I just started calling on the 2 newest cards and for whatever reason they transferred me over to Citi ID Fraud Dept. (some investigative arm of Citi) and most of the Fraud happened on cards they issue I guess. One other place asked if I would be willing to talk to them (might have been on the weekend) but otherwise no word from them though I rpeorted 4 fradulent accounts like 7 days ago.

I was a little annoyed because they wanted to take 1/2 hour of time to look at my credit reports and issued fraud alerts. Um, done done done. However, she sweet talked me into it - TransUnion was the report they would check - the one I have been unable to access and am waiting for it to come in 7-10 days by mail (ridiculous).

So she pulls it up and thank goodness NOTHING new on there. Anything else issued was issued without a credit check. Hopefully nothing else.

She then called TrnasUnion and they placed the 7-year fraud alert on my account. Issued me a pin #, blahblahblah. Saves me time and ceritified letters. While on the phone TransUnion removed the false inquiries (sweet!). They will forward data for the other 2 bureaus to do the same. Nothing else is showing up on my report anyway but not the credit bureaus are notified what all the fraud was and to keep it off my report (saving me more time and postage, etc.).

Then she said she would gather all the data from all the theft related to Citi (most of it) and FedEx me the one form to notarize. (Just making it easier on me). They even took care of 1 card that I hadn't called yet (since it was under Citi). I was going to call them next.

I am annoyed because if I talked to them 1st it would have saved me SO MUCH time and effort. But glad they are simplifying things. Sounds like way less forms to fill out. & this whole FedEx thing is nice. I thought waiting 7-10 days was just ridiculous really. No sense of urgency.

I really don't have a sense of what else they will be doing, but I am pleased with them today.

I have decided maybe I will forego the credit freeze and just see how things go. If anything slips through I will do the freeze. But a lot of effort and expense, so hopefully the fraud alert will take care of it. Time will tell. *sigh*

I guess if nothing else I feel better today because I think most of it is taken care of. It still scares the crap out of me though that people can be applying for cell phones, utiltiies, and jobs in my name and my never know... Until the collection agencies start to call. But we're getting somewhere I guess. I don't think any of this will affect my credit score - phew.

ETA: With 7 cards now - to keep everything straight is insane. I just had a pile of papers. Today I started a 3-ring binder with labels for local police, FTC, each of the 3 credit Bureaus, and each fraudulent account. I think this will go a long ways to keeping everything organized and straight. Then it will be easy to pull any copies I need of anything... Sometimes being organized just takes a simple solution.