Have you been a victim of identity theft? If not, be glad that you are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to help protect your credit from these predators. If you are not sure, be sure to get a copy of your credit report and carefully check for accounts that you never opened. It is so easy for someone else to open an account in your name without your knowledge, so it is important to check your credit report for any unfamiliar activity. Others can use a different address to open and use credit that you never knew you had until you are contacted by a creditor to pay an overdue account.

The Better Business Bureau has a program online that has some of the summaries of stories of how consumers became victims of identity theft. These might help our readers see the reality of identity theft and the damage it causes.

One story involves a person who had their credit report run, but did not want to buy anything. The person who ran the credit report called this victim telling them that they could buy an automobile. The victim did not want to buy anything and did not provide their signature on any documents nor their picture ID. Later, the victim received a letter from the bank stating that they were overdue on a $26,000 loan. The dealership that originally ran the credit report for this person used the information to sell a motorcycle to someone else, using their personal information. The victim, whose credit was now already ruined due to failure to pay on the loan, had to contact the dealership to try to resolve the matter. The original dealership employee, who ran the credit report, refused to speak to the victim. The dealership manager ended the conversation with the victim with a promise to take care of the matter.

Stories like this one are being reported regularly and resolving these issues are difficult and time consuming. We strongly suggest using LifeLock identity theft protection services to help protect your good name.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 5:24 am and is filed under Articles Concerning Identity Theft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.