10 Signs That Your Identity Has Been Stolen

Is Your Credit Safe From Identity Thieves

Is Your Credit Safe From Identity Thieves

How do you know if your personal information is being used by someone else?  One of the biggest problems with being a victim of identity theft is that you usually don’t find out about it until long after the crime has taken place.  It could be months or even years until you get a call from the law or you have been denied credit or a loan. 

Here are some of the more typical ways that you can discover that you have become a victime of identity theft.

  1. You receive a bill from a credit card, utility, or telephone company in your name but you never requested any of the services.
  2. You stop getting mail, credit card statements, bills and such that you normally would expect to get.
  3. You get a call or a notice in the mail that you have been approved or denied a credit card that you never even applied for.
  4. You stop getting your bank statements or the statements from your credit cards.
  5. You notice unauthorized purchases on your credit card statements.
  6. You start getting calls from a collection agency about an account that you never opened.
  7. Your credit score goes from great to really really bad and you don’t know why.
  8. You find that there are checks missing from your checkbook.
  9. Your bank account is empty and you don’t know why.
  10. You receive notice from the post office of a change of address for yourself that you didn’t make.

Under the law, the financial institutions must take the hit of any monetary loss.  But the identity theft victim is still left with damaged credit and will have to spend months or even years repairing their creditworthiness.  Until the id theft victim has made such repairs to their credit, they may find it very difficult to get a loan, a job, find a place to live, or even just write a check.

In contrast the identity theif has it pretty easy.  Identity theft is a fairly easy crime to commit but a hard crime to prosecute and the added bonus is that it pays well.  So, as you can see there isn’t much to keep an identity theif from doing his crime.  As I mentioned before, identity theft can go unnoticed for a long time.

In October of 1998, Congress passed the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act making identity theft a Federal crime with penelties up to 15 years of imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000.  It established that the person whose identity was stolen is a truevictim.  Wheras, prior to the Act being passed, only the credit grantors who suffered monetary losses were considered to be the victims. 

I hope that you have found this information helpful.  If you realize that you may be a victim of identity theft, take immediate action.  Contact the company where the suspicious activity is, keep a close eye on your credit card and bank statements, make sure to contact the FTC and the police to file a report.  Until next time, stay safe and secure.