Identification and Credit Cards Stolen ? ATTORNEY'S ADVICE -- NO CHARGE

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ATTORNEY'S ADVICE -- NO CHARGE Read this and make a copy for your files in case youneed to refer to it someday. A corporate attorney sent the following out to theemployees in his company. Maybe we should all takesome of his advice! 1 . Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put 'PHOTO ID REQUIRED'. 2. When you are writing checks to pay on your creditcard accounts, DO NOT put the complete account numberon the 'For' line. Instead, just put the last fournumbers. The credit card company knows the rest ofthe number, and anyone who might be handling yourcheck as it passes through all the check processingchannels won't have access to it. 3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead ofyour home phone. If you have a PO Box use that insteadof your home address. If you do not have a PO Box,use your work address. Never have your SS# printed onyour checks (DUH!). You can add it if it is necessarybut, if you have it printed, anyone can get it. 4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopymachine. Do both sides of each license, credit card,etc. You will know what you had in your wallet andall of the account numbers and phone numbers to calland cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. Ialso carry a photocopy of my passport when I traveleither here or abroad. We've all heard horror storiesabout fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name,address, Social Security number, credit cards, etc.. Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have first-handknowledge because my wallet was stolen last month.Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensivemonthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA creditcard, had a credit line approved to buy a Gatewaycomputer, received a PIN number from DMV to change mydriving record information online, and more. Buthere's some critical information to limit the damagein case this happens to you or someone you know. 5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cardsimmediately. But the key is having the toll-freenumbers and your card numbers handy so you know whomto call. Keep those where you can find them. 6. File a police report immediately in thejurisdiction where your credit cards, etc. werestolen. This proves to credit providers you werediligent, and this is a first step toward aninvestigation (if there ever is one). But here's what is perhaps most important of all (Inever even thought to do this.). 7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizationsimmediately to place a fraud alert on your name andalso call the Social Security fraud line number. Ihad n ever heard of doing that until advised by a bankthat called to tell me an application for credit wasmade over the Internet in my name. The alert meansany company that checks your credit knows yourinformation was stolen, and they have to contact youby phone to authorize new credit. By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeksafter the theft, all the damage had been done. Thereare records of all the credit checks initiated by thethieves' purchases, none of which I knew about beforeplacing the alert. Since then, no additional damagehas been done, and the thieves threw my wallet a waythis weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to havestopped them dead in their tracks. Now, here are the numbers you always need to contactabout your wallet, etc, has been stolen: 1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 2.) Experian (formerly TRW) : 1-888-397-3742 3.) Trans Union : 1- 800-680-7289 4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):1-800-269-0271