TESTIMONIALS

I would like to thank you for providing the identity theft recovery service for my recent Identity Theft. They made an extremely stressful situation absolutely pain free. They handled everything for me in a quick and professional manner. Their entire staff was extremely knowledgeable and friendly and I appreciate the help that I received from all of them. It would have taken me countless hours, and numerous headaches to reverse the charges and handle everything with each credit bureau. They also showed me how to access my free credit reports and how to monitor for any unscrupulous activity. I now have peace of mind and cannot thank them enough for their help and expertise.

I have never seen anything like this. It was wonderful to have all the information I needed to complete an accurate and timely police report.

[Quote from victim’s local police department]

I am so grateful that my credit union uses your services. My son, Mitch, was the victim of identity theft. The person who was working with him was absolutely wonderful. We were contacted within one hour of reporting the incident and we get daily email updates. They have obtained still pictures from the Macy’s store of a gentleman using Mitch’s driver’s license to open a Macy’s account, and they then coordinated with the police to send the pictures to our local police department, so that Mitch could go there to see if he knew the person in the pictures. They also were able to obtain a license plate number. They have done all of this on top of clearing up Mitch’s credit cards and anything else that has shown up. I am completely satisfied. I would have had to quit my job and work on this full time to get the same results.

CASE STUDIES

Tax Refund Scam
Robert was excited about getting a new family vehicle after shopping for several months to choose just the right model. He knew his credit was clean so he never gave the loan process a second thought. But then the news came that his loan was denied because of a collection from HSBC for an advance on a tax refund – that wasn’t his! He turned to his ID medics plan for help.
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The Advocate placed fraud alerts for Robert in the event the thief was still operating in his name. The loan company obtained a Trans Union report to make its decision, but the Advocate checked both the Experian and the Equifax reports to make sure there was no further evidence of fraud. The Advocate contacted the HSBC Fraud Department and sent copies of the fraud affidavit documenting Robert’s complaint, which stopped the collection activity. The Advocate then contacted the IRS, provided documentation, and after much debate obtained a letter in writing stating that the subject tax return did not belong to Robert, even though it had been filed under his social security number. The Advocate then submitted the dispute to Trans Union and requested the item to be expunged from his credit file. Finally, the Advocate obtained another copy of the Trans Union report to verify that the item was successfully deleted.

Shopping Spree
Sylvia purchased her ID Medics Plus plan that included credit monitoring with daily alerts if new activity hits her credit file. After almost a year of no activity she was alerted that 6 inquiries for new credit hit her file. She quickly alerted ID Medics Recovery Care Center and an Advocate was assigned to her case. The first step was...
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...to place fraud alerts at all three credit bureaus to warn any credit issuers that something was amiss. Next, the Advocate pulled a full report from all three credit bureaus in order to determine the extent of the problem. It seems that Sylvia was hit by an internet scam that sells "hot" identities to multiple parties. All of the identity thieves try to use the identity at the same time before someone catches on. In many cases it may be months before the identity theft becomes apparent and the criminals have already "cashed in." However, in this case Sylvia acted quickly, and so did her Advocate. The Advocate contacted each one of the creditors listed on the credit inquiries, disputed the credit request, and obtained letters of clearance from each. The Advocate filed a dispute with each of the three bureaus to take the credit inquiries off of the file (which negatively impacts credit scores). The Advocate even obtained the computer IP address and email addresses used to commit the fraud and turned it over to the police detective handling the case.

Close to Home
Ted was trying to take advantage of lower interest rates to refinance his home when he discovered a troubling entry on his credit report. There was a $1,895 item that was sent for collection for a TMobile account that Ted said was not his.
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Fortunately, Ted was covered under his bank’s sponsored program. Ted was immediately assigned a Recovery Advocate. The Advocate placed fraud alerts at all three bureaus and did a thorough assessment of Ted’s credit reports to make sure that there was no other fraud that was yet undiscovered. Then the Advocate filed a dispute with the Fraud Department at TMobile and the collection company. That’s where most services would stop. However, our enterprising Advocate, acting on a hunch, asked Ted for a current copy of his real phone bill and compared it against the fraudulent TMobile account. After meticulously cross-referencing each number on one statement against the other he found a match. And that match tracked back to a friend of Ted’s brother who had access to the house and personal documents belonging to Ted. The Advocate (with permission) provided the friend’s name and contact information to the collection company and to the police investigating the incident. The Advocate obtained an apology letter from the collection company and made sure that the entry was deleted from Ted’s credit report. The police filed charges against the friend for identity theft.

A Walk to the Mailbox
It was just another walk to the mailbox for Lacey P. The stack of letters she extracted didn’t seem unusual. However, there was one piece of mail that caught her attention; an envelope with a JC Penney logo on it. Lacey didn’t have a JC Penney credit card...
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...and couldn’t even recall the last time she had stepped foot inside a JC Penney store. She opened the letter and was surprised to learn that it was from the store’s collection department. It indicated that a check she had written was invalid. Lacey called the collections department, denied the charges, and asked for a copy of the check. The check that she received appeared to be valid and contained her full name, address, and phone number at the top.

After filing a police report and successfully disputing the charges with JC Penney, Lacey figured the worst was behind her. To her dismay, in the weeks that followed, Lacey received four more collection letters from different retailers and discovered she had been blacklisted by the check verification services. The more she looked into the problem, the more severe it became. Then, she called the Recovery Care hotline.

The Recovery Advocate assigned to the case first analyzed Lacey’s credit report and noted that the thief had not used her social security number. Upon review of the bad checks, the Recovery Advocate concluded that the thief had created a fraudulent driver’s license and used it to write counterfeit checks. The Advocate laid out a plan of action. The first step was to submit a fraud alert to the DMV and request a new driver’s license number. Next, the Recovery Advocate contacted all the major check verification companies and discovered there were seven additional fraudulent checks. All the checks were disputed and her problem was eventually resolved with the verification agencies.

A Victim of Mistaken Identity
In 1999, Frank T. and his wife met with a mortgage lender to purchase their first home. They were approved for the loan, at a fairly high interest rate, and went on to purchase their first home. As many families did in the last few years, Frank and his wife wanted to take advantage of low interest rates and decided to refinance their home.
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They had always been diligent about paying their bills and maintaining a high credit rating, and were confident that they would get a significantly better rate. To their surprise, the loan was denied.

Frank did not understand why his credit score had been so low and decided to order a credit report. What he discovered was startling. There were 15 major inaccuracies, including, a bankruptcy, tax liens, a house repossession, several delinquent accounts, incorrect addresses and even incorrect employers.

"We couldn’t believe that we had been denied for the refinance," says Frank. "When I checked my credit report I was in shock to find so many inaccuracies. I immediately surmised that I had been a victim of identity theft."

Within the hour Frank was on the phone with a Recovery Advocate. To ensure no further damage to Frank’s credit, the Recovery Advocate immediately called the three credit bureaus to issue a fraud alert. This alert forces the credit bureaus to contact the potential victim of any new inquiries from creditors to open accounts. Next, the Recovery Advocate reviewed Frank’s credit report and, together, they noted all the inaccuracies. A recovery plan was immediately created, reviewed and then implemented.

After intensive research, the Recovery Advocate concluded that Frank’s identity had not been stolen, but mistaken. One of the credit bureaus had added the Social Security number, and all the associated credit information, of an individual that shared Frank’s first and last name to the "real" Frank’s credit report. Unfortunately, the other Frank didn’t have a stellar credit history, causing financial chaos for the "real" Frank and his wife. The Recovery Advocate worked closely with the all three credit bureaus, and after 30 days Frank’s credit report was restored, his credit rating increased significantly, and he was able to refinance his home.

A Stolen Purse Was Only the Beginning
Margaret M. was attending her husband’s funeral and didn’t give a second thought about leaving her purse (and her sister’s purse) unattended in an alcove room at the back of the church. Both purses and all of the contents were stolen during the ceremony.
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Margaret was grateful that she did not have her credit cards in her purse that day, although she lost her drivers license which had her social security number printed on the front. After a month, she received her cellular telephone bill and noticed someone had been making numerous calls. She also noticed other signs of account takeover regarding various credit cards.

Confused and distraught, Margaret contacted her bank for help. She was quickly referred to a Recovery Advocate, who began the research to find the extent of the problem. Margaret was amazed at what the identity thief had done to her good name in such a short amount of time. Her credit report revealed fraudulent accounts with balances in the tens of thousands of dollars. The Recovery Advocate did a proactive search of Margaret’s social security number to uncover any additional fraud. The search revealed that Margaret’s name and date of birth had been altered along with her address, and numerous applications for credit had been submitted under her social security number.

This can result in "synthetic identity theft", which is the result of using a real person’s social security number in combination with a slightly different personal profile (name and date of birth). When the same request for credit is received at the credit bureaus for the fictitious person multiple times it becomes a "real" record, and credit is often granted. This type of identity theft is the most dangerous because it can bypass fraud alerts, credit freezes and credit monitoring and go undetected for long periods of time.

The Advocate created a plan of action for each separate incident of fraud, and carefully and patiently explained how the recovery would be handled. Margaret was informed about each step along the way. Similar to the cases described above, the Advocate meticulously documented each incident, contacted each agency or entity involved, filed the forms appropriate to each entity and obtained written documentation that the incidents were cleared.

The Advocate worked closely with the police to provide any leads on the activities of the persons using Margaret’s identity. Sometimes stopping the criminal, or at least getting the message across that they are being watched, is the only way to truly get resolution to identity theft. As long as the fraud continues to occur, the nightmare doesn’t end for the victim. Margaret’s name was cleared and she did not see any further fraudulent activity in the year that followed.

A Case of Hidden Dangers
Jo H. is a registered nurse at a large regional hospital who received a notice that a stolen laptop containing her name and social security number, along with over 200,000 other persons was stolen from her employer. . Jo called the Recovery Care hotline as indicated in the letter. They placed fraud alerts...
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...for Jo, ordered three free credit reports (one from each bureau) and carefully reviewed each with her to look for any evidence of fraud. The Advocate also initiated ID Alert, a proactive social security number scan. The credit reports showed no erroneous activity; however, when the ID Alert results came in it showed that there were six persons who were working in various parts of the country using Jo’s social security number. Her Recovery Advocate went to work, investigating the situation. Through carefully following leads, the Advocate found that each of the six persons were previously convicted sexual predators who were using Jo’s identity to obtain employment so they would not have to register with the State’s Sex Offender Registry. Most states now require convicted sex offenders to register with the State whenever they move addresses and obtain employment. The Advocate worked with the local police in each jurisdiction to address the six persons who were illegally using Jo’s identity and violating the registry law. The Advocate contacted the social security administration and the three credit bureaus (work history related) to make sure that the false employment records were expunged from Jo’s files. This is an example of a non-financial identity theft that could have dire consequences for both the victim and in this case the community at large.