We encourage you to protect yourself against the potential misuse of your personal information by contacting one of the three major credit reporting agencies, each of which has an automated phone fraud alert process. The fraud alert tells creditors to contact you before opening any new accounts or making any changes to your existing accounts. More information on fraud alerts and protecting your identity can be found at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
If you place a fraud alert, the agency you contact will notify the other two agencies. Fraud alerts will then be placed automatically on your accounts at those two agencies as well, and all three agencies will separately mail credit reports to you at no cost. Please contact one of these agencies to place a fraud alert under your name:
| Equifax Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 800-525-6285 Fraud Division P.O. Box 740250 Atlanta, GA 30374 800-685-1111 / 888-766-0008 http:www.equifax.com |
| Experian Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 888-397-3742 Credit Fraud Center P.O. Box 1017 Allen, TX 75013 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742) http://www.experian.com/fraud |
| TransUnion Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 800-680-7289 Fraud Victim Assistance Department P.O. Box 6790 Fullerton, CA 92634 Phone: 800-916-8800 / 800-680-7289 http://www.transunion.com |
Review your credit reports for any suspicious activity. If you see any accounts you did not open or incorrect personal information, call the credit bureau(s) or your local law enforcement agency (e.g., city police department) to file a report of identity theft.
Please also be aware that Barnard College will not initiate any contact with you to confirm any information, such as your address or Social Security number. If you receive a contact with such a request, it will not be from the College, and you are advised not to respond.
If you have other questions or concerns, please call the Help Desk at (212) 854-7172.
These programs will find and destroy spyware and trojans. Install these software programs to minimize risk for your personal computer. Also remember to put a password on your computer administrative account. Follow the Mandatory Computer Set-up for more security on the internet.
| Commercial programs provided by the College to Barnard students, faculty and staff | Use these free programs to eliminate spyware from your computer. |
| Norton AntiVirus | Ad-aware SE Personal 1.06 |
| SpyBot 1.4 |
Federal Trade Commission
https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/widtpubl$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU03
The Department of Justice
http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
By law, you are entitled to request one free credit report every 12 months from each of the 3 nationwide consumer credit reporting companies.
A credit freeze prohibits any access to your consumer credit report or credit score and, without this information, a business will not issue new credit to anyone. If you, yourself, want to get new credit you must use an assigned PIN number to allow access to your credit file. Legislation allowing consumers to place a credit freeze is in effect or pending in 23 states. In several of these states, there is a fee for this service.
See http://www.consumersunion.org/campaigns//learn_more/003484indiv.html for state-by-state information.
Yes, you should still contact one of the credit reporting agencies. A fraud alert is still important because it will make it more difficult for someone to open a new account under your name.
All three reporting agencies require your social security number in order to put a fraud alert on your credit report.