Banking Safety

HAVE YOU BEEN A VICTIM OF IDENTITY THEFT?

You were careful with your personal information, and yet there it is: a charge you don’t recognize on your credit card bill. Sometimes, even though you thought you were careful with your personal and financial information, you are still the victim of identity theft. If that is the case, here are the steps you can take, and the resources available to help you:

Change passwords that may have been compromised. If scammers have access to one account’s password, and if you use that same password for other accounts, those accounts are also at risk. Change all of your passwords immediately, use different passwords for different accounts, and change all of them periodically.

Report identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission online at IdentityTheft.gov or by phone at 1-877-438-4338. If you report the theft online, you will receive an ID theft report, which can help you prove to businesses that someone stole your identity.

Report your identity theft to your local police station if (a) you know the thief; (b) the thief used your name in an interaction with the police; or (c) a creditor requires a police report.

Report your identity theft to the three credit reporting bureaus, and obtain a credit report from each reporting agency to check for activity:

            Equifax           Fraud Alert: 1-888-766-0008

                                   Credit Report: 1-800-685-1111

            Experian         Fraud Alert: 1-888-397-3742

                                   Credit Report: 1-888-397-3742

            TransUnion    Fraud Alert: 1-800-680-7289

                                   Credit Report: 1-800-888-4213

Report specific types of identity theft to other agencies, if applicable:

• Medical Identity Theft: 1-800-HHS-TIPS or https://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/report-fraud/
• Tax Identity Theft:  https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/taxpayer-guide-to-identity-theft
• Unemployment Identity Theft:
• • New Jersey: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/unemployment-insurance-payment-accuracy/UIFraudReporting
  • Pennsylvania: https://www.uc.pa.gov/pages/report-fraud-here.aspx

Replace stolen documents if they were physically taken from you. A list of resources to replace stolen documents can be found here:  https://www.usa.gov/replace-vital-documents#item-37457