Identity theft can turn your world and your credit report upside down. You may think your world is spinning, and there’s no way to recover. Think again. In today’s article we will show you how to recover from identity theft, and show you how Credit Wellness Solutions can help you with removing fraudulent items from your credit report, FREE OF CHARGE. If you want to take advantage of this service, click the button below to schedule a free consultation, or keep reading to learn more. We also wrote a blog about the importance of credit monitoring to help prevent identity theft. Click Here to read that article.
How To Recover From Identity Theft: Monitoring Your Credit Reports Regularly, Preventing Identity Theft
The first step to recover from identity theft is to identify and mitigate the damage as quickly as possible. The best way is though monitoring your credit with a credit monitoring service. Credit monitoring is also your first line of defense. I will say that free services like Credit Karma are better than nothing. However, a good paid service like Smart Credit or My Score IQ are the best. You get
faster notifications on credit inquiries, and credit report changes than many free services, which can help you stop or mitigate any further damage to your credit. Both of these services monitor your credit reports from all 3 bureaus in real time, but also provide $1 million in identity theft insurance, and many other tools to help you build or improve your credit. Also, the credit bureaus have allowed weekly credit reports for free (until further notice) due to the rise of identity theft cases because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To monitor your credit, click the button below. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
Your Credit Monitoring Alerts You, And You’ve Become An Identity Theft Victim. Now What?
The moment you feared has finally happened, your inbox, and your phone is blowing up with notifications from your credit monitoring service about new accounts or inquiries on your credit report that you know you did not authorize. Not to fear, it’s time to act swiftly to stop further damage. Below is a list of important steps to stop further damage, and help reverse the damage.
- Contact The Credit Bureaus & Place A Fraud Alert – This is the very first line of defense against further identity theft. Fraud alerts suppresses your credit file to prevent creditors from viewing your credit report and reporting items on your credit report.
- Check Your Bank Accounts & Existing Credit Accounts – Identity thieves can get your other information such as your debit card, credit card and other information. Check for charges you did not authorize and report it to your bank & lenders immediately. In fact it may be wise to contact them anyway, for new cards, just in case.
- Get Your Bureau Direct Credit Reports – While credit monitoring is great to alert you to suspicious activity, the credit bureaus will have your most recent credit profile, and will be instrumental when you or a credit service professional creates an identity theft dispute letter. Those can be obtained for free from Annual Credit Report. We will discuss later why you need bureau direct credit reports.
- File An ID Theft Insurance Claim (if available) – This will protect you from creditors and debt collectors until fraudulent accounts have been investigated and removed. It will also help you recover lost funds due to the identity theft.
- File A Police Report For Identity Theft – Make a list of all the fraudulent accounts, inquiries, banking transactions, and fraudulent personal information and file a police report. This will also be instrumental when you, a consumer attorney, or a credit service professional creates an identity theft dispute letter.
- Consult With A Credit Service Professional Or A Consumer Attorney – A credit service professional or a consumer attorney can help you recover lost money due to the identity theft, but also help you get fraudulent accounts, inquiries, and personal information removed from your credit report to undo the damage to your credit profile and credit score. Our company, Credit Wellness Solutions offers this service to anyone, FREE OF CHARGE! Click the button below to schedule a consultation.
Recovering And Undoing The Damage: The Identity Theft Dispute Letter
If you have completed steps 3 through 6, you are ready to begin the recovery process, by either letting a credit service professional, a consumer attorney, or if you elect, draft your identity theft dispute letter yourself. If you do decide to go it alone, here are a few basics in drafting your identity theft dispute. In the letter, simply notify the credit bureaus, and those who are reporting on your credit that you have been a victim of identity theft. List all the fraudulent items reporting on your credit including accounts, inquiries, and any personal information, such as addresses, phone numbers, employers, etc. State they are not yours and ask them to delete the item from your credit report. Be sure to send a copy of your police report for identity theft with
the dispute letter via certified mail with return receipt requested (Yes Certified Mail and the Police Report are CRUCIAL). End the letter by stating your wish to have all of the fraudulent information removed. Also, be sure to sign your letter, and send it in a handwritten envelope. The reason you want to send your letters via certified mail is to prove the recipient received them. Why is that important? Keep reading, or click the button below to let Credit Wellness Solutions help you with an identity theft dispute letter absolutely FREE.
What If The Dispute Did Not Work?
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, one or more of the credit bureaus, or furnisher of information, can drop the ball from time to time. Sometimes Identity theft dispute letters can get ignored, or not taken seriously. We blame this on 2 things. The first is the utter laziness of the credit industry to not read disputes. Second, because of “credit sweepers” who use this tactic to clean their credit.
I’ll discuss “credit sweepers” in a moment. Let’s discuss the first reason. The credit bureaus, and data furnishers (creditors) are inundated in disputes from consumers. So much so, they send disputes to foreign countries like India or The Philippines to be processed. Well, you get what you pay for. Cheap labor = Expensive Mistakes. These low wage workers mistake your legitimate ID theft dispute for another credit repair dispute, or another “credit sweep”. This causes your results to come back “verified as accurate” or you dispute is ignored.
This Is Where You Can Now Get Paid & Get Those Fraudulent Items Removed
The truth is, every consumer is entitled to have due diligence exercised when they dispute information on their credit report. The credit bureaus and data furnishers are required by law to have “reasonable procedures” in place to conduct a “reasonable reinvestigation”. If for whatever reason your dispute was ignored or comes back “verified as accurate”, you could be entitled to compensation. If you followed the steps above to send your letter. This is why the police report for identity theft, and certified mail is important. Seek a consumer attorney, or contact us, and we will refer your case to our network of consumer attorneys for a nominal document processing fee. This fee is waived if you let us draft your dispute from the beginning.
Our Statement To “Credit Sweepers”
One of the tactics “credit sweepers” employ is creating false claims of identity theft (including a false police report) in order to “sweep” their customer’s credit clean of all negative items. Not only is this very unethical, it is ILLEGAL! “Credit Sweepers”, and the customer can face stiff penalties (including jail time) for false claims of identity theft. In fact, our company’s CEO and Founder, Sammy Dodd releases the following statement. “Credit sweepers are the scum of the credit repair industry. It is my hope that every credit sweeper is caught, and the judge locks them up for a very long time. It is you who takes an industry which by in large, cares for the consumers they serve, and wants to help them discover a bright financial future, bastardizes it, and makes it hard for regulators and consumers to trust us. You will get what is coming to you eventually. If you want to learn how to repair credit legitimately, I will teach you FREE OF CHARGE.”
Claims of identity theft should never be used as a resource to clean up your credit. There are plenty of legitimate ways to get negative items off of your credit report. In fact, our Pre-Litigation Credit Repair methods are proven, and can get you PAID for errors on your credit report. Fixing your credit, and getting paid to do it? What’s not to like about that?
How To Get Your Identity Theft Recovery Started With Credit Wellness Solutions
As mentioned, we offer our identity theft service free of charge. You will only pay us a nominal percentage (20%), if we help you receive a settlement or awarded compensation of damages if your case goes to litigation. Many identity theft cases can have awarded damages in the 5 to 6 figure range. Judges take identity theft very seriously. Here’s how the process works:
If you have, or believe you have become a victim of ID theft do the following:
- Follow the 6 steps mentioned earlier in this article.
- CLICK HERE to Schedule a Free Consultation
- If you don’t already have a reliable credit monitoring service, CLICK HERE to get Smart Credit or My Score IQ
- Sign the identity theft dispute letter we send you, and mail it to the credit bureaus and the data furnishers via certified mail w/ return receipt, along with your police report for identity theft.
- Wait 45 days for results, we will pull your credit one more time to see what has happened.
- If fraudulent items remain on any of your credit reports, we will refer you to a consumer protection attorney FREE OF CHARGE. (Attorney fees are paid by the defendant)
- Per agreement, pay 20% of awarded damages or your settlement to Credit Wellness Solutions via Escrow.com
