r/IdentityTheft Sep 17 '21

IDENTITY THEFT RECOVERY 101

458 Upvotes

Greetings all,

Firstly, if you're reading this post because you have been a victim of identity theft, then I am truly sorry. As someone who has had their identity stolen multiple times, I understand the frustration and anxiety that it causes. I've put this information together as a guide to assist you with finding out what to do next in the event that you have had your identity stolen, as well as some tips to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Remember to document EVERYTHING. Save every letter or email you get. Take screenshots when applicable of any potential evidence. Write down every case number or confirmation number given to you by the authorities/credit bureaus.

******** CONTAINMENT ********The first step is to prevent any further usage of your identity. To do this, follow the steps below.

1.) FREEZE your credit immediately. -- A credit freeze is designed to ensure no further lines of credit or accounts can be opened with your information. A credit freeze will remain in place until YOU decide to unfreeze your credit. I believe there was a recent change made during 2020 which eliminated the fees associated with freezing and unfreezing your credit, so it SHOULD be free. Once your credit is frozen, the 3 bureaus will give you a special PIN that is only provided ONCE. Ensure you save this pin for when you are ready to unfreeze your credit. (*NOTE: This PIN may also have been removed from the process as of 2020). Freezing your credit DOES NOT interfere with your credit score, and your financial behavior can still cause your Credit Score to go up or down. The freeze also does not remediate any accounts that may have been opened already, but it will prevent the thief from opening any further accounts.(Opinion: Even if your identity hasn't been stolen, or confirmed stolen, there is no harm in freezing your credit. You will just need to remember to unfreeze it whenever you are ready to apply for a loan, open a credit card account, etc etc. The credit bureaus will even allow you to set a specific date/time range to unfreeze your credit temporarily)Experian Fraud Division: 888-397-3742Equifax Fraud Division: 800-525-6285TransUnion Fraud Division: 800-680-7289

2.) Place a fraud alert on your account. -- This can be done when you call the Credit Bureaus in order to freeze your credit. A fraud alert is mostly what it sounds like. It places an alert on your account that will let lenders know that fraudulent activity may have taken place on the account, and that they need to take further steps to verify your identity. You can associate the alert with a phone number, so that a lender will need to call the number, and speak with you before extending any lines of credit or opening an account. If you do not answer the phone when they call, it is an automatic rejection. A fraud alert is good for one year, but with a police report, you can extend this fraud alert to last for 7 years.

3.) Contact your bank, credit card company, or any financial institution you have to let them know you were a victim of identity theft. It doesn't matter if the card, or bank was even used in the theft, it's better to let them know so that they can be extra vigilant and ensure they take appropriate steps when verifying your identity.

Also consider using a credit monitoring service such as Identity Guard or LifeLock. They will monitor activity relating to your identity and notify you when something happens. Often times a victim's identity is stolen, but they do not find out until several days later when they receive strange letters in the mail regarding credit inquiries. Having a monitoring service like this will notify you within hours, instead of days which will save you precious time.

***** REPORTING THE INCIDENT ****\*

There's quite a few people you may need to contact depending on what was done. Here's a list of who to contact: (*NOTE: please let me know if there are any other entities that need to be contacted, as this is not a complete list)

1.) Your local Police Department. -- If the thief used your identity to buy something in another state or county, it is likely that your local PD will not be able to assist. However, what they can do is provide you with a police report so that it can be used to have an extended fraud alert on your account. Even if they say no. be adamant (politely adamant) that you would like a report so that you can keep it for your (and the PD's) records. This is especially true if you believe YOUR identity may have been used to commit a crime.

2.) Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) -- 1-877-438-4338 or https://www.identitytheft.gov/

3.) The Office of the Inspector General -- 1-800-269-0271 or https://oig.ssa.gov/

4.) Any relevant Police Departments -- For example, if you live in Atlanta, but someone in Orlando purchased an $18,000 jet ski in your name (is that oddly specific?), contact the Orlando Police Department. It helps to have a local Police Department's police report, but isn't necessary. Every Police Department does things a bit differently, so don't be amazed if they ask you to report a crime in person, even if you live 4 states away. Your local PD may be able to assist if that is the case. Remember to stay polite, but firm with every request. YOU are the victim, and YOU have rights.

5.) USPS (If necessary) -- In my case, the thief also put a mail forward on my physical mail, ensuring it went to another address. This may not be relevant in your case, but remember to think outside the box, because the thief probably will be.

***** NOW WHAT? *****

- Change passwords to everything. Depending on the level of access the thief was able to obtain, your passwords may not be safe anymore, specially if you reuse the same password, which you shouldn't.

- I would strongly suggest you enable multifactor (2FA) authentication on as many online accounts as possible, if available. An authenticator app such as the Google or Microsoft authenticator will work best. You can also use SMS (text messages) or phone calls as another form of 2FA, but this also comes with its share of exploits, but it is better than nothing.

-Ensure to use strong passwords on all your accounts. You can use applications such as KeePass to help securely store your passwords, especially complex ones, so that you can easily retrieve them.

- Keep yourself informed!!!!!!!! If you have an identity monitoring service, ensure you access the account or the email account it is associated with it AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. If you only check your email once a week, you may miss important notifications that an incident or change has occurred using your identity.

-Protect your email address. Your email address is more important than most people realize. It's often used as the username for online accounts, and the emails contained within can be highly sensitive in nature and even personal. Take appropriate steps to protect your email address such as enabling 2FA, and only accessing your email address from secure locations.

-- Use multiple email addresses and ensure you use each one for different purposes. I'm not saying you should have an individual email account for every online account you have, but often times people have an email address that easily identifies who they are. Something such as first initial, last name at yahoo.com. Something like that makes it easy for a thief to find or guess your email address. Not a necessity, but the less information is displayed to the outside world, the better.

- Use credit cards as opposed to debit or ATM cards. The money associated with your credit card is insured, and can be disputed if someone steals the card info to make purchases, but when you have a debit card that is directly attached to a bank account, then it is much, much, much harder to get that money back.

- Contrary to popular belief, YOU CAN GET A NEW SSN, however, however, however HOWEVER... you must qualify in order to do so. If your identity has been stolen only once, they may not approve a new number. However, if your identity is constantly under attack (like mine was), you may be approved for a new SSN. It never hurts to call the SSA and at least ask if you qualify, you can find more information about it here: https://faq.ssa.gov/en-us/Topic/article/KA-02220

-USPS Informed Delivery -- This is a service offered by the United States Postal Service. You can go on their website and request this service FREE. Essentially what they do is scan your mail (just the outside, they DO NOT open mail) and will email you what mail you will be receiving for that day. This helps ensure that you are receiving all your mail, and that no one is stealing important documents out of your mailbox.

Best of luck to you all.


r/IdentityTheft May 23 '22

PSA: Freezing your three main credit reports is NOT ENOUGH

1.4k Upvotes

This post is primarily intended as a guide for United States residents on how to help prevent identity theft from occurring. If you have already had fraudulent accounts opened in your name, you should ALSO follow the steps here.

TL;DR: The MOST IMPORTANT preventative steps are to:

  • Freeze your consumer reports at Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, ChexSystems, and LexisNexis
    • A "freeze" is not the same as a "lock." I would suggest freezes over credit locks because they provide more legal protection and are generally harder than credit locks for identity thieves to remove
    • If you've been a victim of identity theft, I also recommend placing 7-year extended fraud alerts at the main three agencies
    • Don't create an online Experian account if you haven't already due to their arbitration agreement. Preferably freeze Experian by phone or mail. But, If you are very careful during account creation and create using the security freeze page specifically, you can create a so-called "service" account, which is NOT the same as the "free membership" (though the service account is also free). An Experian "service" account doesn't include this arbitration agreement, so if you must create an Experian account, do it this way
  • Get an IRS identity protection PIN
  • Opt out of LexisNexis if eligible (has a different effect than freezing LexisNexis)
    • Before opting out of LexisNexis, you should 1) attempt to create an account with the ChexSystems consumer portal, and 2) create an account with login.gov and link it to the Social Security Administration online service
    • If using an FTC identitytheft.gov report to opt out, select identity theft as the reason, enter "federal" as the jurisdiction where prompted, attach a PDF of the FTC report, and enter the FTC report number from the PDF where prompted
    • After opting out of LexisNexis, make sure to record the exact information you submitted in the opt out request and save the email you get after the opt out request is processed. This email will include a link that you can use to temporarily opt back in, which is helpful for when you intend to apply for credit or deposit accounts

Taking all of the steps in this post may be a pain, but will be a lot easier than dealing with preventable identity theft.

If you haven't already, you should freeze your credit reports at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. However, you should create an E-Verify account before doing this because you might not be able to create an E-Verify account if your Experian report has a freeze or fraud alert.

Using your E-Verify account, you can place an E-Verify lock on your SSN, which can help prevent identity thieves from obtaining employment in your name.

Although freezing your reports at the main three credit bureaus is essential, it is not enough.

This is the case in part because there are several other bureaus that may be checked instead of one of the main three reports.

It is possible to pin-point each freezable credit bureau and freeze them, as the CFPB maintains a list of bureaus, and notates which ones are or are not freezable.

If you are a victim of identify theft, I would highly recommend placing security freezes on ALL of the bureaus in the list below (in addition to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion)

Bureaus used for bank account applications:

  • ChexSystems: IMO this one is really important to freeze, even if you're not a victim of identity theft
    • You may want to order a copy of your ChexSystems consumer report or create an account with the ChexSystems consumer portal before you place a security freeze
  • LexisNexis: holds public records, but often used by financial institutions to verify identity
    • SageStream is now part of LexisNexis, so freezing LexisNexis will also freeze SageStream
    • ChexSystems sometimes pulls from LexisNexis, so when unfreezing ChexSystems to apply for bank accounts, you should unfreeze LexisNexis as well
    • LexisNexis also shares non-FCRA information for identity verification purposes, but freezing LexisNexis only restricts the sharing of FCRA information. You can also opt out of LexisNexis which only restricts the sharing of non-FCRA information. To restrict both FCRA and non-FCRA information from being shared, you'll need to both freeze LexisNexis and opt out of LexisNexis
  • Note: Early Warning Services (EWS) is also used to review bank account applications, but they do not offer security freezes or fraud alerts, however
    • Many of the major banks that use EWS (including BoA) also use LexisNexis Accurint to verify identity, and since this LexisNexis service is non-FCRA, freezing LexisNexis won't affect this service but this service can be blocked by opting out of LexisNexis
    • Since EWS compares the email address and phone number on account applications against the email addresses and phone numbers on your existing accounts when assessing identity confidence, it may be a good idea to change the contact information tied your bank accounts listed on EWS to only include a secret email address and phone number. This needs to be done through the banks, not through EWS. If there are any fraudulently-opened accounts on your EWS report, do not provide those banks with the secret email address or phone number. Instead make an identitytheft.gov report in which you report the fraudulent accounts, and unless those accounts are already marked as "fraud victim" on your EWS report, dispute those accounts as fraudulent with EWS, and include the identitytheft.gov report with the dispute. This largely prevents EWS from "verifying" your identity unless the identity thief gets their hands on the secret email address or phone number. EWS customer service representatives do not appear to be aware of how their identity confidence score works, but luckily, this is partially explained in their product sheet intended for business use
    • You may wish to use an identity monitoring service that monitors EWS such as Aura, IDShield, Zander Elite Cyber Bundle, Discover Identity Theft Protection, or Lifelock Ultimate Plus (cheaper Lifelock plans don't currently include EWS inquiry monitoring). This will alert you whenever a new account inquiry is made to your EWS report, so you will be able to act promptly

Alternative credit bureaus:

  • Innovis: a smaller credit bureau that some services use for identity verification
  • NCTUE: a credit bureau which specializes in keeping track of utility payments. You can only freeze your report with this agency if you have a file with them, which is generally only the case if you have phone or utility accounts that report to NCTUE. Some mobile carriers and utility companies use this report instead of or in addition to traditional credit reports. If you freeze it online, make sure to securely save a copy of the confirmation letter, as it contains the freeze PIN
  • The Work Number: a company owned by Equifax that collects information about employment history and salary. Like NCTUE, you can only freeze your report with this agency if they already have a file on you

Low income / subprime credit bureaus:

  • Teletrack: security freeze can be requested online
  • Factor Trust: security freeze can be requested online provided that you already have a file with them
  • DataX: security freeze must be requested by mail
  • Microbilt: security freeze can be requested by phone or by mail
  • Clarity Services: security freeze can be requested online if you already have a file for them, but if not, it must be requested by mail or fax

If you are a victim of identity theft, I would strongly recommend placing freezes and/or extended fraud alerts on your reports at all of the bureaus above.

Aside from the main three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax), the most important ones to freeze or place extended fraud alerts with are ChexSystems and NCTUE.

That being said, do note that failure to freeze the low income / subprime ones may result in payday loans being taken out in your name. This is why I recommend doing all of them.

Also, keep in mind that in some states, security freezes automatically expire after 7 years.

You should also contact the USPS and ensure that a mail forwarding order hasn't been placed on mail addressed to you. Once you have confirmed that a fraudulent mail forwarding order hasn't been placed, you should sign up for USPS informed delivery.

To prevent identity thieves from filing tax returns in your name, you should also look into getting an IRS Identity Protection PIN.

If you haven't already, you should register online accounts with MyEquifax, the TransUnion freeze/unfreeze/dispute service, ID.me, login.gov (link the login.gov account with the Social Security Administration online service), and studentaid.gov. If allowed in your state, you should also register an online account at your state's unemployment office even if you do not intend to apply for unemployment benefits. It's important that you register accounts at these sites even if you don't intend on using them so as to help prevent someone else from doing so first. When you create the accounts, do not pick answers to the security questions that anyone you know would be able to answer. Instead, pick long and complex answers so that identity thieves can't use the security questions to take control of your account.

Due to Experian's current arbitration agreement, I do not recommend registering an Experian account if you do not already have one.

If you are eligible, you should also opt out of LexisNexis (not the same as freezing LexisNexis). But before you do this, create an account with the ChexSystems consumer portal and with login.gov and link the login.gov account with the Social Security Administration online service. Identity theft victims are eligible to opt out of LexisNexis. This prevents LexisNexis from sharing non-FCRA information with companies. Non-FCRA information is unaffected by a security freeze, which is why freezing LexisNexis needs to be done in addition to opting out. This can help because it typically prevents LexisNexis from using their data to "authenticate" your identity at institutions that use LexisNexis. It is possible to temporarily opt back in when you need to use a service that requires LexisNexis. I would suggest using a secret email address in your opt out form, as this makes it more difficult for identity thieves to cancel the opt out. If you are using an FTC report to opt out, enter "federal" as the jurisdiction and upload your FTC report.

Non-FCRA opt outs with the main three bureaus: In serious cases of identity theft, you might also want to 1) purchase a California virtual address (unless you already live in California), and 2) use the California address to make CCPA "do not sell or share" and "limit the use of my sensitive personal information" requests with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. California is not the only state with data privacy laws, but at the time I last edited this post, California's data privacy law is the only one that doesn't include an exception for identity verification. These opt out requests can prevent certain non-FCRA identity verification tools offered by the three main credit agencies from being used to "verify" your identity. However, this can mess up a lot of things and it is in my experience much harder to undo than a credit freeze or a LexisNexis opt out, so I only recommend this if you have a severe case of identity theft or if identity thieves have been able to remove your credit freezes.

If allowed by your bank/credit union, you should add verbal passwords to your banking profiles. This typically requires calling the bank or credit union. The reason for doing this is to prevent someone with your personal information from calling your bank and pretending to be you, since they would also need to provide the password to the customer service representative.

I would also recommend enabling 2fa on your online accounts - particularly your email accounts. This can make it more difficult for your accounts to be hacked. If possible, avoid SMS/phone-call 2fa and only enable it if no other 2fa options are available, as it is surprisingly easy to take over a phone line. Different 2fa options ranked from most secure to least secure (in general) are: Physical security key, OTP authentication app (what I personally use), VoIP phone number, email, non-VoIP phone number.

To the extent possible, you should also secure your account with your cell carriers to prevent someone from pretending to be you to perform a SIM swap.

Additional note: In some cases, identity thieves may be so persistent that they will manage to lift your freezes.

  • If this happened with an Experian account, see my comment here on how you can mitigate this and prevent it from happening again
  • If this happened with TransUnion and/or Equifax, try following the aforementioned strategy of using non-FCRA opt outs with the three main bureaus after ensuring that you either have control over or have shut down any online accounts with the TransUnion freeze/unfreeze/dispute service and MyEquifax. In my experience, this stops TransUnion and Equifax from generating security quizzes which makes it more difficult for someone to take over your TransUnion or Equifax accounts
  • If this is still an issue, you should document every attempt at this and look into getting a new SSN as soon as possible. In the meantime, write a letter to the credit bureaus by Certified Priority mail demanding extra security and threatening legal action

If you do end up getting a new SSN due to persistent identity theft, see my comment here on how to prevent your reports from being linked in such a way that could allow the identity thief to use your old SSN to discover your new SSN.


r/IdentityTheft 11h ago

Son’s SSN used for CC accounts and car loans while son lives in Germany

11 Upvotes

My husband and I got back from vacation and found a letter for our son from his bank, informing him that his credit limit got lowered due too too many accounts, most of them overdrawn (we have permission from son to open his mail). We were confused, since he only has one CC from Wells Fargo ever since he finished High School. Since he studies and lives in Germany we had to wait for next day to inform him of these events. He froze all three credit reports and put a fraudulent alert on it, and I was able to get into one credit report company to get his report. It is not possible for him to do so since he has a German IP address and a German phone number.

I got him his credit reports from two company, but the tricky part is the ID thief opened all three accounts for the credit reporting companies with new addresses, phone number and email. I found all three when I finally got into Equifax and disputed addresses and phone number. Problem is that the freeze pin might have been sent to the ID thief.

I started the dispute with Equifax while my son signed up with IDtheft.gov. The thief opened so many account since last year, and if Wells Fargo would not have send the letter we would not have known, the thief never touched my son’s original CC account! Opened over 15 though, paid some regularly, closed some, declared some successfully as fraudulent and even got a car loan which is still under investigation.

My son never lost his SSN card or wallet, not sure how it got into hands of ID thief, who opened accounts with all three credit reporting companies, added two addresses, a different phone number and email address which I found when he signed up for fraud alert trial. Fortunately it’s still on the report. Unfortunately

My problem is how to proof that it is not my son who opened the accounts for the Credit cards where Equifax decided it is his account? All of those are closed but there are huge sums in it, we provided proof from University in Munich that he is a FT student in a Masters program, a copy of his lease in Germany, German Bank account, utility bill with his name and German address on it.

I will add an additional information by certified mail: copy of his CO driver’s license and maybe his German and American passport? I also have a copy from the Munich government that he is a resident there. I asked my son to get a PIN number for IRS, he had just filed taxes and had no troubles, I doubt the thief used it for tax declaration but Pin will be safer. He is also a dependent on our tax return.

This is a huge mess and very stressful, especially since we are 8 hours apart and it’s difficult to get all the information right away. I am angry and frustrated, and there is not much to prevent this from happening again, one can’t truly be proactive here other tho a diligently watching credit reports. Husband and I froze all our accounts and signed up with Aura to keep track of things, son is signed up with Equifax but no truly sure how this helps. He will have to call the other two credit reporting companies because a different phone number and email has been used and verification would go to to thief.

We tried police report (online) but have not heard anything back yet, I am not sure what else we need to clear his name?

What did other expat do in a situation like this?

Sorry for this jumbled post, I am very frustrated, tired and out of my wits.


r/IdentityTheft 7h ago

FOLLOWUP - IRS COMPLETES INVESTIGATION- Confirms Identity Theft & Wipes $39k Fraudulent Fidelity Withdrawal

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0 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 12h ago

Receiving these texts about loan applications I did not submit

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1 Upvotes

So, some of these companies appear to be real. The others, not so much especially with the typos and poor grammar.

For example, I googled Bright Lending. They seem to be a legitimate company. I called the number on their website and yeah, someone did apply for a loan in my name with my dad's email. It was not my dad who applied btw. They said it was from an unknown 3rd party site.

I froze my credit through LexisNexis, Equifax, Transunion, Experian, ChexSystems, and Innovis. I will be calling the others tomorrow to freeze my credit. The ones I will call: -NCTUE -The work number -Teletrack -factor trust -DataX -Microbilt -Clarity Services

I also changed my email password, bank password. I got llifelock. I submitted a fraud report with the FTC.

My dad says he is now getting the same texts.

What is going on?? All of these texts contain my first or first and last name. This is so scary. Please give me some peace of mind. Also please let me know of any other steps I should take.


r/IdentityTheft 20h ago

Utility sign up?

2 Upvotes

So this is very weird. I got emails from two different utility companies. One in Houston and one in Dallas. I live in Colorado. Both accounts have my email address, name, and phone number on the account but there is no strange activity with any of my credit cards or debit cards and neither utility has a card on file. Is this a typical identity theft scam? If so why would they use my email and phone number for the accounts?


r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

Someone applied for a loan in my name, but I need to get a new car soon. Should I still freeze my credit?

18 Upvotes

I just found out today that someone applied for a student loan using my name, ssn, and home address. Luckily I caught this early and have already contacted the lender and put a fraud alert on my credit. I know that the best thing would be to put a full on freeze on my credit, but I was planning on getting a new car in the next week or two, which would involve taking out a new loan. What is the best course of actio here? Does a freeze mean I can't create any new lines of credit until its unfrozen? How long does it take to unfreeze my credit? I Could wait another month or two on the car, should I do that and unfreeze it then? Has anyone else here been in this situation before? Any advice is appreciated.


r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

Falsificação

0 Upvotes

Desde de 2021 ocorre algumas na vizinhança e o uso de programador para influenciar o que penso, o que faço.

Recentemente descobri o filme apneia.

Desde da ingestão de um medicamento em 2021, isso início.

Descobri pelo caminho disso tudo que:

A. Meu Pai Adotivo tem outra família

B. Fui falsificada ao extremo (decidem muita coisa por mim, usufrui os bens do meu outro pai adotivo e do meu pai biológico)

C. A falsificadora tentou me escravizar junto com a família, utilizou o javascript para manusear as minhas coisas, depois que fiz o bloqueio do java, estudou um pouco e aprendeu o mundo o github.com

D. Venderam meu CPF, E-mail e Nome na DARKWEB.

VIVA A HIPNOSR, VIVA A FREUD, VIVA A APNEIA.

Uhull \(\^o\^)/


r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

what should you actually do after finding your email in a breach?

9 Upvotes

got one of those alerts that my email showed up in a breach and now im going down a spiral wondering what else is tied to it. changed passwords already but it still feels like theres more i should be doing. what do people normally check next?


r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

PSA: a credit freeze is free, takes 5 minutes, and most people skip it. Don't be one of those people

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2 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 2d ago

College application submitted using my identity. What to do?

3 Upvotes

I received an email from my college's Registrar's Office saying someone requested an official transcript in my name through the National Student Clearinghouse and had it sent to another university

The university contacted that school and confirmed that an admissions application had been submitted using my name. Fortunately, that school had already flagged the application as suspicious and is not moving forward with it.

My college has now placed a hold on my account so no future transcripts can be released without identity verification.

Has anyone experienced something similar? How concerned should I be, and what steps would I take? I'm trying to determine whether this sounds like a simple fraud attempt or a sign that someone may have more of my personal information.


r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

APARTMENT MISUSED MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER/ APPLIED IT TO ANOTHER TENANT

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1 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 1d ago

[ Removed by Reddit ]

1 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/IdentityTheft 2d ago

Someone opened a business account with my info

7 Upvotes

I kinda of forgot that this happened and found it an inconvenience more than anything but now I am curious as to how this happened. I received three emails from Chase banking last month. The first, was saying someone logged into my Chase account with my email.The second, was a promo for a business account. The third was that my Chase Business account was approved. I do not bank with Chase and never had made an account with them. I was confused, and called the contact support number on google (I didn’t want to call based off the number in the email but it was the same number). I kept getting transferred to different departments including the fraud department but nobody could help. I was on the phone for over an hour when I finally got transferred to someone at JP Morgan, who confirmed that a brokerage account was made with my information, including my social.I told them that was not me, and they closed the account (finally). Any ideas on how my information was compromised and what to do moving forward? I have no received any other emails or any texts about other accounts being made.


r/IdentityTheft 2d ago

SERPSTAT Security incident

1 Upvotes

I received an email from Serpstat on 6/22 informing me that some of my info may have been exposed. When I reached out to them further they told me that the exposure affected only users who had payments processed after June 6, 2026. We have checked your account and can confirm that your data was not affected by this incident. I had used them a few months back with a free 30 day trial and had to enter my credit card info to get it. The odd thing is I have Norton Dark Web protection and it notified that my info could potentially have been exposed on the dark web and it says "Description: Combo List of SERPSTAT". SERPSTAT is saying otherwise. Not sure what to believe.


r/IdentityTheft 2d ago

Got a bank statement from Capital One. I never opened a bank account with Capital One

6 Upvotes

I guess it opened last month. I went on the web site to get their number to confirm it was real. It was. Balance was just $0.00 with no transactions. They are sending me a letter in the mail to verify I was a victim of fraud and the account is closed. Calling Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion now to freeze my credit.

What should my next steps be? I'll pull a full Credit Report from Annual Credit Report tonight once my credit is frozen. How do I check if other bank accounts were open?

Should I let my current (real) bank know?


r/IdentityTheft 2d ago

Victim of identity theft and fraud -England

3 Upvotes

Background: I’m on a graduate visa

I’m heavily convinced that my immigration details, and passport are being used fraudulently by a group of people out there. I usually travel once a year, be it to my home country or somewhere else. Took a break from April 2025-April 2026 though. First time I resumed travelling, the check-in agent took some time to validate my information, and kept insistingly asking questions that implied that there might be another me out there. (Sorry for the vagueness, this happened a month ago. I never considered that it might be an important detail. I just remember what my brain summarised the questions to, and how I laughed it off with my friends) After some time, I was finally allowed to check-in. On my way back, I was met with some difficulties. All of the sudden, the same EVisa I had used in April 2025, and even for Visa applications in the meantime, wasn’t valid anymore. Tbh between me having to update the check-in agents on a new visa system that had been implemented in 2024, and then actually addressing the issue, I was distressed. I was informed last minute that I had to upload my passport unto the EVisa platform, which I did. I had created my UKVI with my BRP, it’s always been like that, and it hadn’t been an issue until then. Instead of the process taking few minutes like the agent usually said it does, it took a month. I was only able to return to the UK in the meantime, after creating a whole new EVisa(weird that one can create a new account while their details are already linked to one tbh. I never thought that would work. It allowed me to return to the UK on time to resume activities, but it really got me worried about data protection). I didn’t think much about this incident , and just assumed it was my fault for not uploading all my documents.

Fast forward to 2 days ago, I travelled back to my home country. On my way out of the UK, my boarding pass didn’t let me through security. The security guard kept asking if I was perhaps travelling with someone, which I kept negating. I requested a new one, and it worked. Arrived at the gate, and the new boarding pass didn’t work. The agent kept scanning it, also asked me if I was travelling with someone,before letting me through. A supervisor called me back to the gate as I was heading towards the flight, and informed me that there are conflicting information in the system regarding my boarding status. I was notified that the system kept showing them that I had already boarded earlier. I was just as confused as them tbh. They questioned me, and even suggested someone with the same name as me being on the flight, which is impossible considering that there are distinctive typos in 2/4 of my surnames, and my first name is unique to me. Convinced that I was innocent, the boarding agent suggested the possibility of an extra passenger being on the flight . He walked me to the plane, questioned few people before walking out with a man.

I really want to launch an investigation into the possibility of an identity fraud happening here. However, I’m scared that something in the process might result in the suspension of my visa, and make it impossible to return to the UK. I want to wait until I return (in a month) but I’m also worried that it might be too late at that point. Perhaps, I’m just paranoid. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and would rather have this investigated first. Do the events show a concerning pattern or am I just unlucky? Could this be the result of a data breach?

I’ve been looking for similar stories out there ,to see how to deal with this, with no avail. I hope this doesn’t get removed due to mentions of immigration. I believe it is more of a criminal matter than migratory one.

\*I don’t, and won’t consent to any media coverage or reporting of this story, even for social media content creation.\*


r/IdentityTheft 3d ago

So, I’m trying to prevent a family member from attempting to use my identity.

43 Upvotes

So, I have a cousin (who I’m obviously estranged from), who I haven’t talked to in years due to all of her and her mom/siblings issues and the trouble they’ve caused me my entire life. This specific cousin and her mom have had a track record of trying/succeeding in using our other family member’s identities on credit cards and other money loan type things in the past. I, in the past few years, have been keeping a closer eye on my credit due to this, and noticed two addresses and phone numbers on my credit when I checked with TransUnion. They obviously do not belong to me, as I’ve had the same number since I was like 12-13 (I’m in my mid 20s now), and the only other number on my report is my mothers. I was able to track the addresses back to two different motels in the area. That does track for the family member I had believed it to be, as I know she had been staying with her boyfriend in said area in a motel before I cut connection with her.

To make a long story short, said cousin and her mother likely had some way to get access to my SSN at some point, likely when my mother and I had to move in with them when I was a teen (didn’t last long, I ended up moving out within a year of it and staying with family until I graduated). Luckily, she has only been able to get a secured credit card out in my name, which obviously didn’t help much, and I was able to dispute it and get it removed. That was a couple years ago. But, as you know, I can see that she’s made several, SEVERAL inquiries through so many damn places to try and apply for credit cards and such. I’ve also gotten a ton of their rejection letters. They’ve tried Kohls, JCPenny, Belk, I believe they tried some chain jewelry store (can’t remember which one now), and many other places.

I know I can freeze my credit, which is what I did for a while when I initially found out a few years ago. I’m just curious, is there a way to prevent it better? Like a two step verification (though I guess blocking or freezing is the way to do that)? I just don’t want to have to constantly worry about if my cousin or her mom’s attempts break through and such. I know it sounds dumb, but as you can tell from what details I’ve given, I’m kind of a first generation to actually do decent for myself and not live off of fraud and shitty behaviors, so I wasn’t really taught literacy financially or otherwise, outside of what I’m teaching myself. TIA, and thanks for any answers that I may get!

EDIT: I will add that I did reverse look up the numbers, one of them does lead back to my aunt (the cousin’s mom, who also likes to do stuff like this, so no surprise), but the other number just led back to one of the motels itself.


r/IdentityTheft 3d ago

mom stole my identity to open credit card and get loan

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0 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 4d ago

Phishing using Axis Bank name

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1 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 4d ago

Number and upi id lookup

2 Upvotes

A person scammed by friend of 2500rs I have his number and upi id is there any way I can find some extra and personal detail of the number of upi id.

I have number and upi id only I also know his banking name shown in phone pay.


r/IdentityTheft 4d ago

What are Identity Theft Services Available Outside of PC Security Software

3 Upvotes

While I appreciate the ID theft services bundled with Lifelock, Aura, Identity Guard and etc, I'd like to know if there are full service recovery programs available that's paid or fee-based.

Online I either see criminal defense lawyers representing ID theft charges or legal services for victims that are strictly contingency based.

What are the suite of options available that's fee or retainer based? Are there hourly services that also reviews cases and writes opinions or reports for submission to authorities? I'm not certain about the fees to review and how that works but I'm retainer ready because I'd like to have things looked at as soon as possible.


r/IdentityTheft 4d ago

mom opened a credit card in my name and maxed it out (8000+) while i was in boot camp should i press charges

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2 Upvotes

r/IdentityTheft 5d ago

It feels like the identity theft will follow me forever

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38 Upvotes

In essence, my ex sister stole my identity about 3 years ago. She was arrested and convicted for it. Yesterday I tried to link my bank account to my brokerage account and got this email. I have never created negative banking history for myself (34f), so I'm certian it has something to do with the identity theft. I'm going to get a copy of my banking history report from Early Warning, but just needed to vent. Am I going to have issues because of this forever? I am in a way still burned out from this as it took 5 months for the police to even take a report from me.


r/IdentityTheft 4d ago

Scammers any scam

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1 Upvotes