 What to Do as a Credit Card Fraud Victim
1) Report Discrepancies Immediately
Maybe
you realize your credit card has been stolen. Maybe you find one of
your checkbooks is missing. Maybe you begin receiving collection notices
for charges or credit purchases you never made. Whatever the
circumstance is that leads you to believe your finances are in danger,
you need to follow your instincts. Even if you’re wrong, you’ll feel
much better knowing you took action rather than allowed fraud against
you continue.
You must first file a statement with your local
police department, and obtain a copy of the police report. You’ll need
it when you contact your credit card company or the credit card company
the offender used to open his or her account. Whatever the case, inform
the credit agency you will be disputing all charges made on the card
that you did not make, and that you will be trying to obtain complete
deletion of all of the charges and accounts that don’t pertain to you.
2) Send a Letter of Dispute
Most
banks and credit card companies require paper documentation of a
disputed charge. You will need to obtain your credit report and credit
statement and list every charge and every account you are disputing and
why. Make sure to send any correspondence between yourself and the
credit agency via certified mail. This ensures that your letter of
dispute reaches the proper party in a timely manner, and provides you
with records of who you speak to, which will help your case greatly.
3) Contact any Institutions Involved
If
you have experienced fraud on any of your financial accounts, you
should operate under the assumption that any financial account with your
name attached to it may have been compromised as well. You need to
inform every agency you hold an account with that you’d like to change
your account numbers for any account that exists. This will help to
ensure that frauds don’t continue to happen against you while you go
through the process of healing your accounts.
Resolving credit
card fraud can take a lot of time, so the best way to resolve this
problem is to avoid it in the first place through the use of identity
monitoring services and identity protection services. If you already are
a credit card fraud victim, identity theft services are also available
to help you interface with your creditors and with the credit bureaus to
get your life back. |
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