Kiplinger’s Personal Finance — September 2017

09/2017 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 35

card. I had not. Capital One
turned down the applica-
tion, she told me in a sooth-
ing voice. “But whoever
tried to open this account
has your Social Security
number and date of birth,”
she said. The credit applica-
tion raised a red f lag be-
cause the imposter listed
his (actually, my) address
as Springfield, Ill. I live in
Washington, D.C., and have
for most of my life.
She told me to contact the
three major credit bureaus,
review my reports and con-
sider putting a fraud alert
WILLIAM RIESER on my accounts. I already

MARK SOLHEIM Personal Finances

I Thwarted ID Thieves

SOME 41 MILLION AMERICANS

have been victims of iden-

tity theft, says a recent

survey from Bankrate.com,

but I (irrationally) always

thought I’d be immune.

Then, last September, I

got the call.

My wife and I were in the

Lake District of England, in

a well-worn 18th-century

hotel not far from the bu-

colic estate where Words-

worth lived and composed

his poetry. The caller was

a woman from the fraud

department of Capital One,

asking if I’d applied for a

second Capital One credit

knew the drill, because Kip-

linger’s gives the same advice

to all victims of ID theft.

Maybe I shouldn’t have

been surprised. Just before

we left on vacation, I had

spotted two small deposits

to my checking account

from PayPal—an indication

that someone was trying to

connect a PayPal account

with my bank account. I had

spent precious pre-vacation

hours closing my checking

account, opening a new one,

ordering new checks, and

changing direct deposits

and automatic payments.

Now, from my hotel in

rural England, with sketchy

Wi-Fi, I logged on to the

TransUnion website and

placed an initial fraud alert

on my file, which told credi-

tors to verify my identity

prior to issuing credit. The

site assured me that the

other two major credit

bureaus, Equifax and Ex-

perian, would be notified

and would automatically

place fraud alerts on my ac-

counts, too. I tried to relax

and enjoy the rest of my va-

cation. I would have to wait

until I was back at work to

check my credit reports to

see if any damage had been

done. All the while, I couldn’t

shake the discomfiting

feeling that someone was

stealing my name—and the

sterling credit history I had

built over several decades.

A tangled web. Ten days

later, back at my desk, I

went to http://www.annualcredit

report.com to get my free

credit reports and make

sure that no one had opened

any accounts in my name.

Damn. Someone had beaten

me to the site, because each

credit bureau in turn said

that I had already claimed

my free report for the year.

(I had not.)

As a victim of ID theft, I

had the right to free credit

reports if I mailed in verifi-

cation of my identity and

my address, plus a police

report, but I figured all that

would take too long. I de-

cided to pay for my reports.

Despite the fraud alerts on

my account, Experian and

Equifax were more than

happy to take my $10 (the

cost varies by state). But

TransUnion, to its credit,

refused to acknowledge me

After they stole my name, I switched into high gear to prevent them from

hijacking my sterling credit history.