The dirtbags that broke into our home stole our personal laptop. Like many other digitized individuals, we stored a lot of personal info on that piece of equipment. While hopeful these criminals just wanted the hardware for cash, we were realistic about protecting our identity.
If you suspect any of your personal info has been compromised during a burglary, act quickly.
#1: Call your bank where you have your checking and savings accounts. Essentially where you have accounts that house easily accessible cash (your IRAs, 401 accts, etc, we'll talk about those later in this post). Let them know your info has been compromised. You will usually be transferred to a Fraud Department that will help you close the compromised accounts and setup new ones. This dept will also flag and monitor your accounts/profile for unusual activity. You will have to transfer any automatic payments or direct deposits. IMPORTANT: ask to have a verbal password placed on your accounts/profile that will be prompted anytime you call the bank.
#2: Freeze your credit or place a fraud alert on your credit. A fraud alert is usually good for 90 days and requires the company obtaining the credit report to ask the applicant several additional verfication questions. Freezing your credit means your report is on lockdown. You can only unlock it by a unique password or a written request - depending on the reporting agency. Since we're not planning on getting a loan or applying for credit, we decided to freeze one and place a fraud alert on the other in case we need it for any random reason. We paid $10 per agency to freeze (small price to pay for a little peace of mind) and the fraud alert was free. Actually, the fee to freeze can be waived if you provide a police report. I think that takes too much time because you have to request the report, wait for approval from law enforcement for release of the report, then snail mail in your freeze request with the copy of the police report. Like I said, $10 is a small price to pay. You can also consider a credit monitoring service that charges a monthly fee to alert you anytime your credit is accessed.
#3: If you auto-save passwords (e.g. on your browser and your laptop was stolen), go to a trusted friend's or relative's house to borrow a computer. Start logging into your various accounts and change the passwords. Add additional security questions while you're at it.
#4: For finanical accounts where cash is a little more difficult to access, call in and let them know your personal data has been compromised. For brokerage or retirement accounts, ask if they have a "no funds out" restriction. This still allows you to trade but funds cannot be transferred out unless written instructions are provided. Several institutions can also place a verbal password prompt as mentioned earlier.
#5: Monitor your accounts regularly. With online/telephone/mobile banking, check your bank accounts (checking, savings) at least weekly. Truthfully, I recommend you check them every day at first, then migrate to every other day, and then weekly. The day after the burglary, the crooks tried to access my accounts online.
It's no easy task to protect one's identity. I'm even a bit exhausted writing this post - basically re-living the steps we took after the burglary. However, the tasks are well worth the peace of mind.
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