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20 Tips to prevent Identity theft

Submitted by sunshinetn71 on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:14
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Help I had my identity stolen online. A company called MYCASHNOW and credit protection depot, not sure who is who, they are debiting hundreds of dollars out of my checking account. I went to the bank and they were the ones who helped me come up with the names listed. I have contacted the attorney general office in TN and also consumer affairs, and a private attorney. I tried to call these people myself..well they were rude and nasty. They are useless. I need to try and resolve most of this on my own, attorney fees are high. Need all the help I can get. Last year I had this happen and put A fraud alert on my credit account, I was to be contacted personally if any tried to open an loan or credit application under my social security number, but no I was never aware of this MYCASHNOW until it was to late.


Thank you Sunshine...I will cut and paste my post to you so everyone will know where we are with this..


Submitted by RoxyNY on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:16

RoxyNY

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Sunshine, Welcome. We can help you with this. I see you are in TN. my cash now is an internet pay day loan company and Credit Protection depot is usually used but them for collections but they are part of the same company. My Cash Now is not licensed to do business in TN. You fraud alert would not have caught this becuase they do not pull any kind of credit report before giving you a loan. What did your bank do about your account....


Submitted by RoxyNY on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:17

RoxyNY

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Did you apply on line for any payday loans at all! They shre info and use different names. The new thing is an "identity theft protection company" will piggy back its way to your account and charge you a membership fee that you did not agree to.


Submitted by Frogpatch on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:18

Frogpatch

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Thank you all very much for your concern, I was looking on line but never signed up for anything, I am unaware what steps to take from here. I had to closed out my account. They are emailing me, constantly. Wanting money, I don't owe.


Submitted by sunshinetn71 on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:26

sunshinetn71

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Here is a fantastic site about what to do if you are faced with Identity Theft:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs17a.htm

2. Law enforcement. Report the crime to your local police or sheriff's department right away. You might also need to report it to police department(s) where the crime occurred if it's somewhere other than where you live. Give them as much documented evidence as possible. Make sure the police report lists the fraudulent accounts . Get a copy of the report, which is called an "identity theft report" under the FCRA. Keep the phone number of your investigator handy and give it to creditors and others who require verification of your case. Credit card companies and banks may require you to show the report in order to verify the crime.

FTC regulations define an "identity theft report" to include a report made to a local, state, or federal law enforcement agency. If your local police department refuses to file a report and your situation involves fraudulent use of the U.S. mail, you can obtain an identity theft report from the U.S. Postal Inspector. If your case involves fraudulent use of a driver's license in your name, you might be able to obtain a report from your state's Department of Motor Vehicles.


Submitted by volleyballmom on Thu, 03/06/2008 - 10:40

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The site has an article on the steps to do if you are an id theft victim.

Quote:

Step 1: Place a fraud alert on your credit files and monitor your credit reports regularly.

Contact any of the three consumer reporting companies to place a fraud alert on your credit report, also provide the bureau a ???????victim???????s statement???????? asking the creditors to notify you before opening any new accounts or changing your existing accounts. This can help prevent an identity crook from opening any new accounts in your name.

To set up a fraud alert you can contact one of the three bureaus and ask them to flag your credit report for fraud. Usually the call is directed to an automated voice response system.

Though the bureau you call is required to share the fraud alert data with the other two, but there have been incidents that show this process does not work so properly. Hence, your best option is to contact each bureau individually to place a fraud alert. Given below are the toll free numbers of the fraud department of the credit bureaus:

Equifax : 1-800-525-6285; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian : 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion : 1-800-680-7289; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Once you activate a fraud alert, each of the bureaus will send you a current copy of your credit report by mail. You will be also opted out of pre approved credit card and insurance offers. The reports should arrive in one to two weeks. Once you receive your credit reports, review them carefully.

Step 2: Close the accounts that you know, or believe, are not opened by you or have been tampered.

Close all accounts that have been opened or used fraudulently by the identity thief. Request the creditors to report the closed accounts as "account closed at consumer's request," because a simple ???????closed account??????? can reflect poorly on your credit report. You must call and speak with the creditors for the accounts that have been opened fraudulently or are fiddled.

Ask each creditor to send you the copies of the transaction records that the identity thief made from your account. The creditors must provide you and your investigating law enforcement agency the requested paperwork and they cannot even impose a charge on offering you the service.

If they do not respond to your request then you must follow up in writing. You might find it hard to get the documents from the creditors, but don't give up. Send your letters by certified mail via RRR so that you can keep document everything that the creditor received and when. Maintain a record of your correspondence and enclosures.

Step 3: File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) .

You can lodge a complaint with the FTC by using the online complaint form; or else you can also call the FTC's Identity Theft Hotline, toll-free: 1-877- 438-4338; TTY: 1-866-653-4261. You can also notify FTC in writing by sending a letter to Identity Theft Clearinghouse, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20580. If you have to update your complaint, in case you had forgotten to provide some information or have any other additional information then you can call the FTC Identity Theft Hotline.

Step 4: Contact your local police or the police in that community where the identity theft took place and lodge a complaint.

Notify your local police department about the crime. You must provide as much proof as you can, it is advisable to give the police department a printed copy of your FTC ID Theft Complaint form, your cover letter, and all other paperwork that support your claims.

Make sure the police report includes all the accounts that have been affected. Get a copy of the report (the police report with your ID Theft Complaint attached) and send it to all the creditors of the affected accounts as a proof of the crime. If you can't get a copy from the police department, at least get the number of the report.

Step 5: Change all your account passwords.

In case of loss or theft of ATM or debit card, then do not use your old PIN for your new card. If an account does not have a password, it is advisable that you add one. Avoid selecting obvious passwords.


Source: http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/fight-back-identity-theft.html


Submitted by Good Nelly on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 04:58

Good Nelly

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Thank you so very much..I did file a complaint with the FTC, along with ID theft Package, I mailed that plus a nasty letter to mycashnow, The police department was not that receptive to me, no sure what to do for me. I also received another email from mycashnow, the are going to report me to the FBI..what are they crazy..please someone tell me That they are not going to but me in jail...come on. Thank you!!!


Submitted by sunshinetn71 on Mon, 03/10/2008 - 07:19

sunshinetn71

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I unfortunately took out a loan from mycashnow for $500. When they tried to debit my account, there were insufficient funds due to a glitch in my direct deposit from work. No one ever informed me about the returned "check," until I began getting harassing phone calls threatening to throw me in jail. When I finally tracked down Credit Report Depot, they told me that between 11/13 & 11/30, I had acrued $235.27 in INTEREST, plus a $25 NSF fee. NOW I supposedly owe them $765.27! I cannot pay that all back, and am concerned that they will continue to try and debit my account for the money and then some. PLEASE help me sort fact from fiction, and know what to do!


Submitted by on Wed, 11/25/2009 - 12:41

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I just had a quick question I am not sure if anyone will reply or not but if you can I would greatly appreciate it. My husband has a loan with my cash now. We were making payments fine. Then we had a NSF. The next scheduled date for it to be paid, they withdrew the amount that had been an NSF along with 25.00 fee. They also took out the schedueld paymetn. My question is this Friday another payment is scheduled. I am assuming that they will just take out the scheduled payment since it is up to date now? Is that how it works. I tried to log into the account but it says to call the Credit Protection place. I am just assuming that since it is up to date, it should be fine. Can anyone help me? Thanks so much!


Submitted by on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 09:50

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