Grief, Identity Theft and the Holidays

Grief is hard enough and especially through the Holiday Season. Compounding the situation with identity theft can be extremely overwhelming and disheartening. Not to mention, what do you do when it happens. I have been the victim of one of the most extreme cases of identity theft. I have had my social security number, driver’s license number, address, date of birth among many other things stolen from me. To compound the situation, I only found out after several bank accounts had been opened in my name. I speak from personal experience and have gone through the proper recovery steps when my identity was stolen. After a lot of research, I found the following government site to one of the best and most thorough resource to cover all of your bases with a roadmap and checklist to boot. The website is Identitytheft.gov. The site is backed by the Federal Trade Commission. I have also highlighted the following tips when creating a plan.

Identitytheft.gov

Tips

Check the 3 credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, Transunion and at a minimum put a 7 year alert on all three. The preferable route is to freeze your credit.

Notify the Federal Trade Commission

Get a PIN number in order to file your tax returns—important so no one steals your tax return

Alert ChexSystems—this is the reporting system for bank accounts.

Make a police report

Notify your bank and put extra security steps in place when obtaining information

Notify the banks and or institutions where fraudulent accounts were opened.

Be very careful when giving your personal information online or in person. Also, be mindful of the your children’s personal information.

This is not an all encompassing list, but it is a good start.