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Sandy Sullivan from Frost Bank, Fraud Management gave an excellent briefing to our members on ID Theft. She provided handouts that outline procedures to take to prevent from becoming a victim as well as what to do if you become a victim. She encouraged everyone to periodically get their credit report. You can get a free one each year from each of the three "natinwide consumer reporting companies" (Equifax, Esperian, and TransUnion). If you only get one at a time you can check your credit every four months. The recommended procedure is not to contact the companies directly, but go through a central website: annualcreditreport.com. Only the report is free; the companies charge a fee to obtain other scores.
The speaker also recommended freezing your credit report if you do not need to establish any new credit lines. This would primarily apply to seniors and children. There have been cases where criminals have used personal information from children to open credit lines and it is not discovered until the child first tries to obtain credit themselves, such as applying for a college student loan. By that time the criminal may have significantly damaged their credit score. The longer a credit report has remained damaged, the longer it takes to correct the problem. Freezing a credit report prevents creditors from pulling your credit report and score unless you first unlock it by providing a password. There is a small cost associated with freezing and unfreezing your reports and in this case you must contact each of the three companies individually.
We have tried to summarize this excellent briefing,
however if you need more information please contact one of our members
to obtain a copy of the briefing.