Did you know that ID theft is the fastest growing crime worldwide?
Last year, 33% of adults in the United States experienced identity theft which is more than twice the global average!
As a Credit Hero, you’ll run into folks that have accounts show up on their credit reports that don’t belong to them.
The fraudulent accounts are usually credit cards, (because that's the easiest way for criminals to steal money using your identity). However, lately, identity thieves are getting more creative.
They may open all types of loans in your name, finance vehicles and chop ‘em up for parts, they could file your taxes and steal your tax refund, and they can even get medical procedures under your identity so you get stuck with the bill!
When thieves get their dirty little hands on your personal information and assume your identity, the damage they can do is limitless.
I talked with our Subject Matter Expert, Corey Gray who ran a successful credit repair business for over 20 years. Corey specialized in resolving identity theft issues and told me some horror stories, I’ll never forget.
One in particular was about a client of his that had her identity stolen and you wouldn’t believe what this woman went through.
The crook that stole her identity had taken out mortgages on seven rental properties over a span of a couple years. All of this happened right under her nose.
This guy changed her address on her credit report so she wouldn't be alerted about any of it.
He rented out all the properties and collected rent for years, then took out second mortgages to drain all the equity. He never paid the mortgages, but continued collecting rent payments and let the homes fall into disrepair.
The real kicker is, when it all came crashing down - to cover his tracks, he actually filed bankruptcy in her name.
Eventually she applied for an auto loan only to be turned down and found she had all of these upside down mortgages, collections and a chapter 7 bankruptcy on her credit and was completely devastated, her world was turned upside down and she had no idea if she would be able to get her life back.
I gotta tell ya, these thieves will stop at nothing!
They are bold - and they will do virtually anything to steal your money and ruin your credit.
Since this is such a big problem and there is such a huge demand from clients needing help with resolving these issues, I'm going to share Corey’s strategies with you and walk you through step by step how to help your clients clear the issues from their credit reports once and for all.
And guess what? It’s actually really simple!
Now before I share this secret, I need to make sure you understand, this process should only be used in the case of actual identity theft.
There are people in the industry that attempt to “sweep” everything off their client’s credit reports using this method and I need to warn you that if you are using this process for accounts that do in fact belong to your client, it’s illegal!
Not only is it illegal, it’s unethical and can land you and your clients in big trouble, or possibly in jail because it involves filing a falsified police report.
Ok, so as long as I am crystal clear about my warning - I’m going to tell you how to resolve identity theft in just 5 simple steps…
Step 1 - Review your client’s credit reports with all 3 bureaus and ask your client which accounts are legitimate and which ones are ID theft.
Step 2 - Once you have confirmed it’s truly ID theft and you know exactly what accounts are fraudulent, the next thing you want to do is to put a bandaid to stop the bleeding. You need to instruct your client to call the 3 bureaus and request two seperate things:
Step 3 - Instruct your client to:
Step 4 - Time to make it official. Your client needs to file a police report with their local police department. Usually they will need to visit a local police station to do this. It’s extremely important to list all the accounts in the report when they are done, they need to get a physical copy of the police report. It’s gonna be used in the final step.
Step 5 - The last step is to dispute the items with the bureaus and creditors in writing. You will need to draft a letter PLUS fill out an Identity Theft Affidavit, notarize it and send BOTH documents to each of the bureaus AND the creditors that were impacted along with a copy of the police report.
And guess what?
You can find the dispute letter you need AND the Identity Theft affidavit in Credit Repair Cloud’s library. Search for “Victim of Identity Theft (With Affidavit)” or you can use our letter finder to guide you to it.
If you don’t have a Credit Repair Cloud account yet, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial at creditrepaircloud.com.
Pro Tip: You can fill this out for your client, but your client must notarize it. This is an important step so your clients' creditors take your client seriously. Without notarization they will likely reject it.
The affidavit formally documents the case and the creditors that were impacted are required under federal law to remove the negative items from your clients credit report temporarily until the investigation has been completed.
Again, you need to make sure it’s completely filled out, it’s signed and notarized and a copy of that police report is attached.
Corey also recommends, for this, you send everything by certified mail with a return receipt requested to create a paper trail.
At this point, you have covered all your bases.
What usually happens now is a waiting game. Your client will start to receive notifications by mail from each creditor within a few weeks letting them know the outcome of each investigation.
Usually the creditors side with the victim, they delete the account from their credit report and that’s the end of the story.
In some cases, the bureaus or the creditors may drag their feet or ignore you.
If this happens you may need to follow up with the bureau or creditor several times to get the desired outcome.
Also, it’s common for some of the decisions to be reversed. If an old account pops up on your clients report, you may need to repeat the process.
That’s the secret to ID Theft Resolution!
You can now add this to your list of services and start helping clients that have been a victim of ID theft.
Oh! And by the way, Corey’s client I told you about earlier, with the 7 mortgages and bankruptcy filed in her name, had her identity and credit completely restored in 90 days.
She was back to 820 FICO score and was so thrilled to put the mess behind her, she told all of her friends and family about Corey and he got a ton of referrals out of it.
And now you can do the same for your clients as you add this new niche service and continue changing lives!
And if you want to use our proven and effective methods we teach in our Basic Disputing Course for verification, disputing accounts, sending warnings, being persistent with reinvestigations, doing interventions, filing complaints, demanding validation and a ton of other real strategies that actually get you results...
I’m offering that certification course for FREE inside our Credit Hero Challenge, where we walk you by the hand as you launch your very own credit repair business in just a couple of weeks AND for less than it costs to bring your family to McDonald’s for dinner.
To join the challenge and get the Basic Disputing certification course for free, go to creditherochallenge.com.