8 Signs Your Identity Has Been Compromised

Your Monthly Billing Statements Stop Showing Up

Sudden and strange activity involving your financial accounts is definitely a red flag, but sudden inactivity can be just as worrisome. For instance, if your monthly billing statements are a miss, it could mean “someone has changed the billing address [on the account] so you don’t find out it’s been compromised,” Sjouwerman says.

To make sure this sign doesn’t go unnoticed, Merritt suggests writing out a schedule of when your major bills are set to arrive. If one doesn’t make it to your mailbox or your email account, it may be a good idea to touch base with your bank, issuer or service provider.

Your Friends Receive Emails from Your Address That You Never Sent

Consumers shouldn’t only be on alert for unusual activity in their financial accounts. Similarly suspicious activities within email or social media accounts are another early sign that a thief has gotten their hands on your personal information, Merritt says. For instance, one way fraudsters try to capitalize off of stolen digital identities is to send out phony emails asking friends and families to send money to an international address under the guise that the actual owner is stranded in a foreign country. Similar scams have been utilized via Facebook or Twitter.

If someone is sending out spam for one of your accounts, make sure to immediately change the password associated with all of your other ones. If you’ve been locked out of the account that was compromised, call your service provider to have that particular account discontinued.

[Related Article: Can You Be “Sort of” An ID Theft Victim?]

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Your Credit Score Takes an Unexpected Dive

You should also be concerned if you’ve checked all of your credit scores prior to applying for a loan only to have a lender come back and say it’s not as high as you had believed it was, Sjouwerman says. For instance, if you were told your score was a 720 and a lender comes back and says it’s actually a 580, an investigation is in order.

Consumers who encounter this problem should request another copy of the report in question and scan for any activity they are unfamiliar with. As previously reported, the inquiry section can be particularly telling since you may stumble across loan or credit card applications you never filled out. If you do discover fraudulent line items, call the credit bureau to dispute the info. You can also ask them to add a fraud alert to your report so you are notified when other information is added to your account.

The Personal Information Appearing on Your Credit Report is Inaccurate

It’s also a bad sign if the personal information appearing on a credit report doesn’t match up with your records. For instance, Sjouwerman says, be wary if an address you’ve never lived it is listed as your current or former residency. Similarly, check to make sure your correct Social Security Number is listed. If it’s not, don’t panic. Inaccuracies on a credit report are fairly common and aren’t always related to identity theft. Contact the credit bureau that is listing the inaccurate information so they can investigate
how it got there. If you do ultimately discover the issue runs deep, you may want to take a trip to your local police station.

“Many people don’t realize, but it can be quite helpful to file a police report,” Merritt says. The police may not find the culprit, or, in some areas where a bureau is too small, even investigate, but the action may prove helpful when you’re trying to get fraudulent charges or inaccurate information eradicated. You can also report a cybercrime to the FBI via its Internet Crime Complaint Center.