The Identity Theft Report is a compilation of related official reports and documentation to demonstrate your identity theft. You will be able to use this counter and close any fraudulent financial or personal activity in which your information was used (to your accounts that perpetrators took over, or new ones generated from your information, dispute and remove any notations of the activities from your credit file (whether by a creditor, collection agency, or public records agency), or use it as evidence in case any legal actions are taken against you stemming from the fraud.

The way the Identity Theft Report you are compiling should be viewed as comprehensive and perpetual, in which its contents demonstrate your identity theft victimization, and will help you obtain further proof of your actual identity and a perpetrator’s misuse of it (and not you) when you contact other agencies, companies, or CRAs to absolve your name. With that in mind, any and all conclusive documentation that demonstrates such should be organized and included in the Identity Theft Report you create, and new information should be incorporated into the report.

There are two components to a comprehensive report that provides greater protections from collection of fraudulent debts and reporting of such to your credit file:

1. A copy of a report from a local, state, or federal agency: Although this should have been the first step taken after identity theft-related fraud took place (see “Part II: Initial Steps”, you should have obtained a police report, or report(s) from an agency that deals with identity theft (this can also be a State Attorney’s Office, the FTC, or the Secret Service) that documents the crime. The report should detail as much of the crime and/or fraudulent activity as possible, including possible perpetrators, types and incidents of identity theft, and related accounts opened as a result. The FTC suggests using multiple agency reports together.

2. Information verifying or demonstrating that your current account(s) have been taken over or misused, or that new accounts, leases for new housing, or new jobs are not yours and were opened fraudulently using your information.

A well-organized Identity Theft Report will assist you in account closure, freedom from collections for accounts fraudulently opened, liability for housing that isn’t yours, and other activities stemming from your identity theft. As each new instance of fraud is resolved (see “Part V: Closing Fraudulent Accounts”), the documentation from it can be added to the compiled Identity Theft Report.

References

Federal Trade Commission. DEFEND: Recover From Identity Theft

Federal Trade Commission: Facts for Consumers: Taking Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft