What identity theft actually is
Someone using your name, your Social Security number, or your accounts as if they were you. Here is how it happens and the three doors to close first.
How it usually starts
Almost never with a hacker "picking you." It starts with a leak: your email and a password from an old website, your Social Security number from a big company's breach, or your address and birthday from a people-search site. Criminals buy those lists and try the doors one by one.
The three doors to close first
- Your email account. Every other password can be reset through it. Give it a password you use nowhere else, and turn on two-step sign-in.
- Your credit. Freeze it at all three bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It is free, it takes ten minutes, and it stops anyone opening a loan or card in your name. You can unfreeze any time you need to.
- Your phone number. Call your carrier and put a PIN on the account so nobody can move your number to their phone and catch your security codes.
If it has already happened
Go to identitytheft.gov — the FTC's official site. It builds you a recovery plan and the letters you will need. Do not pay anyone who calls offering to "fix" identity theft; that call is usually the next scam.
Not sure how exposed you are? Our free check shows which leaks your email is in — about one second, and you keep the answer. And if you are in the middle of something right now, a person answers at contact@protectindiana.org.