"BRH" <BRH[at]giganews.com> wrote
- quote -

I think you should definitely consult your credit card
company, and then all three credit bureaus, and see what
they advise.

I had an ID theft problem a few years ago. It was due to a
certain phone company being slovenly with records. Someone
charged their phone bill in my name, and then failed to pay.
My credit record had a black mark for a few years, whence I
discovered, on a lark, that the collectors were after me!
Fortunately, a class action suit had previously,
successfully been brought against this company. So when I
growled "Jump" at this phone company, its people pretty much
said "How high?" The credit bureaus were a bit lacking in
polish and but nonetheless generally courteous. I followed
their directions, and they got my record cleaned up in the
amount of time they said they would.

Like others suggested, these days I check my credit card
billing online every few days. I also keep my credit limit
low, so if some bum manages to steal my identity, etc., then
they won't get far.

Did you file a police report? I was told to do so and did.

BRH <BRH[at]giganews.com> writes:

- quote -

For future reference, some say it's instead better to keep the account
open but freeze it to new activity. Credit scores evidently benefit
better this way vs a closed account.

- quote -

Possibly. Some will say you can never be too safe. Right now all you
have is someone that is using that one credit card number. That
doesn't make for identity theft.

If you see credit applied for in your name on your credit report that
you didn't apply for, then that's when you put the fraud alert out
there.

- quote -

Not a bad thing to have on the account full time actually.

- quote -

I have a fraud victim alert on my accounts with th ebig three. If you
have a phone numbre that remains pretty constant, it's not too bad,
but if it changes, don't forget to update that number with the credit
companies otherwise they won't be able to verify when you go to open
credit legitimately.

--
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

On an earlier thread, I explained that I recently got a credit card bill
which contained 3 charges that were not mine.

The CC account has been canceled at this point, and the CC company is
investigating.

Would it be advisable for me to contact one of the credit bureaus and
request that an "Initial Security Alert" be put on my report, or is that
overkill? It's my understanding that such an alert is good for 90 days
and prevents any credit inquiry and/or loan application, etc from going
through without me being phoned and ask to verify its validity.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is there any down side to
requesting one of these? FWIW, I don't plan on borrowing any money for
the foreseeable future.

Thanks!