If you are unfortunate enough to become a victim of identity fraud, then it is important to act quickly. There are things you can do to rectify the situation and minimise the disruption to your life. Identity fraud is illegal and invasive and should not be allowed to go unnoticed.
As soon as you notice that you have had your identity stolen, you should do the following:
- Where the incident concerns the use of plastic cards, online banking, or cheques, report the matter to the financial institution concerned as they are responsible for further investigation and reporting it to the police.
- If the incident does not involve plastic cards, online banking, or cheques, then report the matter to the relevant organisation and, dependent on their advice, to your local police station.
- Report all lost or stolen documents, such as passports, driving licences, credit cards, chequebooks etc.
- Notify Royal Mail if you think you may have been a victim of mail theft or that mail redirection has been set up fraudulently on your address.
- Consider registering with the CIFAS Protective Registration Service, the UK’s fraud prevention organisation, which can be placed against a person’s address at their request if they believe they have been the victim of mail theft.
Most banks and service providers such as credit card companies will reimburse you if you have lost money as a result of identity fraud. Check with your individual bank to see what they will do for you. Once you have reported the incident to the relevant organisation or service provider, contact a credit report manager like experian. They can help you to repair the damage caused, by contacting the organisations to confirm that the transactions or application for credit were not made in your name and they can then remove the offending information from your credit report.
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