Credit Card Fraudulent

Identity theft is one of the biggest problems in America today. When someone steals another person’s identity, they can basically do whatever they want with it--and that includes getting a fraudulent credit card.

It isn’t difficult for a person to steal someone’s identity and get a fraudulent credit card. It can be as simple as checking an individual’s mail box, finding something with the date of birth and Social Security number and the identity thief is off to the races. One of the first things most identity thieves do is work on getting a fraudulent credit card in the name of the person whose identity they have stolen. Instead of having the credit statement sent to the person’s home address, they have them sent elsewhere, normally to a post office box under their control. They then set out making a number of purchases with the fraudulent credit card, with no intention of paying the credit card company back. In most cases, the identity thief will take out more than one fraudulent credit card in the name of the person whose identity they have stolen and use those cards on massive spending sprees.

In many cases, the real person whose identity has been stolen doesn’t find out about these fraudulent credit cards until credit card companies start calling demanding payment or they look at their credit report. If there is a fraudulent credit card taken out in your name, the first thing to do is call the police and report yourself as a victim of identity theft. The police will start a case file and make an incident report, which will document the fraudulent credit cards. The consumer should then make copies of the incident report and sent letters to both the credit card companies and the credit bureaus, explaining the situation and requesting the fraudulent credit card accounts be closed and removed from their credit history. This can take a long period of time and a great deal of trouble, but should be started immediately.