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JBSA News
NEWS | March 3, 2008

‘Active duty’ alerts help protect members from identity theft

By 12th Flying Training Wing Legal Office Base Legal

The last thing you want to worry about while you're deployed is someone assuming your identity to commit financial fraud. 

Now, you don't have to. 

Amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act allow you to place an "active duty alert" in your credit report. According to the Federal Trade Commission, one of the agencies that enforces the FCRA, the alert requires creditors to verify your identity before granting credit in your name. 

Your credit report contains information on where you live, how you pay your bills, and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. 

Nationwide consumer reporting companies sell the information in your report to creditors, insurers, employers and other businesses that use it to evaluate applications for credit and a host of other activities, including insurance, employment or renting a home. 

Your credit report can be a tool to help you guard against and discover identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information like your name, Social Security number or credit card number to commit fraud. 

Identity thieves may use your information to open a new credit card account in your name. Then, when they don't pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report. 

Inaccurate or fraudulent information could affect your ability to get credit, insurance or housing, now or in the future. People whose identities have been stolen can spend months or years cleaning up the mess thieves have made of their names and credit records. 

If you are a member of the military and away from your usual duty station, you may place an "active duty alert" on your credit report to help minimize the risk of identity theft while you are deployed. 

When a business sees the alert on your credit report, it must verify your identity before issuing you credit. The business may try to contact you directly, but if you're deployed, that may be impossible. As a result, the law allows you to use a personal representative to place or remove an alert. 

Active duty alerts on your report are effective for one year, unless you request the alert be removed sooner. If your deployment lasts longer, you may place another alert on your report. 

To place an "active duty" alert, or to have it removed, call the toll-free fraud number of one of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies: Equifax, Experian or Trans Union. The company will require you to provide appropriate proof of your identity, which may include your Social Security number, your name, address and other personal information.

Equifax:
1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com 

Experian:
1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com 

TransUnion:
1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com 

Contact only one of the three companies to place an alert. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report as well. If your contact information changes before your alert expires, remember to update it. 

When you place an active duty alert, your name will be removed from the nationwide consumer reporting companies' marketing lists for two years, unless you ask that your name be placed on the lists before then. 

To learn more about identity theft and your credit rights under the FCRA and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, visit ftc.gov/credit.