I am the “victim” of attempted identity fraud.  Why put victim in quote marks?  Because the attempt failed.  Someone, or perhaps more than one person, had my social security number, date of birth, address, and everything else needed to apply for a credit card.  I got rejection notices from American Express, Citizens Bank, Wells Fargo, Discover, and a couple of others.  So why write about this?  To tell you why it failed and to recommend that you do the same.

Several years ago I put a credit freeze on my records at all three of the rating agencies (Equifax, Transunion, and Experian).  A credit freeze denies a request when a credit inquiry is made.  Since most, if not all, credit applications require a review of a credit report before an approval is granted, a credit freeze puts a stop in place.  Yes, it makes it a little harder when I want to apply for credit as I did in October when I needed a new car loan.  When I apply for credit I first have to do a “lift”.  I usually ask which ratings agency the lender uses.  I then sign onto their website, remove the freeze, and proceed with the application process.  Occasionally I need to do a lift at all three agencies when the person taking the application isn’t sure which agency their credit department uses.  All three agencies provide the ability to set the end date of the lift.  This is helpful because the freeze goes back on at the date I request.

Is this a perfect system?  No.  A very, very, skilled person should be able to steal my, or your, identity.  The reality is that there are very few people who can do this.  Most who attempt identity theft buy information from a hacker and then try to open accounts.  They don’t have the skills to do much beyond that.  At the end of the day, while I can’t create a perfect web of protection for myself, I can make it hard enough for a thief to steal my identity that they’ll move on to an easier target (don’t let this be you!).

Having a credit freeze in place saved me a lot of time and agony.  I did contact each of the credit issuers who rejected the applications and let them know that I didn’t apply with them, that the applications were fraudulent.  This was a whole lot easier than needing to work with them, reviewing charges, documenting that I didn’t make them, then following up with the credit reporting agencies to remove the fraudulent accounts from my credit history.  The few minutes needed to put the credit freezes in place saved me hours of work and relieved me of untold grief.

One last thing to consider is adding two-factor authentication to all of your critical accounts.   This is an added layer of protection used to authenticate you as the real owner of the account.