Early Warning Services, LLC

Identity theft cleanup guide Since I am not a lawyer, this post is for educational purposes only and is not legal advice. **This post is designed as a guide for United States residents to CLEAN UP identity theft that HAS ALREADY HAPPENED.** **To help prevent further identity theft from occurring, you should ALSO follow the steps in my post** [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/IdentityTheft/comments/uvv3ij/psa_freezing_your_three_main_credit_reports_is/). If someone has **filed taxes in your name and/or obtained employment in your name,** fill out at [IRS Identity Theft Affidavit](https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f14039.pdf) and send it to the IRS. If employment was obtained in your name, additionally make a police report if possible and contact the employer. If someone has **obtained goods, services, or accounts in your name,** follow the steps below: **Step 1: Obtain an FTC report.** First, report the identity theft to the FTC by visiting [identitytheft.gov](https://identitytheft.gov) and save a copy of your FTC identity theft report. **Step 2: Get further identity theft documentation** **Note, if the identity theft was extremely recent, you may want to take step 3 first.** An official police report carries more weight than an FTC identity theft report. Therefore, you should attempt to make a police report. The officers might state that they do not have the ability to investigate the crime. If they say this, try to explain the fact that even if they can't investigate, you would still like to make a report because doing so is necessary to clear you name. If you are absolutely unable to get a police report, you should instead report the identity theft to a separate law enforcement agency such as IC3 in addition to the FTC. This is not strictly necessary, but I would also fill out [this affidavit](https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/pdf-0094-identity-theft-affidavit.pdf). In the affidavit, mention the police department/separate law enfor

PSA: Freezing your three main credit reports is NOT ENOUGH This is the case for two main reasons: * **Identity thieves can sometimes undo your security freezes** if they are persistent enough - often either by calling in to the bureaus or by passing the (joke of a) security quiz) * There are **several other bureaus** that may be checked instead of one of the main three This sounds discouraging, but there is a way to protect yourself despite this. Although identity thieves can often undo security freezes, **it is usually difficult for them to undo** ***extended*** **fraud alerts**, possibly except for with TransUnion, which appears to allow their removal online (so keep a close eye on TransUnion). (If the identity thief already has a photocopy of your ID *and* your SSN, or is persistently trying to lift your freezes, you should apply for a new SSN ASAP) Regarding the second point, it is possible to pin-point each freezable credit bureau and freeze them, as the CFPB maintains a list of bureaus, and notates which ones are or are not freezable. If you are a victim of identify theft, **I would highly recommend placing extended fraud alerts AND security freezes on ALL of the bureaus in the list below** (in addition to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) **Bureaus used for bank account applications:** * **ChexSystems:** IMO this one is ***really*** important to freeze, even if you're not a victim of identity theft (however, I personally wouldn't place a fraud alert here unless identity theft was a threat) * **LexisNexis:** holds public records, but often used by financial institutions to verify identity * SageStream is now part of LexisNexis, so freezing LexisNexis will also freeze SageStream * ChexSystems sometimes pulls from LexisNexis, so when unfreezing ChexSystems to apply for bank accounts, you should unfreeze LexisNexis as well * Note: Early Warning Services (EWS) is also used to review bank account applications, but they do not offer security freezes o