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How to Respond to credit fraud

The Four Step Process

Have you noticed something unfamiliar or suspicious on one of your accounts? If someone accesses your bank account or commits any type of fraudulent activity using your identity, Experian® suggests that you follow a four-step process to combat any further threats.

Step 1: Contact Experian's National Consumer Assistance Center

You can visit their online Credit Fraud Center or call the automated service at 1-888-397-3742 any time, day or night, to add an alert to your account. You can set up the correct alerts as soon as you notice something suspicious.

You can add an initial security alert directly to your credit file immediately. Creditors will be notified to confirm your identity before extending or completing any credit process. With this alert active, be aware that your name will be removed from pre-screened credit solicitation lists in order to protect your account and identity.

Don’t forget, an alert may prevent you from being approved for new credit, or you may be asked to provide additional identity information. These measures are intended to secure your sensitive data and assets. You may also request a complimentary credit report. The alert will be shared with the other two national credit reporting companies so they can add the alert to their credit files.

Step 2: Review Complimentary Credit Report or Order Report

After initiating the alert to your credit report, you’ll need to review your consumer disclosure for fraudulent data. When calling the phone number listed on the credit report, an Experian fraud victim specialist will lead you through the process and together, you can identify the fraudulent items. Once you’ve finished speaking with the Experian specialist the items are investigated and verified.

Step 3: Experian Investigates

Experian will now investigate and resolve the fraudulent activity. Once verified by an Experian associate, the information that the consumer alleges as fraudulent will be notified to the creditors or data furnishers. With official documentation of a valid police report or valid state-approved identity theft form, the Experian associate can block the alleged fraudulent information from being viewed by creditors and other credit report users. Now you can continue to be credit-active without any repercussions from the fraudulent information on your credit report.

Step 4: Fraudulent Data is Removed

The Experian team is required to complete an investigation within 30 days (or 45 days if the dispute is from an annual credit report). To complete the case, the team will ask the data contributor to verify the information they reported with their records. After the contributor’s response, the team will notify the consumer with the results of completed investigation.