What to do if someone has stolen your identity

The following post in our Reader Question series is an actual user submitted question:

Q:  My friend's dad is 80 years old and retired. Somehow his grandson has gotten a hold of his social security number. Both the grandfather and his grandson have the same name. The grandson has destroyed his grandfather's credit.  How can the grandfather prosecute the grandson?

A. Identity theft is a serious matter.  Since it is already known that your friend's dad's has had his identity stolen, he needs to first protect himself.  If he hasn't already taken the following steps, he should do so immediately to prevent more damage from occurring and to help remedy what has already occurred.  After contacting the credit bureaus (steps 1 & 2) when speaking with the police (step 3) he should enter into discussions about what action he can take against his grandson.  They will be able to provide further guidance in this matter.

1) Contact each of the three credit bureaus and ask them to place a credit freeze on his credit report. There is a small fee in most states for setting a credit freeze, but it will completely lock down his credit file and insure that no further financial accounts are opened fraudulently in his name. Here is the contact information for each of the three credit bureaus:

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

Another option is to set a fraud alert instead of a credit freeze. A fraud alert is an annotation on your credit report that lets potential lenders know that you have reason to believe that you are an identity theft victim. While fraud alerts can be useful in many cases, his situation seems serious enough to warrant a full credit freeze.

2) Get a copy of his credit report from all three credit bureaus. His credit report will list all the financial accounts that have been opened and reported to the credit bureaus in his name. This will be very important in tracking the damage that already seems to have been done by his grandson.  He can request a free copy of his credit report from each of the credit bureaus when he sets a credit freeze or fraud alert. He can also get a credit report instantly by signing up for a free trial of a credit report service like Identity Guard. Once he has his credit reports in hand, he should review them thoroughly to identify any accounts that he doesn't recognize. Then he should contact the customer support department of each of these suspect accounts and let them know that he believes that the account has been opened fraudulently.   In this case he can name the specific offender (his grandson) and explain the situation.  Each of these companies will have a different process for dealing with the fraud, but he should make sure that each of these accounts is closed immediately.

3) File a report with your local police or sheriff's department. This is very important, especially since it seems that identity theft has already occurred.  He needs to call the non-emergency phone number for his local law enforcement agency and report the identity theft. He may be able to file his report over the phone or he may have to file it in person.  Regardless of the route he takes, it will be helpful to have supporting documentation of what has happened.  In this case that might include his grandson's information, which specific accounts have been opened, what money has been taken and what he has done to prevent future theft.  The police should also be able to guide him in how he can press charges against his grandson and possibly prosecute him.

4)  File an identity theft complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While the FTC can't provide assistance with individual identity theft cases, reporting his case can help identity patterns in identity theft crimes that can help prevent others from being victimized.  He can file an identity theft complaint with the FTC at this website:

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

5) Consider an identity theft protection service such as Trusted ID or Identity Guard to help prevent being victimized in the future. Each of these services will help mitigate the risk of future identity theft and may be able to provide assistance with his current identity theft issues. You can see a list of all of the identity theft protection services we have reviewed at NextAdvisor.com.

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