Credit Identity Theft
Credit identity theft — someone using your name, Social Security number, or date of birth to open accounts or take on debt in your name — is the most damaging form of identity theft and the focus of this site. This hub walks you through detecting it, stopping the bleeding, disputing the inaccuracies correctly, and using the Fair Credit Reporting Act to make the credit bureaus and furnishers actually fix the file (and pay damages if they don't).
The thesis
The fraudster commits the original crime. The lasting harm comes from the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion, and specialty bureaus) and the furnishers (banks, lenders, debt collectors) that keep reporting the fraud as if it were yours. Congress wrote the FCRA so those companies could be held accountable. Everything on these pages is designed both to fix your credit file and to protect your right to enforce that accountability later.
The pages in this section
Detect it
Warning signs, how to pull all three reports the safe way (and from the specialty CRAs most people don't know exist), and what to look for line by line.
Protect yourself
Freezes vs. fraud alerts, lock-downs at the specialty bureaus, child freezes, the IRS IP PIN, and what the bureaus would prefer you not know about 'credit monitoring.'
Dispute the right way
Why mail beats the online portal, how to draft a letter that won't be tagged as 'frivolous,' and why you should always dispute with the CRA and the furnisher in parallel.
Your FCRA rights
The statutes that matter, what each one actually does, and the deadlines and damages built into them: § 605B, § 609(e), § 611, § 623, § 1681n, § 1681o, § 1681p.
The credit reporting agencies
How Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion actually process your dispute — e-OSCAR, ACDV codes, 'parrot' verification — and why the CFPB has sued them.
The furnishers
The banks, lenders, debt collectors, and mortgage servicers that supply data to the bureaus. They are independently liable under § 623(b) — and most consumers never name them.
Preserve documents
What to keep, in what form, and how to log it — so that if litigation becomes necessary, your damages case is already built.
Avoid the arbitration trap
Why clicking through online portals and free-credit-report sites can quietly waive your right to sue.
Rebuild your credit
After the file is corrected: secured cards, credit-builder loans, what FICO actually measures, and how to handle the next 12–24 months.
The plan, in one paragraph
Pull your three reports by mail through annualcreditreport.com. Freeze your credit at all three bureaus (and at NCTUE, ChexSystems, LexisNexis, and Innovis). File an FTC Identity Theft Report at IdentityTheft.gov and print the PDF. Write a short dispute in plain English, in your own words, to each bureau and to each furnisher, by certified mail, return receipt requested, with the FTC report, any police report, your ID, and the credit-report page with the disputed items circled. Demand a § 605B block of every identity-theft tradeline; request the fraudster's application from the bank under § 609(e); keep absolutely everything. If the bureaus or furnishers refuse to fix the file or respond with a generic "verified" result — that is exactly when the FCRA starts working for you. Call us.