I received a call from a client the other day asking what to do if your identity is stolen and, as a victim in the past, I do. My client recently had shoulder surgery where he had to present his Medicare card. He is angry that the ID on this card is your social security number and there is nothing that can be done about that. This surgery is the only “out of the ordinary” thing that has occurred in his life this year. He uses his credit card everywhere, pays it off in full each month, and was shocked the other day when his purchase was declined.
He called the credit card company only to be told that they sent him a letter about being delinquent on his new credit card, therefore, his credit was “turned off” on both of his cards. Needless to say, my client was shocked to hear about the second card, he asked what address the letter was sent to – surprise – it was not his address. He was able to terminate the two cards, correct his address, get a new card, and have an alert filed with that company. His question to me was; what do I do next?

My advice was for him to contact the surgery center and rehab facility he went to and tell the office management at both places what happened to him. If this theft stemmed from the surgery, these seemed like natural notifications. Next, I told him that we use Life lock™ to monitor our credit files. I told him to set an alert so he would get a text message if anything is charged over a certain dollar limit. I told him he would need to monitor his accounts weekly just to make sure nothing else gets stolen or changed.
Identity theft takes a lot of work to recover from; the thieves are getting smarter and faster every day.

disclosures:http://www.hechteffect.net/?page_id=31