Vets Check This Out:

Am I done attacking the Arizona Republic and their ass hole cartoonist? Maybe not. But for right now, I’m going to shift gears. I’ve taken a step in protecting myself that all veteran and active service members should take. I’ve placed a fraud alert on my credit report.

It’s a really easy thing to do. It’s a matter of making a phone call to one of the three credit agencies, and showing that you are who you say you are. Then the agency will place a fraud alert on your credit report, and contact the other two agencies to have them do the same. So one phone call covers you for all three agencies.

The reason that I am recommending this is, of course, because the VA allowed some moron to walk off with personal info on thousands of veterans. If you haven’t heard the story yet, it may be time to crawl out from under that rock.

Anyway, the big thing here is that the fraud alert makes it more difficult to get credit under your personal info. Basically, you have to give extra proof of your identity when applying for credit. This is a nuisance for you, but it makes it much harder to illegitimately apply for credit under your name. This is a good thing, because it is likely that someone will soon by trying to rob veterans of their good credit soon.

Here’s the info you need to put a fraud alert on your credit report:

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

If you want more info on what fraud alerts do for you go here:

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/con_steps.htm#fraud

Brandon