When to Fight Identity Theft

The time to fight Identity theft is now. If you are not a victim of identity theft, do not take any chances, since it is next to impossible if not impossible to restore your life once someone takes hold of your identity.

Identity thieves will steal your identity nearly anywhere in the world, but many of the utilize the World Wide Web to take advantage of millions of people. Since, technology has developed it has open the doors to predators of all walks and these hungry souls are taking full advantage of the developments.

Thieves are tricky. In the world, we have all types of predators including serial killers, thieves, rapists, extortionists, and so forth. Serial killers are one of the hardest predators to catch, and what follows the steps of a skilled killer is an identity thief. Comparing the two, you would be luckier to have a serial killer on your trial verses having lost your identity. Serial killers will annihilate you instantaneously after interrupting your life quietly. Likewise, a thief will monitor the moves of random candidates ready for the taking and when they gain access to your identity, you will battle for the rest of your life to restore your life in general.

When you become a victim of identity theft you are a victim forever, however when you become a victim of other crimes and survive you are a survivor once you come over the trauma in the path. Thus, identity thieves once hold of your information can open accounts in your name, withdrawal money from your accounts, violate your credit reports, commit crimes and use your identity to evade the authorities, or else commit crimes and leave you holding the bag. Identity thieves that hold your information can contact the government and file for anything they like in your name and the government will have no clue, since they are assuming you are the one requesting the documents.

Thus, if you suspect your identity is stolen take the first step and contact the authorities. Next, you will need to contact the government, and social security administration as well as the license bureau. You will also need to contact your bank, credit card providers, debit card providers, utility providers, property owner, mortgage and anyone that is connected to you and your information. You will also need to get copies of your credit reports and dispute any activities immediately on the reports that are not belonging to you. Be sure to request that TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax put a FREEZE on your accounts. If the companies put up a Fraud Alert the alert will leave you open, thus a FREEZE will go further with creditors when you apply for credit in the future. I stress FREEZE, since this will halt anyone from adding any debts to your account. If a fraud alert is, pending then anyone can add debts to your account, which takes three to seven and even ten years to remove, even if you did not create the debts.

After you have took all the necessary steps you will need to continue monitor any new accounts and continue monitoring your credit reports randomly. Anytime new information becomes available that insinuates that someone has violated your identity make sure you provide the updates to the authorities.

So, do you still want to ask when to fight identity theft? If you are still asking this question then you obviously missed the point. In the year of 2002 alone, more than one-half million individuals lost their identity and the statistics are increasing each year.

Identity theft is a major crime where the criminal rarely meets the authorities. The World Wide Web opens the door for thieves to come and go as they please without little exposure. Thus, learning the steps to prevent identity theft is critical, especially if you are connected to the Internet, or frequent the World Wide Web often. For more information on identity theft, visit the online connections where you can find a swamp load of information that will help you to protect your identity. Otherwise, visit your local library to learn how you can prevent identity theft, even if you never use a computer.

Tony Robinson is an International Author, Webmaster and Security Guru. Check out his Identity Theft Protection Tips at http://www.officialidentitytheft.com/