Reporting identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov is your best way to alert authorities to fraud. It’s also important to put a fraud alert on your credit accounts, at the very least — and consider going for greater protection by freezing your credit If someone is using your personal information to open new accounts, make purchases, or get a tax refund, report it at IdentityTheft.gov. IdentityTheft.gov will help you create your Identity Theft Report and a personal recovery plan based on your situation.If you create an account, IdentityTheft.gov'll walk you through each recovery step, update your plan as needed, track your progress, and pre-fill forms and letters for you.
Warning Signs of Identity Theft
What Do Thieves Do With Your Information?
Once identity thieves have your personal information, they can drain your bank account, run up charges on your credit cards, open new utility accounts, or get medical treatment on your health insurance. An identity thief can file a tax refund in your name and get your refund. In some extreme cases, a thief might even give your name to the police during an arrest.
Clues That Someone Has Stolen Your Information
- You see withdrawals from your bank account that you can’t explain.
- You don’t get your bills or other mail.
- Merchants refuse your checks.
- Debt collectors call you about debts that aren’t yours.
- You find unfamiliar accounts or charges on your credit report.
- Medical providers bill you for services you didn’t use.
- Your health plan rejects your legitimate medical claim because the records show you’ve reached your benefits limit.
- A health plan won’t cover you because your medical records show a condition you don’t have.
- The IRS notifies you that more than one tax return was filed in your name, or that you have income from an employer you don’t work for.
- You get notice that your information was compromised by a data breach at a company where you do business or have an account.
How to help protect yourself from ID theft online
Your online behaviors may have an impact on your risk of identity theft. Here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Be careful with both how and where you share your personal information when you’re on the Internet — whether you’re using a computer or a mobile device.
- Give your home Wi-Fi network a name that isn’t tied to your home. For instance, if your street address is 123 Main St., don’t name your Wi-Fi network, “123 Main.” You don’t want to make yourself an obvious target.
- Make sure you give your Wi-Fi network a strong and unique password so those would-be intruders can’t easily access your network and, perhaps, the devices connected to it.
- Make sure the passwords you’re using for online accounts are strong and unique. Using the same password on multiple accounts certainly makes it easier for you to remember, but when sophisticated hackers score a breach using one of your passwords, they may test your stolen login credentials on other accounts — the one for your bank, perhaps. If your credentials are the same for both, imagine the consequences.
- Consider how you use Wi-Fi when you’re on the go. Be wary of logging into accounts or transacting when on a public Wi-Fi network, even if that network is password protected. Coffee-shop Wi-Fi passwords are easy to come by. With the right tools, a cyber thief on the same network could follow your online moves and capture everything from your login credentials to the credit card information you type in while shopping.
- If you have to do business on a public Wi-Fi network, consider using a VPN, or virtual private network. A VPN creates a kind of tunnel to encrypt your data, making it useless to would-be snoops.
- Is your mailbox secure? An unlocked mailbox is an easy target for thieves who steal identities the old-fashioned way. From it, they can grab everything from credit card mailings to your annual W-2 statement. A secure mailbox can be a wise and relatively inexpensive investment to help protect your identity.
- Speaking of old-fashioned methods, it may be hard to believe in this digital era, but dumpster diving is still a thing. If you’re throwing away documents loaded with your personal information without first shredding them, you’re making it easy for any identity thief who’s willing to get his hands dirty rifling through your trash. That thief could obtain vital info from old bank statements, healthcare claims, and other discarded paperwork.
- Do you invite strangers into your home? Not usually, right? But consider the occasional appliance repair person, cable TV installer, or other unknown people you allow beyond the front door. Unless you’re with them throughout their visit, and depending on where you keep your incoming mail or important documents, they might have easy access to your personal information without you ever noticing.
- It may also pay for you to invest in a document lockbox at home or a security deposit box at your bank to safeguard your most important documents.
If you have an identity theft protection service, it may be able to take a lot of this work off your hands — and alert you to possible fraudulent activity using your PII.