Fraud alert

My Visa Checkcard has been illegally used at some school up in New York.

Steven, a reader of this site, suggested that I place a “fraud alert” on my credit report just in case they have more information on me. The situation I’m in could easily snowball into some hellish experience. First of all, who knew I had readers other than my close friends. When I saw previous posts by “Steven” I thought it was someone I know from Las Vegas. But it turns out that this Steven actually works in the banking industry. Yay!

But more seriously, he gave me some very good information on what a fraud alert is and how to place one. I went ahead and immediately took care of it. Now I would like to reproduce his post in the hopes that someone else will find this information useful.

“You can place a fraud alert on your credit report free of charge. Contact the fraud department at any one of the three major credit bureaus:

Trans Union: 1-800-680-7289 (http://www.transunion.com)
Experian: 1-888-397-3742 (http://www.experian.com)
Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 (http://www.equifax.com)

The fraud alert requests creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit bureaus will be automatically notified to place fraud alerts, and all three credit reports will be sent to you free of charge.

A fraud alert is a message that credit issuers receive when someone applies for new credit in your name. The message tells creditors that there is possible fraud associated with the account and gives them a phone number to call (yours) before issuing new credit. When you call the credit bureau fraud line, you will be asked for identifying information and will be given the opportunity to enter a phone number for creditors to call.

An initial fraud alert lasts 90 days. You can remove an alert by calling the credit bureaus at the phone number given on your credit report. If you want to reinstate the alert, you can do so. If you are the victim of identity theft, you can place an Extended Fraud Victim Alert on your report by submitting a copy of a valid identity theft report that you have filed with a federal, state or local law enforcement agency. An Extended Alert will remain on your report for seven years.”

Thank you Steven. It’s people like you that make the Internet a much better place.

Posted by david at 9:46 am | Permalink |

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