Most people routinely receive junk mail. A lot of that mail is unsolicited credit card offers and balance transfer credit card offers that you either choose to look at more seriously or put directly into the recycle bin.

If you have ever had problems with your credit rating and didn’t have good credit you might be rather pleased to see those offers coming in now. It might mean that your credit score has gone up and you now have good credit. Whichever the case is, you should be careful about receiving so many credit card offers.

How Unsolicited Credit Card Offers Can Harm You

One of the most risky ways to become a victim of identity theft is through unsolicited credit card offers and even online credit card offers that someone else can use in your name without your knowledge.

If the wrong person gets at least one piece of your personal information such as your social security number, they can fraudulently obtain a credit card in your name using your credit rating.

They can be happily charging up the new credit card or selling it to another criminal who will charge it up while you are not even aware that this card has been issued. You can be burdened with thousands of dollars of debt almost instantly and it can take you a long time and a lot of effort to work your way out of it.

Unfair Credit Charges

While it is vastly unfair that this can happen to you it is nonetheless taking place daily throughout the USA, Canada, the U.K. and all over the world and you will need to be careful that you protect yourself as much as you possibly can.

If you do not take the steps necessary to protect yourself you may find out about the identity theft too late to do anything effective about it. This means you must unfairly pay for the charges on any credit cards or loans that were fraudulently obtained.

While grossly unfair, this is currently the way identity theft works. There may certainly be better protections and safeguards in the future but there are some important steps you can take right now to get yourself into a safer position.

Detect Fraudulent Credit Card Accounts Early

The first thing you should do is get a current credit report from the three credit reporting agencies. These are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Contact them either by phone or online and make a request for your report.

Once you receive your credit reports, you should go through them with a fine toothed comb. Look for any discrepancies in accounts you hold and make sure that there are no errors. If there are any mistakes, contact the agency again and report of the errors. You should do this verbally and then follow up the conversation with a written confirmation of the conversation which you should mail to the credit reporting agency and keep a copy of in your records.

If there are any accounts listed on the reports that you are unaware of, you may already be a victim of identity theft. Call the agency immediately to discuss exactly what the account is and, if necessary, inform them that it is not yours. Their security and fraud departments take these cases very seriously and they will have you formally file a report with them about the matter.

Cleaning Your Credit Up

If you discover that you have been the victim of identity theft either when you discover a fraudulent account on your credit report or if you suddenly get strange bills or charges to your current credit cards or bank accounts you need to do more than simply inform the credit reporting agencies.

You should call the police and file a police report about the charges made in your name. This is an important step and you should do it immediately. Waiting can be very costly because in the USA fraudulent charges may become your personal responsibility if you wait too long to report them. Make sure you keep a copy of the police report. You may need to make photocopies of it as well when the credit reporting agencies and the credit card companies or banks request it from you.

You will need to call the credit card companies or the banks that are involved. They will require lots of information from you as well, so be patient and do not skip any steps. While it is not fair that you are being faced with all the work of calling and filling out reports when you have not broken the law, you must take personal responsibility for making sure that everything gets sorted out properly.

If you do not take all the steps necessary and inform all the people who should be called you may end up with these incidents affecting your credit score. Especially if you do not catch any problems on any accounts early and you become responsible for the debt, your credit rating will suffer. In most places in the USA failing to report problems within 60 days can mean that you are liable for the fraudulent charges.

We Are All At Risk and We Must All Be Vigilant About Credit

Vigilance is the key to safety in the world of identity theft. If we participate in the financial world by using credit cards, taking loans, accepting credit card offers in the mail then we must also take full responsibility for making sure that we are safe and that our private information is kept private.

Be careful not to give out any personal information about yourself or your family and especially take care not to give your social security number or credit card numbers out. Be sure that checkouts for any online shopping are on secure sites.

Credit card offers in the mail that you do not wish to respond to should be torn or shredded before they go into your recycle bin. Statements and correspondence from banks should also be shredded before you dispose of it.

Once or twice each year (perhaps at the same time, like the clocks change for daylight savings time and you change the batteries in the smoke detectors) you should request new credit reports so that you can make sure everything is still in good shape.

Stay aware and stay safe.