Have you been a victim of identity theft?

It seems that nothing is safe or sacred anymore. Now days you have to be so careful about guarding your personal information such as your social security number. Someone could go through your garbage or your mail, get the number and open various types of accounts from credit cards to telephones. That has happened to my wife and it is very unnerving to think that someone would do such a thing.

Luckily there are things that you can do if it happens to you.

Contact the consumer reporting companies immediately. Put a fraud alert on each of your credit reports. There are 3 consumer reporting companies and you need to contact each one of them.

• TransUnion www.transunion.com
• Equifax www.equifax.com
• Experian www.experian.com

Ask for a free credit report from one the companies and look it over carefully.

If you know of a specific account that someone has altered close it as soon as possible. Contact the fraud department of each company and explain to them what happened. They will want you to send them as much information as you have. Send them copies of the records that pertain to that company.

Contact the Federal Trade Commission and file a complaint. They have a identify theft hotline.

Contact the local police about what happened. They can provide you with an Identity Theft Report which you will need to send to the 3 consumer reporting companies.