ProCollect, Inc.

Someone using my SS # to lease an apartment Long story short - I noticed yesterday that I had been put into collections by ProCollect for unpaid rent to an apartment agency in New York. I live in California. Needless to say, its identity fraud. I've already - 1. Filed a Police report in both my local jurisdiction and New York 2. Frozen my credit with the three agencies 3. Reported this case to [Identitytheft.gov](https://Identitytheft.gov) 4. Started a dispute with collections agency. ​ What else can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again? This doesn't seem to be that common and I'm not sure if a credit freeze is enough to protect me against this again. The thief never tried to open credit lines or anything else besides renting for 6 months back in 2021.

Identity Theft-Make It Stop I believe my information was involved in a data breach several years ago. I have my credit locked/frozen, but 3 times this year, I have been contacted by collection agencies about debt that someone has accrued using my SS #. After the first one, I put an initial fraud alert on my credit with all 3 bureaus and, fortunately the first company that was looking to collect through the debt collection agency realized it was fraud and took it off my credit report. (Still took several weeks and was very time-consuming and stressful.) Recently, another incident has happened in a different state, this time for skipping out on a lease. They had my current address and SS number, but the problem seems to be that the companies don't run a credit check and wait to dispute it when the person has already taken off, leaving me holding the bag. If the companies ran the credit report, they would see it was locked and needed authorization. The current debt collection agency (ProCollect) is REFUSING to acknowledge that this is fraud no matter how many hoops I have jumped through. I can't even get anyone on the phone. I just found this amazing community after feeling utterly alone and helpless. A few questions: 1. How do I find out when/with which company my data was compromised? 2. Is a credit monitoring service worth the investment? Will it help with situations like mine? If so, how? Which ones do you recommend? 3. With the current collections agency what should I do? Just wait until it hits Mt credit report and dispute it there? I am at a loss. 4. Should I hire a lawyer to help me navigate this? I feel like this is a full-time job. I'm losing sleep, stress eating, not being able to focus, and just plain scared. I need HOPE!