The Benefit of a Free Credit Report After Being a Victim of Fraud

The Benefit of a Free Credit Report After Being a Victim of Fraud

One of the most important concerns of many people nowadays is the possibility of becoming a victim of fraud. Whether it comes from someone stealing your identity or another means, fraud and wreak havoc on your personal well being and financial status. Having the federal law that says you are entitled to a free credit report in cases of possible fraud gives tremendous benefits for maintaining your credit.

Recently, just a few months ago I was a victim of fraud where someone actually took my identity in order to open up an AT&T cell phone account. The mistake this fraudster made was have the sim card sent directly to my addressby way of FedEx. At first I thought it was just a simple mistake. Although, after calling of AT&T and going over to a local AT&T cell phone office, I soon found out that someone had obtained some of my personal information in order to open up a cell phone account under my name.

Obviously I was somewhat taken aback by what had happened. I basically felt like I had been violated somewhat. After going to the local AT&T office and getting that account totally deleted, I ended up going to the police station to file a report. At first I really did not know what to do but after googling a little online, I soon found out some of the necessary steps to take.

One of those steps was to set up a fraud alert with one of the credit reporting agencies. When you set up a fraud alert with one of these agencies, they immediately contact the other two agencies so that you have fraud alerts at each one. Basically, what the fraud alert does is require a financial institution that desires to open up a credit line within my credit to actually call me up over the phone in order to get my approval. This way they cannot start a credit account to be listed on my credit history without me giving the “okay.” This fraud alert will last for three months duration.

After placing a fraud alert on my credit files, I am entitled to getting a free credit report from each agency. You have to call them up in order to get these credit reports sent to you in the mail. A credit reports they send you do not have credit scores on them. I suppose this is proprietary information that under law they have no requirement to supply this particular data. Still, you have all the necessary information within the report to show whether further fraud has been done.

After receiving my reports I found out that no actual credit lines have been listed that I personally have not started. This was of course information that gave me some relief. I soon found out that no other accounts were opened under my name by this particular criminal.

The federal law that allows us to get free reports after being a victim of fraud definitely benefits us. I am personally glad that these reports were provided for me since they offered me some semblance of a relief after going through this somewhat brief ordeal. You should note that everyone is entitled to a free credit report every year for your own personal information. You don't have to have any special situation that allows you to have a free credit report like looking for employment, being a victim of fraud, etc. You simply are entitled to a free credit report from each agency every year no matter what.