If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may have been a victim of identity theft. For steps on what to do, see the handout from the Maryland Attorney General:
Does your credit report show any credit accounts you know neither you nor anyone in your household have opened?
You know that your regular monthly bills arrive at certain times each month. Have they all continued to arrive on schedule? A great deal of identity theft occurs when thieves remove mail from personal mailboxes. This mail could either payments you are mailing or mail you are receiving.
When you reviewed your monthly credit card statements were there any charges for which you do not have receipts or that you do not remember making?
Has your credit card issuer called you recently to confirm purchases that you didn't make?
When you reconciled your checking account statement could you account for all of the checks that had been written as well as the ATM withdrawals?
Have there been any medical insurance charges for doctor visits or treatments you know you did not receive? Medical identity theft is one of the fastest growing forms of identity theft.
Have you received calls from a collection agency for accounts you have no knowledge of opening?
Have you been denied credit even though there is no reason you know of that would prompt the denial?
Do you carry a large number of credit cards with you at any one time? Are any of them missing from your wallet?
This site is brought to you by Towson University's Financial Services, DECO EEOL and the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy with a grant from the BRAC Higher Education Investment Fund, administered by the Maryland Higher Education Commission.
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