What You Should Do In The Case Of an Identity Theft

Identity thefts seem to be a common thing these days and even the savviest amongst us don’t seem to be immune to this menace. If this could happen to chairman of Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke and to personal finance expert and coach Harraine Freeman, this can happen to anybody. In both cases purses that carried the financial credentials were stolen from their cars. Bernanke’s wife Anna’s purse that carried his credit cards, social security card, checkbook, and IDs was stolen. On similar lines Freeman’s purse that contained her health insurance card, driver’s license, check book, car registration and house keys was stolen. In both cases bank transactions were done by the thieves and money was withdrawn from their accounts.

Upon this rapidly growing crime, Bernanke says, “Identity theft is a serious crime that affects millions of Americans each year. Our family was but one of 500 separate instances traced to one crime ring. I am grateful for the law enforcement officers who patiently and diligently work to solve and prevent these financial crimes.”

Identity theft expert, Brian Lapidus opines, “To an identity thief, we’re all just names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.”

In Freeman’s case the incident occurred in a most improbable hour and situation for such happenings. Can you ever guess in the wildest of your imaginations that she’d be robbed of her credentials at 10:30 a.m. of all times? Also it happened at a busy place where she went to fill out her gas bills. So the lesson that you should learn is that every hour is a probable hour for thefts and you can say no more that unsocial hours, such as late nights or early mornings; and desolate locations are the only the places where such things might happen.

Below are certain things that you should do immediately after an identity theft:

• Inform your bank – Call up your bank, inform them about the incident and ask them to block your accounts and not accept any transactions. But in Freeman’s case even after her notification, money was issued to the fraudsters due to carelessness of the banking staff. Of course she was compensated later. But you don’t expect to be so lucky. Be on your guard.
• Inform police – A police complaint is a must. Don’t procrastinate. The police will investigate the matter and catch the thieves. Also it’s not lawfully correct to not inform any legal authorities if you experience a crime.
• Open a new bank account – If possible you should withdraw your entire money from your existing bank and open a new account in another bank! Your existing bank might offer you another new account with them but opening in the same bank is not a very good idea. Remember that now there’s another person who knows all your secret numbers and the worst thing is that this other person is a criminal!