How to Report Credit Card Fraud

Credit card fraud is the worst nightmare of many people whose financial well-being depends upon a good credit history. In order to protect yourself from possible permanent financial damage, you must know what steps to take in order to properly report a case of credit card fraud.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Obtain a free credit report online or by calling a credit agency. Everyone is allowed one free credit report per year.

2. File a police report with your local police department. You can do this over the phone in many places. You can obtain a hard copy of your police report once it has been made.

3. Notify your bank of the fraud and put a freeze on any accounts. You may also want to change the numbers on your accounts so that they may not be accessed any further.

4. Call the phone number on the back of the affected credit card in order to monitor all charges made to your credit card.

5. Report fraud to the Federal Trade Commission. They may also be able to give you additional helpful information regarding your credit history.

6. Notify your credit card company that your card has been stolen or misused and put a fraud alert on it.

Tips & Warnings

• When obtaining a free credit report, wait until such time has passed that it is likely charges which you hadn't made would appear. New information sometimes takes a little while to appear on your credit report.
• Make sure none of your credit cards or checkbooks are missing.
• Set up a secure online banking account through your bank. This allows you to monitor charges made to your credit card whenever you choose.
• Guard your personal information fiercely and don't give out any unnecessary information willingly. Make sure all of your credit cards, check books and other important information are in a safe place. All it takes is for one person to see too much.
• For help with general fraud information, use Consumer Sentinel for fraud tips, trends and other common information.
• Be careful once you begin to report fraud to different agencies that you don't give away too much information to everyone. You must give out your social security number to the police department, when obtaining your free credit report and possibly to your bank as well.
• Local authorities normally investigate crimes in the order of overall monetary importance. Therefore, you shouldn't depend on them to make a speedy inquiry.

Who Can Help:

• eFax is the world’s #1 Internet fax service.  Send and receive faxes by email and kiss your fax machine goodbye. 30-Day Free Trial

Resources

• A credit card fraud message board
• Obtain a free credit report from Equifax

[mhaynes777]

on 2/20/2009 My daughter gave me two credit cards to buy supplements she was selling to help me with my cancer. Now she says I have defrauded her because I am disabled and cannot make payments Does this constitute fraud?

[agoodperon24]

on 8/14/2008 What do I do if someone has obtained creidt in my name and i am being sued by the banck. The social security they have on the account is not mine but they have my home address and emaployment information.

[agoodperson]

on 5/22/2008 What do I do if I know someone who is handing out and receiving credit card numbers in chat rooms? This person is also giving out peoples email addresses to the nigeria scandal. He does all this in chat rooms. I want to report this anonymously without my information being known.

[happykat]

on 9/22/2007 If you want to report information anonymously to a company or agency, you can use a postal remail service like texasremail.com. They will mail your correspondence for you from a Texas post office and your location and identity can remain anonymous.