Filing An Identity Theft Report
With The Police

What Is An Identity Theft Report

An Identity Theft Report is a police report with an additional amount of detail. It includes enough detail about the identity theft crime for the credit reporting companies and the businesses involved to verify that you are a victim.  It also tells them which accounts were affected and what inaccurate information was created by the identity theft.  This report would be filed with the police in the community where the Identity Theft took place.

Standard police reports usually don’t have all of the details about the accounts that were opened or misused by the identity thieves.  The FTC has an Identity Theft Complaint Form that can be filled out online that will capture the additional data needed to create an Identity Theft Report. 

The police are not legally required to use the FTC’s Identity Theft Complaint Form as part of their report, so they may have another method or form that they use to capture the necessary details of your identity crime.  In this situation, the police report by itself might serve as the Identity Theft Report.

See the topic on Contacting the Police for more information on what you should know and what you should do when you talk to the police about your Identity Theft.
 

Should You File An Identity Theft Report?

If the thief made charges on an existing account and you have been able to work with the company to resolve the problem, then you may not need an Identity Theft Report. 

If the thief opened up new accounts in your name or fraudulent charges have been reported to the consumer reporting agencies, then you should file an Identity Theft Report so you can take advantage of the protections that it will provide you.

The Advantages Of Filing An Identity Theft Report

An Identity Theft Report entitles you to certain legal rights when it is given to the three major credit reporting agencies and/or to the business where the thief misused your information.

An Identity Theft Report Will:

1. Cause the credit reporting companies to permanently block fraudulent information from appearing on your credit report.
   The FTC has a sample letter that you can use to send to the National Credit Reporting Companies.
2. Prevent a company from continuing to collect debts that resulted from the identity theft
3. Prevent a company from selling your debts (that resulted from the identity theft) to others for collection
4. Allow you to place an extended fraud alert on your credit report.

For a police report to give you these legal rights, the report must contain sufficient details about the identity theft. If you file an Identity Theft Complaint Form with the FTC and bring your printed FTC Complaint Form with you to the police station, then it can be used to support your local police report with the necessary details.

Sending Out Your Identity Theft Report

You should send a copy of your Identity Theft Report to the fraud departments of the businesses involved and to the three major credit reporting agencies.  You should do this by certified mail a return receipt requested.  The companies may require more information or documentation to help them verify your identity theft.  The credit reporting companies may decline your Identity Theft Report if they feel it does not contain enough detail. If this happens, then they have a specific time frame within which they must request additional information from you.

When sending copies of the Identity Theft Report to the fraud departments of each of the business where the identity theft was committed,  also include any supporting documentation that they may need for their situation.  Always send this information by certified mail, with a return receipt requested.

Additional Resources

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