Using Your Credit Report To Uncover Identity Theft

There are many people who have been victimized by identity theft and do not even know it! They never check their credit report and if the identity thieves have not caused major credit problems as yet; they may not realize that someone else is using their identity and their credit.

At least once per year, you can obtain a free credit report from the major credit reporting bureaus, but this is not frequent enough to provide you with a warning if someone is using your credit.

If you have responded to personal questions in any telephone call or other communication that might be a possible phishing scam, paying for an additional credit check is a small price compared to having thousands of dollars of debt run up in your name before you know that it has occurred.

One man went to an automobile dealership to purchase a vehicle. The salesperson talked him into filling out a credit application for the new car loan. However, it was the weekend and the loan application could not be processed until the following Monday. The unscrupulous salesperson took this man's information, including social security number, home address, credit references including account numbers and began to steal this man's identify.

The thief managed to obtain a fake driver's license with his picture and the car buyer's name and address. He reported credit cards stolen and obtained new ones at his "new home address" which was actually a post office box in a Mail Boxes, Etc. nearby.

The thief received five different very valid credit cards this way with large credit limits due to the victim's good credit standing. He then took a luxury vacation to Atlantic City and used the credit cards to fund his trip and gambling. He ate in fine restaurants and rented a car with these credit cards. The credit thief ran up over $20,000 in debt in this man's name while the credit owner was unaware of the activity.

Soon after, the man whose identify had been stolen decided he wanted to purchase a home theatre system on a monthly payment basis from a local electronics store. His application was turned down because of too many recent credit inquiries. This led him to obtain a copy of his credit report only to learn about all these new credit cards, some of which were cards he did not even own. Some were account numbers that were different from the cards he held. He learned that some of the credit cards he carried had been cancelled and replaced which alerted him to the fact that someone else was using his identity.

Today, there are companies that will allow you purchase their services to watch for strange transactions on your credit cards. You can also purchase protection from some of the credit card companies themselves. However you choose to protect yourself, be very aware that many people you give your credit information to are less than honest. Protect your identity to avoid major problems from identity thieves.

Next article: Five Identity Theft Cases Examined

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