Page 68 - Book6E

If we don't act now to safeguard our privacy, we could all become victims of identity theft.
— Bill Nelson
• Steal personal information they find in your home.
• Steal personal information from you through e-mail or phone
by posing as a legitimate company and claiming that you have a problem with your account. This practice is known as “phishing” online, or pretexting by phone.
What to Do If Your Identity Is Stolen
If you ever become a victim of identify theft there are a number of things you can do to minimize your risk. First, order a copy of your credit report. An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting companies
to provide you with a free copy of your credit reports, at your request, once every 12 months.
It’s important to monitor your credit reports and other financial records for sev- eral months after you discover the crime. For example, you should review your credit reports once every three months in the first year of the theft, and once a year thereafter. Stay alert for other signs of iden-
tity theft. Also, don’t delay in correcting your records and contacting all companies that opened fraudulent accounts. The longer the inac- curate information goes uncorrected, the longer it will take to resolve the problem.
To order your free annual report from one or all of the national con- sumer reporting companies, visit www.annualcreditreport.com, call toll-free 877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print the form from ftc. gov/credit..
Protecting Yourself Against Identity Theft