Fraud and Identity Theft Protection

If you believe that you are a victim of identity theft or credit fraud, it is recommended that you take the following steps:

• Contact any one of the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian) and request that a fraud alert be placed on your credit file. Once the credit bureau is notified, they will notify the other bureaus.
• Notify the credit card issuer of the stolen card (if applicable)
• Notify DATCU of the stolen checks or check card (if applicable)
• File a police report
• Contact the Social Security Administration if someone is using your Social Security number
• Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hotline 800-438-4338 and file a complaint. The FTC has an ID Theft Affidavit that you can download from their Web site.
• Check your credit report for any accounts that you do not recognize. Check this periodically since some accounts are not reflected immediately.

If you’ve lost personal information or identification, or if it has been stolen from you, taking certain steps quickly can minimize the potential for identity theft.

Financial accounts: Close credit card and bank accounts immediately. When you open new accounts, place passwords on them. Avoid using your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your Social Security number or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers.

Social Security number: Call the toll-free fraud number of any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and place an initial fraud alert on your credit reports. An alert can help stop someone from opening new credit accounts in your name.

Driver’s license/other government-issued identification: Contact the agency that issued the license or other identification document. Follow its procedures to cancel the document and to get a replacement. Ask the agency to flag your file so that no one else can get a license or any other identification document from them in your name.

Once you have taken these precautions, watch for signs that your information is being misused. You can learn more about this topic from the Federal Trade Commission.

If your information has been misused, file a report about the theft with the police, and file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, as well. If another crime was committed – for example, if your purse or wallet was stolen or your house or car was broken into – report it to the police immediately.

When it comes to identity theft, you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim. But there are certain steps you can take to minimize your risk.

Order a copy of your credit report. An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each of the major nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit reports, at your request, once every 12 months.

To order your free annual report from one or all of the national consumer reporting companies, visit www.annualcreditreport.com, call toll-free 877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can print the form from the Federal Trade Commission website. Do not contact the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually.

Under federal law, you’re also entitled to a free report if a company takes adverse action against you, such as denying your application for credit, insurance or employment, and you request your report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. The notice will give you the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company that supplied the information about you. You’re also entitled to one free report a year if you’re unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; you’re on welfare; or your report is inaccurate because of fraud. Otherwise, a consumer reporting company may charge you for copies of your report.

To buy a copy of your report, contact:

• Equifax: 800-685-1111; www.equifax.com
• Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742); www.experian.com
• TransUnion: 800-916-8800; www.transunion.com

Use hard-to-guess passwords. Place passwords on your credit card, bank, and phone accounts. Avoid using easily available information like your mother’s maiden name, your birth date, the last four digits of your Social Security number or your phone number, or a series of consecutive numbers. When opening new accounts, you may find that many businesses still have a line on their applications for your mother’s maiden name. Ask if you can use a password instead.

Secure personal information in your home. This is important especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having work done in your home.

Ask about information security procedures. You should do this in your workplace or at businesses, doctor’s offices or other institutions that collect your personally identifying information. Find out who has access to your personal information and verify that it is handled securely. Ask about the disposal procedures for those records as well. Find out if your information will be shared with anyone else. If so, ask how your information can be kept confidential.

Don’t give out personal information. Be cautious of what information you share on the phone, through the mail, or on the Internet unless you’ve initiated the contact or are sure you know who you’re dealing with. Identity thieves are clever, and have posed as representatives of banks, Internet service providers (ISPs), and even government agencies to get people to reveal their Social Security number, mother’s maiden name, account numbers, and other identifying information. Before you share any personal information, confirm that you are dealing with a legitimate organization. Check an organization’s website by typing its URL in the address line, rather than cutting and pasting it. Many companies post scam alerts when their name is used improperly. Or call customer service using the number listed on your account statement or in the telephone book. For more information, view this FTC article on phishing.

Treat your mail and trash carefully. Deposit your outgoing mail in post office collection boxes or at your local post office, rather than in an unsecured mailbox. Promptly remove mail from your mailbox. If you’re planning to be away from home and can’t pick up your mail, call the U.S. Postal Service at 1-800-275-8777 to request a vacation hold. The Postal Service will hold your mail at your local post office until you can pick it up or are home to receive it.

To thwart an identity thief who may pick through your trash or recycling bins to capture your personal information, tear or shred your charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and bank statements, expired charge cards that you’re discarding, and credit offers you get in the mail. To opt out of receiving offers of credit in the mail, call: 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688). The three nationwide consumer reporting companies use the same toll-free number to let consumers choose not to receive credit offers based on their lists. Note: You will be asked to provide your Social Security number which the consumer reporting companies need to match you with your file.

Don’t carry your Social Security card. Leave it in a secure place. Give your Social Security number only when absolutely necessary, and ask to use other types of identifiers. If your state uses your Social Security number as your driver’s license number, ask to substitute another number. Do the same if your health insurance company uses your Social Security number as your policy number.

Take these extra precautions. Carry only the identification information and the credit and debit cards that you’ll actually need when you go out. Be cautious when responding to promotions. Identity thieves may create phony promotional offers to get you to give them your personal information.

Keep your purse or wallet in a safe place at work; do the same with copies of administrative forms that have your sensitive personal information. When ordering new checks, pick them up from the bank instead of having them mailed to your home mailbox.

You may be careful about locking your doors and windows, and keeping your personal papers in a secure place. Depending on what you use your personal computer for, an identity thief may not need to set foot in your house to steal your personal information. You may store your Social Security number, financial records, tax returns, birth date, and bank account numbers on your computer. These tips can help you keep your computer – and the personal information it stores – safe.

Virus protection software should be updated regularly. Additionally, patches for your operating system and other software programs should be installed to protect against intrusions and infections that can lead to the compromise of your computer files or passwords. Ideally, virus protection software should be set to automatically update each week. Windows operating systems also can be set to automatically check for patches and download them to your computer.

Do not open files sent to you by strangers. And don't click on hyperlinks or download programs from people you don’t know. Be careful about using file-sharing programs. Opening a file could expose your system to a computer virus or a program known as “spyware,” which could capture your passwords or any other information as you type it into your keyboard.

Use a firewall program. You should do this especially if you use a high-speed Internet connection like cable, DSL or T-1 that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day. The firewall program will allow you to stop uninvited access to your computer. Without it, hackers can take over your computer, access the personal information stored on it, or use it to commit other crimes.

Use a secure browser. And use software that encrypts or scrambles information you send over the Internet to guard your online transactions. Be sure your browser has the most up-to-date encryption capabilities by using the latest version available from the manufacturer. You also can download some browsers for free over the Internet. When submitting information, look for the “lock” icon on the browser’s status bar to be sure your information is secure during transmission.

Try not to store financial information on your laptop. If you do, use a strong password with a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols. A good way to create a strong password is to think of a memorable phrase and use the first letter of each word as your password, converting some letters into numbers that resemble letters. For example, “I love Felix; he’s a good cat,” would become 1LFHA6c. Don’t use an automatic log-in feature that saves your user name and password, and always log off when you’re finished. That way, if your laptop is stolen, it’s harder for a thief to access your personal information.

Before you dispose of a computer, delete all personal information. Deleting files using the keyboard or mouse commands or reformatting your hard drive may not be enough because the files may stay on the computer’s hard drive, where they may be retrieved easily. Use a “wipe” utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive.

Look for website privacy policies. They should answer questions about maintaining accuracy, access, security, and control of personal information collected by the site, how the information will be used, and whether it will be provided to third parties. If you don’t see a privacy policy or if you can’t understand it consider doing business elsewhere.

If you are a member of the military and away from your usual duty station, you may place an active duty alert on your credit reports to help minimize the risk of identity theft while you are deployed. Active duty alerts are in effect on your report for one year. If your deployment lasts longer, you can place another alert on your credit report.

When you place an active duty alert, you’ll be removed from the credit reporting companies’ marketing list for pre-screened credit card offers for two years unless you ask to go back on the list before then.

See the above section, "How can I minimize my risk?" for contact information. The process for getting and removing an alert, and a business’s response to your alert, are the same as that for an initial alert. You may use a personal representative to place or remove an alert.

No. Companies cannot print your credit or debit card expiration date or more than the last five digits of your card number on your electronic receipt. Federal law does, however, allow receipts that are hand written or mechanically imprinted to show your entire number and expiration date.

More organizations are offering consumers choices about how their personal information is used. For example, many let you “opt out” of having your information shared with others or used for marketing purposes. For more information see the Federal Trade Commission website. You also can visit the National Do Not Call Registry.

Your employer and financial institutions will need your Social Security number for wage and tax reporting purposes. Other businesses may ask you for your Social Security number to do a credit check if you are applying for a loan, renting an apartment, or signing up for utilities. Sometimes, however, they simply want your Social Security number for general record keeping. If someone asks for your Social Security number, ask:

• Why do you need my Social Security number?
• How will my Social Security number be used?
• How do you protect my Social Security number from being stolen?
• What will happen if I don’t give you my Social Security number?

If you don’t provide your Social Security number, some businesses may not provide you with the service or benefit you want. Getting satisfactory answers to these questions will help you decide whether you want to share your Social Security number with the business. The decision to share is yours.

Some companies offer insurance or similar products that claim to give you protection against the costs associated with resolving an identity theft case. Be aware that most creditors will only deal with you to resolve problems, so the insurance company in most cases will not be able to reduce that burden. As with any product or service, make sure you understand what you’re getting before you buy. If you decide to buy an identity theft insurance product, check out the company with your local Better Business Bureau, consumer protection agency and state Attorney General to see if they have any complaints on file.