the professional credit fraud rings. In most cases they your personal assets are not attacked, but they will open new charge accounts or charge fraudulently against your social security number. You are covered against loss under most credit card plans but to clear up the mess is time consuming.
By the time you are alerted something is wrong the fraud ring is packed up and gone. Swift and efficient if only our government could work in such a way. If there is any comfort in numbers realize your not alone. Millions of cases are overloading the fraud divisions and credit companies are losing billions per year to these thieves.
If you are a victim of fraud repairing your credit is a little different than if you were behind on payments. Take the following steps to rectify the fraud:
- Get a free copy of your credit report
- Identify the fraudulent accounts
- Contact those companies and explain the situation
- You will be sent a fraud affidavit - keep copies of everything
- Contact the credit reporting agencies (3) - they will put a fraud alert on your credit files
- You may be required to file a police report
This is very fixable, it may take a few weeks to fill out all the forms and contact the companies involved. Remember keep copies of everything.
This experience will certainly make you more cautious when making future credit purchases. Could it have been the department store clerk or a on line purchase who leaked you credit number. Use this experience to learn how the criminal works or better yet how the credit system works.
Now
if you are over extended and your credit is suffering because of that,
this is another story. Credit repair has to take a different course.There are ways to deal with both, just take the time to find out how.
