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How to Resolve Identity Theft

How do I dispute fraudulent accounts?

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Linda Sherry
Director, National Priorities, Consumer Action
http://www.consumer-action.org  
 

Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities and one of the organization’s chief spokespersons, joined the San Francisco-based national consumer education and advocacy group in 1994 from a background as a weekly newspaper reporter.

Consumer Action (www.consumer-action.org), founded in 1971, has a national reputation for free multilingual consumer education on personal finance issues.

Sherry, who moved to Washington, DC, in August 2004 to establish an office for Consumer Action, is responsible for the organization’s national advocacy work and for the research and writing of Consumer Action’s free educational publications and web site content. Her recent projects for Consumer Action include publications on home buying, credit card terms and conditions, bankruptcy, ID theft, Internet privacy, cell phones and investing vs. savings. Sherry is chief surveyor and coordinator of Consumer Action’s popular pricing surveys of rates for credit cards and telephone services. She is the editor of Consumer Action’s newsletter, Consumer Action News.

Sherry has received awards for Consumer Action publications from the National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators (Excellence in Consumer Education, 1996, 2000 and 2003) and U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs (1995 National Consumer Week). Sherry serves as a member of the National Consumers League Fraud Alliance steering committee.

Before joining Consumer Action, Sherry was managing editor of AsianWeek in San Francisco from 1991-1994. Previously she was a reporter at The Almanac newspapers in Menlo Park, CA; The New York Times Long Island Section and The East Hampton Star in East Hampton, NY. She was the founding editor of the Sag Harbor Herald, a weekly newspaper in Long Island, NY.

How do I dispute fraudulent accounts?

In this video, Linda Sherry details the best ways to prevent identity theft and what you can do if you think your identity has been stolen.

This expert: 28,903 views

This series: 9,607 views

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Id

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Theft

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Identity

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Fraud

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Internet

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Abuse

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Stolen

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Scam

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Transcripts

Host: How do I dispute fraudulent accounts?

Linda Sherry: When you are victim of identity theft, then you'll be very likely to find out that fraudulent accounts have been opened in your name. So if you learn about these -- and one of the ways many people learn about these is, say, a Bill Collector, we call or they see them on their credit report.

When you learn about these, contact the original company that has places on your credit report or the collector that is calling you and tell them that you are a victim of identity theft. Provide them with the copy of your fraud affidavit and your police report and keep copies of everything. When you are victim of ID theft, it's very, very important to keep notes, a file or folder; keep copies of all correspondence; sent all correspondence by registered mail and really you may have to fight a bit to prove that you are innocent, but all those steps you take will lead, some date you will be able to prove this.

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