Military Personnel and Families and Identity Theft
As a member of the U.S. Military and away from your usual posting, you should consider placing an “Active Duty Alert” on your credit report. This alert will help to minimize your risk of identity theft while your deployed. A persons credit report contains the most vital personal information, including your home address, how you pay your bills, whether you have been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy. It is routine for banks, insurers, employers, utility companies and businesses to use the information in your credit report to evaluate your application for a mortgage, credit card, car loan, cell phone and much more. With you away, perhaps on the other side of the world, identity thieves have a perfect opportunity to use your personal information to open new accounts in your name. The thieves will most probably not pay the bills and the delinquent accounts show up in your personal credit report.
Fraudulent and inaccurate information may affect your ability to get a loan, rental housing, car insurance or credit card when you return to the U.S. or long after your return. This is why we suggest you place an active duty alert because according to the Federal Trade Commission, the alert requires creditors and businesses to verify your identity before issuing credit or opening an account in your name. The active duty alert makes it much more difficult for the identity thief to use your personal information in an illegal way. The active duty alert will last for one year unless you ask to have it removed sooner. If your deployment exceeds one year you may place another alert.
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Amendments to the Fair Crediting Reporting Act allow you to place the active duty alert. To place the alert or remove it, just call the toll free number of one of the nationwide consumer reporting companies, and they are Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union. These reporting companies will ask for meaningful proof of identity and could include your Social Security number, your name, address and other identifying information.
• Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com
• Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com
• TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com
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You only need to contact one of the above companies to place your alert because the company you call is required to contact the other two. The other two will now place their own alerts on their version of your credit report. Contact information could change before your alert expires and then you would have to update it. When the active duty alert is in place, your name gets removed from the nationwide consumer reporting companies’ marketing lists for pre-screened or preapproved offers of credit and insurance, for two years.
You may ask to have your name placed on the lists, if you want, before deployment. Please realize that your friends and family know for quite some time that your going to be deployed and one of them could, without knowing it, say something that gets back to an identity thief. Imagine what the thief could do with your identity while you’re gone for an entire year. Protect your identity, because identity theft is real and growing in America.
