Opt Out! Stolen Pre-approved Credit Card Offers Aid Identity Thieves

2/8/2007, 9:00 pm

Unless you’ve taken steps to avoid receiving them, chances are good that your mailbox is inundated with pre-approved credit card offers. One way thieves can steal your identity is to use these pre-approved credit card offers to open accounts in your name. Experts report this is one of the hardest types of identity theft to detect.

Where do they get your pre-approved credit card offers? From the credit card companies!

Thieves can easily obtain the pre-approved card offers from your trash and from your mail box.

The obvious way to prevent the theft of your identity from pre-approved card offers stolen from your trash is to shred the offers before you throw them away. Even though you didn’t ask for the pre-approved offer and don’t want it after you receive, you should never simply toss it in the trash. Shred the pre-approved credit card offer first.

A more proactive approach to handling these credit card junk mails is to opt out of receiving them. Credit card companies receive your personal information from the credit bureaus!

It’s important to stop the pre-approved offers at their source, the credit bureaus that release your information to credit grantors. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) because Federal law in 1970. It was amended in 1996 and one of those amendments requires the credit bureaus to provide consumers with an opportunity to opt-out if they don’t want their names and addresses sold for marketing purposes.

The toll-free Opt Out number is 888-5OPTOUT (888-567-8688) and was setup just for this purposes.

When you call the Opt Out number you’ll be given three choices: opt out for a period of 5 years, add your information back to the marketing lists, or permanently opt out. If you choose to permanently opt out you must return a form that will be mailed to you.

You can also opt out online by going to: www.optoutprescreen.com.

When you call to opt out, you will interact with a computer. First, you will be asked to verify information. You will confirm your phone number, address, last name, first name, social security number and date of birth.

A form will be mailed to you within 5 business days if you choose to permanently opt out. If you do not return the form, you will be opted out for only five years.

Also, although your information will be removed from the lists of the four credit reporting bureaus, you may continue to receive offers for several months if your information has already been sold to credit grantors for firm offers.

Finally, before the call ends, you will be offered the chance to verify opt out information for a spouse or child.

While shredding pre-approved credit card offers before trashing them is someone you can do, calling 888-567-8688 and opting out is the sure way to stop receiving them.

Finally, it seems ironic that Federal law requires citizens to opt out of a marketing process that results in stolen identities. It’s easy to imagine that lobbyists for enough financial companies making money with the pre-approved offer process influenced the writing of the law to favor these companies instead of the citizens who must learn about opting out, perform the opt out process, and shred these unrequested offers to avoid the risk of becoming identity theft victims.

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