VICTIM PROCEDURES FOR IDENTITY CRIMES

The South Fayette Township Police Department, like every other police department, has experienced an increase in reported “identity crimes”. Identity crime occurs when someone else uses your personal identifiable information (name, address, social security number, date of birth, etc.) to illegally obtain goods, services, or any other financial gain.

If you do become a victim of an “identity crime”, there are six main steps you should take.

1)  File a police report – Victims are required to file a police report in order to dispute fraudulent transactions, correct compromised accounts, place fraud alerts with the credit bureaus and to obtain free copies of their credit reports to review. The victim will need to send a copy of the initial police report to each involved bank, creditor, other business, credit bureau and debt collector in order to dispute compromised or fraudulent accounts or transactions. A copy of the report, or report number must be included with each affidavit (see #2). The victim should keep an original copy of the report, but copy it as many times as necessary. The Pennsylvania Identity Theft Statue states that the venue, or police department where a victim should report the crime for jurisdictional purposes is as follows:

•  The residence, business or employment address of the person whose information has been compromised

•  The place where a person possessed or used the compromised information

2)  Obtain and complete an Identity Theft Affidavit for each compromised or fraudulently opened account – The victim is required to prepare an affidavit stating that they did not commit the fraud. A copy of an Identity Theft Affidavit that is acceptable by most businesses, creditors and debt collectors can be obtained at the Federal Trade Commission website: http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/

3)  Close all compromised accounts – The victim should immediately contact their credit card companies, banking and other financial institutions, and close all accounts that may have been compromised or subject to fraudulent take-over by unauthorized persons.

4)  Place a fraud alert with each credit bureau – The victim must contact at least one credit bureau to place a fraud alert. The victim will then receive free credit reports from all three credit bureaus in order to identify new fraudulent activity or compromised accounts. There are two types of fraud alerts, an Initial and an Extended Alert. An initial fraud alert is active on a victim's credit report for at least 90 days. An extended alert is active for seven years. The three major credit bureaus are:

• Equifax
  PO Box 740241
  Atlanta , GA 30374-0241
  (800) 525-6285
  www.equifax.com
  
• Experian
  P.O. Box 9530
  Allen , TX 75013
  (800) 397-3742
  www.experian.com
  
• Trans Union
  Fraud Victim Assistance Division
  P.O. Box 6790
  Fullerton , CA 92634
  (800) 680-7289
  www.transunion.com

5)  Request that credit reporting bureaus block fraudulent information – The Fair Credit Reporting Act establishes procedures for correcting fraudulent information on the victim's credits reports and requires that the victim's credit report be made available only for legitimate business needs. Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company and the information provider (the business such as a bank or credit card company that sent the information to the consumer reporting company), are responsible for correcting fraudulent information in the victims report. The victim needs to contact both the consumer reporting company and the information provider. Consumer reporting companies will block fraudulent information from appearing on the victims report if the victim sends them a copy of the police report and a letter telling them what information is fraudulent. The consumer reporting company has four business days to block the fraudulent information after accepting the victim's police report and letter.

6)  File a complaint with the Federal trade Commission - The victim should file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Identity Theft Hotline at 1-877-438-4338 or on the internet at www.consumer.gov/idtheft . Information pertaining to the theft or misuse of identifying information is entered into the Hotline database. This information is then processed into the Consumer Sentinel Database that is available to law enforcement officers.

This information was provided by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , the Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission and the South Fayette Township Police Department.