What do identity thieves do

Every year, you're entitled to one free credit report from each of the main credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can access these reports for free at annualcreditreport.

If you think you've been hacked, pull your credit report immediately to look for unauthorized inquiries. Create an Identity Theft Report.

Found at IdentityTheft. The online report asks a few questions about your situation, then devises a personal recovery plan. Place an extended fraud alert on your credit file. An extended fraud alert requires a business to verify your identity before it issues new credit.

This alert lasts seven years and is available only to identity theft victims. To get an extended fraud alert, you'll first need to fill out an Identity Theft Report. Make a list of fraudulent activity. Applications to open new accounts, as well as the accounts that have already been fraudulently opened in your name, must be noted and forwarded to the three credit bureaus and listed on your Identity Theft Report.

Phone the creditors. The "new applications" department will be your first stop at arresting any further harm if the application is still in process. File a police report and fraud affidavit.

These can be obtained from your creditor s or the Federal Trade Commission if these businesses accept the FTC's forms, and provide copies of these documents and any additional necessary paperwork to creditors' fraud departments.

Provide creditors' fraud departments with the details and contacts. It will take up to 90 days to conduct a full investigation. Obtain letters from your creditors. These letters should state that the fraudulence on your account has been confirmed, resolved and removed from your account.

Then make sure that your creditors have expunged this negative reporting on your account and that a letter stating this has been sent to all three credit reporting bureaus. As a backup, you should personally send a copy of these letters to the credit reporting agencies as well.

They called it "the most expensive and highest-impact" fraud for consumers. Identity theft would not be possible if criminals weren't able to get their hands on someone's PII—personally identifiable information. PII is all the data, both privately held and in the public domain, that describes and identifies who you are.

It is information that pertains specifically to you. The graphic below lists the most common forms of PII, but there are more. Personally Identifiable Information is information unique to you that describes and identifies who you are. It's all the information you need to protect, and monitor in case it is accessed without your permission or knowledge. Using PII, identity thieves can pretend to be someone else for the purpose of committing fraud in that person's name.

They can use PII in a variety of ways, some which may surprise you. Bob Sullivan, personal finance journalist and author, recently wrote about an interesting example of a former NFL player who lost his job due to identity theft. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to protect your personally identifiable information from exposure and reduce your risks of falling prey to identity thieves. Identity theft is not limited to online activities.

Low-tech activities can expose your PII as well. An experiment in by the FTC showed that enterprising criminals can use this information within minutes: the FTC developed fake PII and posted the data on a website that hackers and others use to make stolen credentials public.

It took only nine minutes for the fraudsters to try to access the information, and more than 1, attempts were made to access the email, payment and credit card accounts. The research shows that personal information is valuable to identity thieves, and if they can get access to it, they will use it. Follow the checklist below to help you stay organized; this may help alleviate the feeling of uncertainty.

Your personally identifiable information is valuable to you, but it doesn't have to benefit identity thieves. Take steps to protect your PII, detect fraud quickly and remedy the situation if identity theft happens to you. Credit monitoring can help you detect possible identity fraud sooner, and can prevent surprises when you apply for credit.

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Personal credit report disputes cannot be submitted through Ask Experian. You might have to pay for what the thief buys. This is true even if you do not know about the bills. A thief can get your personal information in person or online. A thief might:. Do you think someone stole your identity? If you do, learn more about recovering from identity theft.

All the information in the credit report should be about you. Get a copy of your credit report. Make sure you recognize the information in it. If you do not, you need to try to fix it. Learn more about your credit history, including how to get your free credit report.

Your credit report might show that an identity thief is using your personal information. You know the information is not true. But no one else looking at the report knows, unless you tell them. Businesses look at your credit report. A business uses your credit report to decide whether it wants to deal with you.

Identity theft can make it hard for you to get credit, a job, a place to live, or utilities. But you can reduce your risk of being hurt by identity theft. Protect your personal information. That helps you protect your identity. Here are some things you can do:. And they could use them to. Taking steps to protect your personal information can help you avoid identity theft. Keep your financial records, Social Security and Medicare cards, and any other documents that have personal information in a safe place.

When you decide to get rid of those documents, shred them before you throw them away. If you get statements with personal information in the mail, take your mail out of the mailbox as soon as you can. Some organizations need your Social Security number to identify you. Those organizations include the IRS, your bank, and your employer.

Other organizations that might ask you for your Social Security number might not really need it. Ask these questions before you give them your Social Security number:. Add multi-factor authentication for accounts that offer it. Multi-factor authentication offers extra security by requiring two or more credentials to log in to your account.