Vigilance keeps you on top of ID theft

Since August 2009, I’ve kept a diary that’s not a pleasant read. It brings back memories of a personal nature that is about me, certainly, contains secret PIN numbers, and the history of what happens after someone steals your identity.

When your Social Security number is compromised by one of these full-time thieves, they’re not really taking your identity. At least it doesn’t feel that way to me. They’re posing as you to do one thing: make money off your good credit.

In August 2009, someone contacted Wachovia, opened an account in my name, and secured a $3,400 loan with my Social Security number, birth date, and full name. The identity thief then arranged for a check card to be mailed to a foreclosed house in Lithonia, where it would have been available to empty the account.

The only reason I found out about this was that I had banked with First Union in 1980, which merged with Wachovia in 2001. Wachovia wrote me a letter and asked if I wanted overdraft protection to continue that I had set up in 1980. The letter also included information about the loan.

I immediately called Wachovia and was able to get a fraud investigation started, the account closed, and the check card cancelled before it was delivered.

The next thing I did was initiate fraud alerts with each of the credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. I also filed a police report with the Forgery and Fraud Division of the Cobb County Sheriff ’s Office, began the process of obtaining all my credit reports, and freezing my credit with unique PIN numbers.

On the same day he opened the Wachovia account, the thief got credit from my insurance company and applied for a credit card with another company. I found out about these additional problems by viewing my credit reports and stopped the thief by contacting the credit issuers.

Last year, I had one more reminder about the damage these thieves can do. After filing my taxes and claiming a refund, the Georgia Department of Revenue sent me a letter under its new anti-fraud program flagging my return. DOR doesn’t disclose if someone else has filed in your name. The letter gives you a website to visit to prove who you are before they will release your refund.

In my case, the multiple choice questions asked about my former addresses, mortgage payment amount, credit applications, and other personal matters. The state won’t tell you how they developed the questions, but almost certainly they come from your credit reports. That’s one reason it’s so important to dispute erroneous information on your reports.

I didn’t receive a letter from DOR this year.

My best advice is to review your credit reports, which can be done in Georgia for free once a year by visiting www. annualcreditreport.com, and place those freezes without delay.