Chapter 5. What should I do if my identity was compromised?

We are hoping that you have learned many ways to protect your identity. At the same time, keep in mind that anybody can be a victim, including you! It is important to know what you should do if your identity is compromised. 

 

How to

If you become the victim, it is important to act quickly by filing the necessary reports and contacting the relevant agencies to lessen the damage to your financial well-being.

1. File a police report

• • Report identity theft to your local police department
    • They will issue a report and give you a copy

2. Contact the three Credit Reporting Agencies 

• • Contact the fraud hotline for each of the three CRA's and request a fraud alert to be placed on your account
    • To prevent further thefts, you can request a security freeze prohibiting credit issuers from opening other credit cards in your stolen name without your permission

3. Contact your bank and other financial institutions

• • Immediately contact your bank to stop any payment and issue new accounts for you
    • Same with your credit card financial institutions, you will need them to cancel your current cards and issue new accounts

4. Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• • FTC does not investigate stolen identity, but they can share information you provide such as your police report number with identity theft investigators nationwide

 

 

 

Practice

As you can see, in order for you to accomplish the above steps in case your identity is stolen, you would need to have all of your financial information organized in an accessible fashion for you to use as needed. 

We have prepared for you a worksheet Download worksheet

that has all you need to protect yourself and your family from identity theft.

 

Now that you know what to do to prevent identity theft. Discuss your strategy with a friend or family members.

 

Congratulations! Now Test your knowledge about Identity theft!

Would you like to review again? You can start over at Introduction.

To review the full module on Identity Theft, click here. 

 

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The Penn State Sokolov-Miller Family Financial and life Skills Center hopes you have enjoyed this module in the MoneyCounts: A Penn State Financial Literacy Series. Please tell us how we can serve you better, leave us feedback, ask a question, or request additional information at: finlit@psu.edu