How to Detect Identity Fraud By Checking Your Credit Profile

Identity theft is a growing concern in today's cyberage. It happens when people with malicious intent get a hold of your financial information. This information may include your bank account number, Social Security number, and driver's license number. These people may then use this information to open utility services, apply and secure credit cards and loans, and even file fake tax refunds in your name.

According to the 2021 U.S. Identity Theft: The Stark Reality report from the Aite Group, financial identity theft is currently wreaking havoc in the lives of many Americans. The report revealed that financial losses from identity theft cases rose by 42 percent from $502.5 billion in 2019 to a whopping $712.4 billion in 2020, and is expected to reach $721.3 billion by the end of 2021.

The report extrapolated their data from an online survey of 8,653 adult Americans to estimate that nearly 47 percent of Americans faced some form of financial identity theft in 2020. The comprehensive study also focused on instances where impersonators opened new financial accounts using the victim's identity or accessed their bank accounts to siphon off their money.

Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission's Consumer Sentinel Network tracked complaints from various law enforcement agencies and found that consumer fraud and identity theft complaints rose by a staggering 45 percent from 3.3 million in 2019 to nearly 4.7 million in 2020.

How to Detect Identity Theft

It is vital to learn how to protect your financial rep and assets before growing your hard-earned money. This is where your credit profile may come in handy. Your credit profile states your credit score, current and closed loan accounts, personal information, credit utilization, and late payment charges.

A credit score determines your creditworthiness when you are applying for loans, insurance policies, jobs, and real estate. A low score may make portray you as a high-risk borrower. If you have a low credit score, checking it frequently may help you understand factors affecting it so you can work towards a credit improvement strategy.

Furthermore, checking your credit profile could help you detect incorrect entries, unrecognizable loan accounts or inquiries, and changes in personal details. With the rise in financial identity thefts nowadays, it would be important to do this in order to investigate them as early as possible.

How a Credit Monitoring Service Could Help

Credit monitoring services fetch your credit profile and score from major bureaus like Experian, Equifax, or TransUnion. They will also alert you of any hard enquiries from lenders, change in personal details, new credit accounts, and changes to your credit limits.

A popular financial firm called Credit Karma retrieves your credit profile and score from Equifax and TransUnion for free. Their intuitive online platform also lets you review credit accounts, utilization, late payment charges, and loan inquiries made by lenders with the option to dispute any entry for free. So far, they have already helped over 100 million people monitor their credit stature.

After enabling Credit Karma's credit monitoring features, you'll be notified of any changes to your Equifax and TransUnion credit reports in respect to hard loan inquiries, new loan accounts or credit cards, unrecognizable payments, and changes in your personal information.

In case you come across suspicious changes to your details, Credit Karma will help you raise a dispute with the concerned credit bureau directly through their mobile app. If the lenders confirm that these entries were made using your details, you may proceed to the nearest police station to file a formal complaint along with the prerequisite documents and credit report in order to pinpoint if it is identity fraud and stop it as early as possible.

Check your credit profile from Credit Karma for free today.