SS# stolen

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Got a call from a police department investigating a case that a woman had used my SS# in April to rent an apt and then ran out on it, owing $1,700. Some of the numbers are similar to her real number, so I don’t think she “stole” anything off my records. I think she made a number up, and lucky me, it was mine (hypothetical ex: Her last four numbers were 1234, and she changed it to 1235, which would be mine).</p>

<p>Anyway, this has never happened to me. Before I begin calling credit agencies, anyone have any advice?</p>

2

<p>Go to <a href=“http://www.annualcreditreport.com%5B/url%5D”>www.annualcreditreport.com</a>. It’s a free site that linked to all three credit reporting services.</p>

3

<p>This probably has a lot of info for you. The terrible thing is that the SS folks won’t tell you how their intestigation turned out.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/527227-just-found-out-some-lady-has-been-using-my-sons-ssn-since-he-born.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/527227-just-found-out-some-lady-has-been-using-my-sons-ssn-since-he-born.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>The credit services (TRW, Transunion, Experion) all offer credit reporting services for a monthly fee of about $12.00. Anytime anyone tries to access your credit report or applies for credit like a credit card or buys a car, they contact you via phone, verify that you are who you claim to be by asking specific questions ( who holds your mortgage and what is your monthly payment and how much do you owe?) before they approve the application.
For those of us who were the victims of identity theft, it gives you peace of mind. In addition, I get a monthly email detailing if there were any other changes in the last month.</p>

<p>In the old days, SS# were given out sequentially so the person whose number was close to yours may be about your age and lived somewhat near you when they got their number…</p>

5

<p>I recommend putting a freeze on all credit reports with the three agencies. We did that. Any prospective new creditor is not be able to access the credit file. It prevents any potential identity theft from opening any new account or accessing new credit in our names. We can temporarily lift the freeze when necessary, which we did when we recently applied for a new car loan.</p>