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What to do in the event that you’re identity gets stolen you ask?  It’s pretty easy to fall victim to identify theft and you’re not alone if it occurs to you.  Recent studies and reporting mechanisms have suggested that millions of Americans each and every year fall victim to the occurrence (almost ten million).  So you’re not alone.  There are several steps that you should take following the discovery of identity theft.

Sometimes you may not know how your personal information and data was compromised, sometimes it can be due to a wallet or purse being stolen, or otherwise it can be due to more technologically advanced methods such as having your data and information hacked online.  When you first realize that your personal information may be used for malicious purposes, take some deep breaths and implement any relaxing exercises that you know of.  It’s certainly a shock to realize that someone has access to your personal data and whether it’s been used or not for malicious intent is slightly irrelevant.  It’s enough to make you highly stressed and agitated.

Regardless, in the event that your information and data are stolen, contact local enforcement agencies and the Federal Trade Commission to report the crime.  If there was a chance that your identity was stolen through the post office box, or more generally through the mail.  Contact your post office and ask them not to send any more mail to your address, you’ll pick it up instead.  Following that notify any financial institutions you do business with, and these include credit card companies, bank accounts, mortgage lenders and whatever other company that you’re dealing with financially.  The best thing to do is to close down these accounts and request new accounts to be opened with different identification numbers and what not.

I would then contact all the major credit card reporting bureaus and these are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  Request that a fraud alert be put on all of your relevant accounts and this will ensure your accounts are frozen for at least 90 days.  I would then contact a credit bureau to get my credit report.  This can be done to further investigate if your credit has been damaged in anyway.  If you find that anything is suspicious, contact the relevant reporting agency to ensure no further harm can be done.  Go through all your bank and credit card statements with a fine tooth comb.  Further to that, I would then open up a new private mailbox to have any personal information sent there.  Further protecting you against any future data violations.

Once you start to believe that the situation is under control, change some of your practices to make sure that the occurrence cannot happen again.  Don’t ever leave your social security number in your wallet for instance.  Continue to check all transactions with a fine tooth comb and pay bills online.  This of course after having your computer checked out for viruses and other malicious computer hacking programs.  Stop credit card agencies from sending you preapproved credit cards further adding a level of safety.  I would also research online to further find out what to do in the event that your data is stolen and how further to protect yourself.

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