What to do if you think you might be the victim of Identity Theft

In the event that you are notified that your personal information, credit card information, or bank information may have been compromised there are three steps that you can take to protect your information and be notified should anyone attempt to access your information.

Act to Protect Your Accounts

Take prompt steps to protect your accounts.
Contact your bank or credit card company to let them know about your situation.
Banks can only close accounts and create new accounts with your authorization. Meeting with the bank personally is ideal.  
Systems are already in place at your bank to help protect your account but action on the bank's part must be initiated by you.
Credit card companies can immediately suspend card acceptance and issue new cards.

Act to Mitigate the Risk of Identify Theft

To mitigate the risk of identity theft, contact the fraud department of any of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file. The fraud alert requests creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. Contact information is as follows: Equifax (www.equifax.com): 800-525-6285, Experian (www.experian.com): 888-397-3742, TransUnion (www.transunion.com): 800-680-7289

Notify Social Security

Should you be notified that your Social Security number may have been stolen, please call the Social Security Administration hotline at 877-438-4338 and inform them.