Filing Police Reports and Identity Theft Reports

If your credit card information has been stolen or you have been the victim of any kind of identity theft, you should report this crime to the police. Your report should contain specific information. Then, you should provide the same information reported to the police to consumer reporting agencies (credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus) and to the businesses, such as your creditors, that furnish information to the consumer reporting agencies- these businesses are called furnishers of information - in what is called an "identity theft report." By doing this, you can stop any false information from being included in your credit report and stop the unlawful use of your identity.

What a Police Report Should Contain

You will have to provide specific information to the police, including:

• Specific dates relating to the identity theft, such as when the loss or theft of personal information happened or when the fraud using your personal information started, and how you discovered the theft
• Information about the identity of the possible suspect
• Names of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies, account numbers or relevant account information related to the identity theft
• Any other information which you know about the identity theft

Identity Theft Report

You should provide the same information that you gave the police to consumer reporting agencies and to furnishers of information to the agencies in what is known as an "identity theft report." Filing this report is part of a process of asking credit agencies and furnishers of information to take actions to help you find out if someone else has been using your accounts, and to stop further illegal activity. These actions include creating a fraud alert or a credit freeze on your credit files so that someone else cannot run up bills in your name, open an account in your name, or otherwise damage your credit rating.

An identity theft report:

• Alleges an incident of identity theft with as much detail as possible.
• Is a copy of an official, valid report filed by a consumer with an appropriate federal, state, or local law enforcement agency.
• Sometimes an identity theft report includes information which was not required by the police but is required by the furnisher of information or the consumer reporting agency. For example, the police report might not contain the consumer's date of birth or Social Security number, but the furnisher or the agency might ask for that information if it is needed to process the consumer's requests.

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