In today’s world everything has changed. A lot of development has been done and a lot is going on in this world. Everything is going online with the advent of Internet. Internet has changed the things a lot.
These days with the increased technological changes and internet usage we people have become more prone to online risks and frauds. Online risks and frauds have become really common these days.
These types of things are happening all the time. The question is how to do in such situation? The answer to this question is 90 day fraud alert process.
What is fraud alert?
Suppose you have lost your important information in data breach and someone can do criminal thing with this information. Such information is like your social security number and other important personal information. So in such a situation what is needed to be done?
In such situation the person must be aware of how to place fraud alert and how to remove fraud alert. This is a very important thing to note.
The answer is placing a fraud alert with major credit reporting agencies. This is a one of the best ways to act quickly to such a situation as it can help you in bailing out of the situation. There are a lot of people who become victim of these identity theft cases.
So it is really important to place fraud alert and also remove fraud alert. You do not want to become a victim and bear the brunt of such incident. Then the best decision is to act quickly and do the required job of placing fraud alert.
So things like placing fraud alert report and remove fraud alert credit report becomes really important.
This is all about fraud alert. Now we will discuss other things about fraud alert like how to place fraud alert and how to remove fraud alert from Equifax which is one of the there major credit reporting agencies.
Steps to follow to place fraud alert
You can report fraud alert with three major credit reporting agencies and now we will discuss how to do it. We will explain the major steps involved in it.
Following are the major steps in placing fraud alert.
1. Contact the major credit bureaus
This is the first step involved in the process of placing fraud alert. Once you are victim of such an incident of identity theft you can get your fruad alert placed with three major credit bureaus on your account. This this can be done by requesting the alert online or by phone.
The major credit bureaus for this purpose are the following ones.
- Equifax
- Experian
- TransUnion
So one must follow this first step in a careful way.
2. Ask for appropriate or right action
This is the second step under placing fraud alert. Ask for appropriate action from the credit report agency you are dealing with. You can still open new account with a fraud alert if you ask for appropriate action from credit agency and not result in the credit freeze situation which is a difficult situation to deal with.
You can handle the credit freeze situation by asking the lenders to check with credit report from credit agency you are working with.
This is a very important step to follow otherwise you would need to deal with tough situation later.
3. Get and review extra copy of your credit reports
This is the third step and a very important one as well. You are allowed to get an extra copy of your credit report from credit agency legally. Using an extended result you can get up to two free copies of credit report from credit agency.
So these are the important steps in placing fraud alert. So follow all these steps in a correct way.
Types of fraud alerts
There are different types of fraud alerts that you can place when you have become the victim of identity theft.
Following are the different types of fraud alerts.
1. Initial fraud alert
The first type is initial fraud alert. This type of fraud alert lasts for 90 days. During this time it would be difficult for identity thief to misuse your information that has been stolen.
2. Active duty alert
This is the second type of fraud alert that you can place with major credit agency. This type of fraud alert is for the one who is a service number and also is about to be deployed. This type of fraud alert lasts for one year. Moreover it can be renewed according to the time period of your deployment.
3. Extended fraud alert
The last one on the list is extended fraud alert. This fraud alert is useful for the situation if you have lost your social security number. Social security number is not used right away by the identity thief. So it requires longer protection.
So these are the types of fraud alerts that one can place using any of the major credit reporting agencies.
Removing of fraud alert
The last thing to discuss is removing of fraud aleet. Suppose you are dealing with equifax credit reporting agency then you need to follow removing fraud alert equifax process.
The Experian letter can also be used to remove fraud alert which had been placed. This letter is provided earlier when you have placed fruad alert for initial alerts, extended alert and other fraud alerts removal process.
This is called experian fraud alert removal process in general.
The equifax remove fraud alert and other credit agency fraud alert removal processes are really simple. You just need to submit a request to the concerned credit reporting agency for removal of fraud alert before it is expired.
This is all about removal process of fraud alert.
Conclusion
So we have discussed everything related to fraud alert placing and removing process. The most important thing is that if you have become victim of such an incident then you need to act quickly and report it to your concerned credit reporting agency as soon as possible.