Nine Signs Of Identity Theft: How To Tell If Someone Is Using Your Identity
Imperial Ethics Credit Repair · Glendale, Arizona · 7 min read
Most identity theft victims do not get a phone call. They find out months later, from a credit report or a denied application. Identity theft repair is free for Imperial Ethics Credit Repair clients, so if any of these apply to you, finding out costs you nothing. These are the signs worth checking for now rather than later.
1. An account on your report you never opened
The clearest sign, and the most common. An account you never opened is the single strongest indicator of identity theft. A credit card, auto loan, store card or personal loan under a lender you have never dealt with. Check the open date: if it falls in a period when you know you applied for nothing, that is your answer.
2. A collection for a debt you do not recognize
Fraudulent accounts go unpaid, get charged off and get sold. By the time you see it, the original account may be gone and only a collection agency’s entry remains, often with a company name that tells you nothing about the original debt.
3. Addresses you have never lived at
This is the sign almost everybody scrolls past. The personal information section of your report lists former addresses, and someone opening accounts in your name has to give an address for the statements to go to. An unfamiliar address there is frequently the first trace of fraud, and it appears before any account does.
4. Hard inquiries you cannot account for
Every credit application leaves a hard inquiry. If lenders were pulling your credit during a stretch when you applied for nothing, someone was applying as you. Inquiries stay on your report for two years, so look back across the whole window.
5. A score drop with no explanation
Thirty or forty points gone, no missed payment of your own, no new balance you recognize. Scores move for reasons. When you cannot find the reason, look for an account you did not open.
6. Mail that stops, or mail that should not arrive
Statements from a card you do not have. A welcome packet for an account you never applied for. Or the reverse, bills you normally receive going missing, which can mean an address change was filed in your name.
7. The IRS rejects your tax return
A return already filed under your Social Security number means someone used your identity for a refund. This is tax identity theft and it needs an IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, Form 14039, in addition to the credit work.
8. A denial that makes no sense
You know your credit is reasonable and a lender declines you anyway. Under federal law the lender must send you a notice telling you which bureau it used and the main reasons. Read it, then pull that specific report.
9. Medical bills or insurance letters for care you never had
Medical identity theft is less discussed and more dangerous, because it can put another person’s information into your medical records. An explanation of benefits for treatment you never received is worth acting on immediately.
What to do if you recognize any of these
Do not start by calling the company. Start by getting all three credit reports so you can see the full scope, because fraud rarely appears on only one bureau. Then freeze your credit at all three, which is free by law and stops any further accounts from being opened while you work through it.
Pull Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and read every line, including personal information
Freeze all three bureaus, free and reversible at any time
File an identity theft report at IdentityTheft.gov
Get a police report from your local department
Send block requests under FCRA section 605B, not ordinary disputes
This article is general information, not legal advice. Imperial Ethics Credit Repair is not a law firm.
Identity theft repair is free for our clients
You did not cause it, so we do not bill you for it. Send us your report and we will find every account that should not be there. Partner FCRA attorneys at no out-of-pocket cost where the law has been broken.
