How To Handle Identity Theft

There are lots of awful things that can happen in a person's life - injury, loss of a job, loss of a family member - but one of the absolute worst is the potential for identity theft, because it means that you've lost a part of yourself that will take a long time to regain. When it comes to dealing with the fallout of ID theft, there are many things that you can do in order to recover, as well as a few great tips to keep in mind while trying to handle things as you put your life back together.

Remain calm. Although you may want to get upset and make fast decisions to get your money back and to regain control over your identity, it's important to carefully consider all of your options when choosing who to call and how to begin taking back what's yours. Getting mad or acting irrationally can actually hurt you in the long run, especially if you contact the wrong people or don't have information to back up your theory of identity theft. Having solid information that's been provided by something like a credit or identity monitoring service is a great asset to making your case, and should do wonders toward keeping you calm and rational while dealing with banks, credit card companies and even individual retailers.

Increase security. Yes, this means changing passwords, account numbers and even being more vigilant with what sites you visit while online, but it can also mean taking steps to prevent any further cases of identity theft from getting out of control. Increased security also means choosing some type of identity theft protection services like the ones discussed above. Even though they can't stop your information from being compromised, these services are designed to help monitor certain activity that happen within your account, reporting back to you promptly. Not only will the increased security mean that you've taken measures to protect yourself, but show that you realize just how serious identity theft can be.

Be thorough. Just because you've addressed one weak point or changed some things doesn't mean that you've taken care of all of the potential entry points for thieves. When you've been the victim of identity theft, it's very important to ensure that you've done everything that you can to rectify the situation. Changing all passwords, contacting each of your institutions or creditors and making sure that you've updated everything that you can is the only way to ensure that you've done everything that you can to protect yourself an your information in the future. Even though addressing the various types of information that could have been compromised may seem like a daunting task, it's worth it - and can help you to feel like you've covered all of your bases.


Recovering from cases of becoming an identity theft victim is a really stressful period of time. Many people that have been victimized find this process to be extremely difficult, and it makes them paranoid about the safety of their accounts and information in the future. Luckily for them - and for those that want to do all that they can in order to keep one step ahead of the thieves, programs and services that monitor credit and identity have proven themselves to be extremely useful tools to fight the identity thieves every step of the way.