This article incorrectly said that the company Identity Theft 911 is based in San Francisco. It is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
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Identity Theft Gets Personal
The Federal Trade Commission reports that 8.3 million American adults, or nearly 4 percent, were victims of identity theft in 2005, according to the latest figures.
(By Kevin Clark/Post)
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Considering that I feared even committing to a seven-year alert, I decided against a freeze. Instead, I chose the 90-day alert.
Safeguard Credit: Monitor Reports
One simple way to protect your credit reports is to monitor them regularly, even if you have not been a victim of fraud, said the experts I consulted. Credit bureaus and other private companies have monitoring services that range in price, but you can also do it on your own. Ordinarily, we are all entitled to one free copy of our credit report from each bureau once a year. (Experts say you should ask for your report from each bureau at different points in the year, not all at once, so you can get a snapshot of your credit history snapshots over time.) As a fraud victim, you are entitled to one more free copy once you request an alert. I assumed that the report would be automatically sent to me. Not so. I had to call back each credit bureau to specifically ask for a report. Why the extra step?
"Some people already have their copies by the time they put the alert on," said Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education for Experian. Plus, she said, some people simply don't want their report.
I was not one of those people even though, as one expert pointed out, any misuse of my debit card would not show up on my credit report.
Once I got that out of the way, I decided to play detective. The bank said my impostor had given the store a phone number.
I enlisted a friend to call the number. A woman picked up. "Do you know a Nancy Trejos?" my friend asked. The woman said no.
Is this your phone? he asked. "My son just bought this cellphone. He's 11 years old."
Did anyone come home with several pairs of new sneakers recently?
"I don't even know what you're talking about," she said.
We gave up after a few more questions.
How to Minimize Risks
The next day, a Wednesday, I visited the police. The FTC Web site warns that some police stations are not willing to take identity theft reports. But at the Arlington police station, I met Officer Garnell Stewart, who was eager to hear my story. It all started, I told him, with the Bank of America phone call.
Stop right there, he said. Did the woman ask for any information, such as the personal identification number for my debit card? Did she ask for a Social Security number?
