How to Report Identity Theft Emails
Identity thieves try to get personal information through various means, including email. According to the Federal Trade Commission, they use a process called phishing, in which they send messages claiming to be from legitimate businesses, government agencies or financial institutions. Often the emails contain an urgent call to action, stating you must follow a link and enter sensitive data or your bank account or credits will be frozen. Such admonitions serve as a ploy to get you to act before you think. The best response is to report such emails and then delete them.
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Instructions
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Forward the identity theft email to whatever company is used in the data stealing ploy. Firms such as eBay and Paypal, major banks, and government agencies like the Internal Revenue Service are commonly impersonated. Check the real company or agency website for contact information, and forward the email. Include the headers if you know how to do so. Often you simply have to click a "view headers" link or button before sending the message on.
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Forward a copy of the message to spam@uce.gov: an official government reporting address for all types of phishing attempts that arrive through email.
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Report any telephone numbers in the message to databases like whocallsme.com and 800notes.com. These sites deal primarily with telemarketing complaints, but they also accept entries on email identity theft scams when a telephone number appears in the message.
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Contact the web host associated with any websites linked in the phishing email. Often identity thieves ask message recipients to click a link and enter information on a website. Do not go to the website. Copy the link and use it to find the host. The Fight Identity Theft consumer information website recommends using the Whois database to get this information.
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Complain to the email provider. Identity thieves like to use anonymous email addresses provided by free services like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail. Find the contact information for abusive messages on the provider's website and forward the identity theft email so the scammer's account can be closed.
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Tips & Warnings
Immediately contact the relevant company and one of the three big credit bureaus if you provided any information as a result of an identity theft email. For example, call Paypal or your bank immediately if you entered account data through a fraudulent link. Then call TransUnion, Experian or Equifax and ask for a fraud alert on your credit files. The FTC advises that you only have to contact one bureau and it will notify the others automatically.
