What Should I Do If I've Become a Victim of Identity Theft?

As Im doing my research on providing a service for identity theft victims, I ran across some really good information published straight from the Department of Justice. There is a whole page dedicated to identity theft. Heres the part from what happens if you've already become a victim. 

http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html

• What Should I Do If I've Become a Victim of Identity Theft?
If you think you've become a victim of identity theft or fraud, act immediately to minimize the damage to your personal funds and financial accounts, as well as your reputation. Here's a list -- based in part on a checklist prepared by the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG) and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse -- of some actions that you should take right away:
1. Contact the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to report the situation, whether Online, 2. By telephone toll-free at 1-877-ID THEFT (877-438-4338) or TDD at 202-326-2502, or 3. By mail to Consumer Response Center, FTC, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.
Under the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act , the Federal Trade Commission is responsible for receiving and processing complaints from people who believe they may be victims of identity theft, providing informational materials to those people, and referring those complaints to appropriate entities, including the major credit reporting agencies and law enforcement agencies. For further information, please check the FTC's identity theft Web pages . You can also call your local office of the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service to report crimes relating to identity theft and fraud.
You may also need to contact other agencies for other types of identity theft:
1. Your local office of the Postal Inspection Service if you suspect that an identity thief has submitted a change-of-address form with the Post Office to redirect your mail, or has used the mail to commit frauds involving your identity; 2. The Social Security Administration if you suspect that your Social Security number is being fraudulently used (call 800-269-0271 to report the fraud); 3. The Internal Revenue Service if you suspect the improper use of identification information in connection with tax violations (call 1-800-829-0433 to report the violations).
Call the fraud units of the three principal credit reporting companies:
Equifax:
1. To report fraud, call (800) 525-6285 or write to P.O. Box 740250, Atlanta, GA 30374-0250. 2. To order a copy of your credit report ($8 in most states), write to P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241, or call (800) 685-1111. 3. To dispute information in your report, call the phone number provided on your credit report. 4. To opt out of pre-approved offers of credit, call (888) 567-8688 or write to Equifax Options, P.O. Box 740123, Atlanta GA 30374-0123.
Experian (formerly TRW)
1. To report fraud, call (888) EXPERIAN or (888) 397-3742, fax to (800) 301-7196, or write to P.O. Box 1017, Allen, TX 75013. 2. To order a copy of your credit report ($8 in most states): P.O. Box 2104, Allen TX 75013, or call (888) EXPERIAN. 3. To dispute information in your report, call the phone number provided on your credit report. 4. To opt out of pre-approved offers of credit and marketing lists, call (800) 353-0809 or (888) 5OPTOUT or write to P.O. Box 919, Allen, TX 75013.
Trans Union
1. To report fraud, call (800) 680-7289 or write to P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634. 2. To order a copy of your credit report ($8 in most states), write to P.O. Box 390, Springfield, PA 19064 or call: (800) 888-4213. 3. To dispute information in your report, call the phone number provided on your credit report. 4. To opt out of pre-approved offers of credit and marketing lists, call (800) 680-7293 or (888) 5OPTOUT or write to P.O Box 97328, Jackson, MS 39238.
Contact all creditors with whom your name or identifying data have been fraudulently used. For example, you may need to contact your long-distance telephone company if your long-distance calling card has been stolen or you find fraudulent charges on your bill.
Contact all financial institutions where you have accounts that an identity thief has taken over or that have been created in your name but without your knowledge. You may need to cancel those accounts, place stop-payment orders on any outstanding checks that may not have cleared, and change your Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, account, and Personal Identification Number (PIN).
Contact the major check verification companies (listed in the CalPIRG-Privacy Rights Clearinghouse checklist) if you have had checks stolen or bank accounts set up by an identity thief. In particular, if you know that a particular merchant has received a check stolen from you, contact the verification company that the merchant uses:
1. CheckRite -- (800) 766-2748 2. ChexSystems -- (800) 428-9623 (closed checking accounts) 3. CrossCheck -- (800) 552-1900 4. Equifax -- (800) 437-5120 5. National Processing Co. (NPC) -- (800) 526-5380 6. SCAN -- (800) 262-7771 7. TeleCheck -- (800) 710-9898

Negotiating your debt

Alright so I'm hanging out here on my vacation on the beautiful sands of Hawaii and I'm reading this great finance book called "i will teach you to be rich" by ramit sethi. I highly recommend this book to the younger readers because he really puts things into perspective and breaks it down for us to understand.
I have 1 problem with these finance books (other then them bashing on financial advisers)...they talk about paying off your credit cards like its a simple thing. Hells no it isnt...here's the problem...what if your in debt up to your ears and can even afford to pay for the monthly payments? If you're having problems paying off your debt here is a possible option. Settle you debt.

Alright, so in an earlier article I wrote about what to do to avoid those collections calls. Truth is your going to eventually have to pay them back (unless you want to wait 5 years statute of limitations). So here's in a nut shell to do what my partners and I charge people a good amount of money to do. Yes I'm throwing all I know out there for free...no buy my book no subscribe gimmick. I truly believe knowledge should be shared free of charge, services on applying the knowledge comes at a price. Negotiating is tough when you have a personal attachment to the settlement, and that's where experts come in. And that's why I like selling my services as a financial advisor, because we aren't going to get emotional about your money...so f you Ramit! Just kidding .

Ok so theres a few steps your going to need to do to negotiate your own debt. First, your best chances of a good settlement will come from if you can pay the debt in a lump sum. Payments will work, but spread over time they will expect more money. So when you are prepared to settle, make sure you have funds in hand. Borrow from someone if you don't have it. Ask your parents...just man up and tell them if you haven't, it will save you a lot of gray hairs in the future.

The next thing you need to have is a VALID hardship, yes I repeat a valid hardship. Heres the trick...don't make shit up people, if you get caught your committing perjury and thats worse then being in debt and they wont work with you anyways. But honestly, they arent going to hire Sherlock Holmes to check out your story. So I recommending taking a moment and truly figure a good story on why you couldn't pay your debt...then Hollywood it. Make it sound worse then what it was, make them cry...shit if you can keep a straight face cry while your telling it to them lol just,kidding...sort of.

So once you have these two in place you can get ready to call the collections agencies. They probably have been trying to reach you at this point and have,sent letters to you saying they are willing to settle for x percent of what you owe (which is usually around 70%). When you call the number on the letter pretend like you never saw that settlement. They will first ask you for a case number, give it to them and expect to be transfer to a negotiator. Heres where people get scared and where the experts have fun. They are going to ask what you want to do. You should reply with a "i would like to settle this account". They are at some point going to ask you why you couldnt pay your debt, at this point go on with the sob story (although they dont give a crap). After you do that, tell them you want to settle for less then whats owed. Just like any negotiation tactic, start low and eventually meet in the middle. I would suggest starting off at 10% of what you owe (if you owe 10k then your offering 1k). They would prob laugh and counter with something much higher like whatever they sent you in the mail. Tell them you can borrow the money and can do something like 20% of the balance. Negotiations will go back and forth and usual settlements are around 40% of the balance. If they dont budge, politely tell them you cant do that, hang up and call back in a couple months. Dont get frustrated, its part of the games.

Heres a few tips. The longer you have had the account in collections the more willing they are to settle and at a lower balance. Theres a statute of limitations for debt. Once you get sent to a collections agency, they have 5 years to collect from you or its wiped out. Also, never pay the agency until you get the agreed settlement on amount in writing. Remember the harassment collection calls you logged from reading the "how to avoid those collections calls" article? Well you can use them in the negotiations when things get heated. Warning, dont come out the gates guns blazing, that will piss them off. You want to act as naive as possible, and progressively bring up some laws if the conversation gets more heated, and if your lucky you wont even have,to pull out those tricks. When I was new to negotiating debt, before I knew any of this I spoke to the sweetest lady to resolve a discover card settlement. She helped me settle at 30% of the balance and had an email already sent to me before the convo was done. I didntThats because any money creditors get back is like icing on the cake. When you stopped paying they already wrote you off on their losses, but when you pay its like you finding money in those jeans you havent worn in forever.

Alright I know this is a lot of info and can be intimidating...if you eventually decided to hire a debt settlement agency heres some tips to not get scammed (or you can ask me). A good agency will give you different options of paying. They will either charge you the percent of what they saved you (my pick), which should be more then if they charge you an up front but it ensures results. Or if you feel the trust you can do a up front fee, but make sure they dont charge both. Second never let them hold your money! This is most important. You should have money set aside ready for settlement, but they should never be asking to hold it. If they do, walk away. A good settlement company will tell you what they came to agreements on and pay the creditors a certain amount.

Alright, thats all I got to say. Happy negotiating guys!