I may be the victim of identity theft?

Question

I recently viewed a copy of my credit report and noticed several inquiries that I don't recognize. It looks like someone is trying to use my name and social security number to open up credit card accounts. I don't know if they've been successful, or how they would have gotten my information. What should I do?

Answer 1

You are NOT a victim of ID theft.  If you were, your question would NOT involve inquiries.  You would see new ACCOUNTS.  Each inquiry should list a TYPE and a REASON.  I am willing to bet MOST of your inquiries are 'pre-screening' inquiries.  This means your name, along with a million others, met the criteria supplied by a company to offer to sell you something.  The only information the company that made this type of inquiry received is your name and mailing address.  It is also possible a company you have an account with is monitoring your credit report, but uses a different name than you recognize.  Neither of these types of inquiries affect your FICO score or appear when someone other than you views your file.

Answer 2

I had a similar experience, so I started researching different companies that provide protection against credit card theft and identity theft. Many companies offer similar products as far as monitoring and protection, resolution, etc. The company I ended up going with is called Secure Identity Systems. They do have a great service but one perk in petcular that caught my attention (In your case as well) is they cover pre-existing not know events up to 6 months prior to enrollment. If you sign up, that may cover you if someone has tampered with your information. I hope this is helpful

Answer 3

A couple things could be happening.  For one, some companies, though they shouldn't, actually can use your information to "pre-qualify" you for credit cards or loans.  This of course hurts your credit, because your credit is "pulled."  What I would do is call each of the three credit bureaus and flag your account.  You can choose between 5 years or lifetime.  What this would mean is that every time anyone (including you) applied for credit under your name, they would call a phone number you provided (most likely your cell phone) before they could approve anything.  This does a couple things: it allows you to hear every inquiry that happens, but it also usually takes a couple extra days to get a loan, because they have to verify that you yourself applied.  Hope that helps!

Answer 4

if they are from credit cards then it is a soft pull. they do this so they can send you offers  in the mail. They will pull every one with say 41--------- and review who to send to---opt out 888-567-8688