If my social security number has already been compromised – how do I stay safe?

Ralph Estep
00:00:00

Have you ever woken up to a notification that your Social Security number was found on the dark web? That sickening feeling in your stomach wondering if someone is out there right now, at this very moment, destroying your financial life.

Well, today I'm going to walk you through exactly what to do if your Social Security number has been compromised and share my own personal experience dealing with identity theft that almost cost me thousands of dollars. Stay with me today as I reveal the crucial steps you need to take right now to protect yourself.

Podcast Announcer
00:00:35

In a world where crushing debt keeps you trapped, where living paycheck to paycheck has become your new normal, and where the dream of retirement seems impossibly out of reach, there's hope. Join financial evangelist Ralph Estep Jr. A man who's walked through the fire of financial failure and emerged stronger on the other side.

Welcome to Ask Ralph, the show where real world experience meet biblical truth to break the bondage of financial despair. Get ready to take control of your money, break free from the financial stress, and align your resources with God's purpose for your life.

This is Ask Ralph with Ralph Estep Jr.

Ralph Estep
00:01:11

Well, thank you for joining me today. I am passionate about helping you achieve financial success while growing in your Christian faith.

And today I got a doozy for you. We're going to talk about situations where you find out that your Social Security number is on the dark web. And here's a little spoiler alert.

It actually happened to me. Now, if you missed yesterday's show, I had a Great show about 12 sources of non taxable income.

And understanding those things could potentially save you thousands of dollars in taxes every single year. So if you missed that, I'm going to encourage you to go check it out.

And as always, our whole catalog of shows over 550 now are@askrauth.com now let me share an urgent message I received from Calista. I got this just a day or two ago and it's what she wrote.

She said, Ralph, I just received an alert that my Social Security number was found on the dark web. I'm terrified. I don't know what to do. I have three young children and we're absolutely living paycheck to paycheck.

I can't afford to have someone steal my identity or drain our accounts. Please help me understand what steps I need to take to protect myself and my family.

Calista, thank you so much for your urgent question and I understand the urgency in your voice having been a victim of this very same thing. This is scary. And this dark web, this is no joke. This is a real problem. But here's the thing I'm going to tell you. First of all, Calista, stay calm.

Let's work the issue because I've got some steps you should take right at rate right at this moment. Now, maybe you're facing a financial challenge just like Calista. Remember, you can submit your questions at justaskralph.com. That's what the show's all about, helping you overcome your financial struggles. And don't forget to join me every Tuesday night when I go live at 7pm Eastern Time for our show where we tackle your questions in real time.

Head over to askralphpodcast.com/live. That's right, just go to that website, askralphpodcast.com/live.

You know, Calista, I always like to start this show with some scripture to help ground us. And I found this one in Proverbs chapter 22, verse 3.

And if you listen to the show, I use this quite a bit because I really think it ties directly into that mastering our finances from that Christian perspective. And this is what the the book of Proverbs 22:3 tells us. The prudence see danger and hides himself. But the simple go on and suffer for it.

And if you think about it, Calista, this verse perfectly captures why we need to take immediate action.

When you saw that email that your information was on the Dark web, now is the time to take action and be proactive because your identity is very much at risk. So, Calista, I am so happy you reached out. So let's get to those answers.

Let me tell you a story about my deal with this Dark web and Social Security nonsense. I'll never forget it. I had just started. My practice was back in 2005. I was sitting at my desk.

Now, we had started our practice on a shoestring budget. I mean, a shoestring budget. We actually rented space above a car dealership right here in Townsend, Delaware. There was just myself and my wife.

And I'm sitting at my desk before my wife even got in in the morning, and I'm checking emails and I come across this email from a credit card company that I'd worked with, I remember correctly as one of the banks that I had a credit card with. And it told me it says, your information is on the dark web.

And to be honest with you, when I first saw that, I'm like, I'm not even sure what the dark web is. Again, this was back in 2005. But then I started to do some research and I found out what the dark web was. And this was a highly emotional thing.

Like, we had literally just opened up our new practice, and I immediately went to this fear. I've had this fear of financial devastation. Here I am with a wife, two young kids, and I'm thinking, oh, that's great.

I work so hard because I'd gone through a tough time financially. I've been through that fire, and I had gone through a tough time financially, and I worked so hard to rebuild my credit.

We just started our own practice, and I. I immediately thought, I'm going to be ruined. I thought all hope was lost. Like I said, I had worked so hard to repair my credit.

I had made mistakes in the past. Well, I didn't just sit there and wallow in it. I started to take action, and I started to dig a little deeper.

And when I started to dig a little deeper, I looked at my credit report, and I found that there was a bunch of credit inquiries from multiple credit card companies.

Looking back at it now, a day or two later, I actually got a letter from the IRS because someone had been trying to file a tax return using my information. Wasn't a day or two later from that, I found out that someone had opened up a cell phone account in my name and actually ordered satellite tv.

Now, that was an interesting situation because I actually found out where the person lived, and I was getting ready to drive to Philadelphia, not far from where my office is here in Delaware, and I'm going to drive and go take back that satellite TV account. But, of course, the police talked me out of that.

But if you think about it, put yourself in my shoes or put yourself in Calista's shoes, there's that initial panic. You're thinking, all hope is lost. What in the world. What am I going to do? I'm going to lose everything I've worked so hard for.

Because you see it in that time and you feel the cascading financial impacts of that. You think about, your credit's going to be wrecked.

They're going to drain your bank accounts, they're going to open up all kinds of stuff in your name. It was just absolutely terrifying. And I learned some things through that process that I want to share some crucial steps with you today, Calista.

First thing you've got to absolutely do is report the identity theft. Now, what I did in my case is I immediately contacted the Federal Trade Commission.

They have a website, and I'll put a link to it in the show notes called identity theft.gov. and to be honest with you, when I was getting to their website, I Felt like I was racing against time because I knew every minute mattered.

I could picture somebody out there with my Social Security number just going website to website, opening up bank accounts. The coolest thing about this website, this FTC website, they actually helped me create a personalized recovery plan.

And like I talk about on the show when I help clients develop financial recovery plans or financial stewardship plans, the FTC did this and they gave me a roadmap to get back to a level of feeling peace and having security. So that was the first thing I did. I reported the identity theft. Second thing I did. And you absolutely want to do this right away.

You want to file a police report? I remember walking into the local police station here. It's a Delaware State Police, it was the Odessa Barracks.

And I had this stack of documents and it kind of felt surreal, like I'd never really been to the police station before.

But I had called the non emergency line and they said to me, they said, look, what you need to do, best thing to do is go to the police station and ask them to take a report. So I brought my documentation in and the police were very helpful.

And what I learned later on is that police report became invaluable when I was dealing with creditors lately because I could use that police report to send them a copy of that police report to prove that this is sort of the first step in trying to restore that sense of peace. And it was a thing that the creditors would use to verify that my Social Security number actually had been compromised.

I used it with that company where the person had opened up a cell phone in my name. I used it with that company where they opened up that satellite TV account. And trust me, you might want to say, ah, Ralph, why bother?

The police aren't going to do anything about it. Don't skip this step. This is mighty important. So that's number two. File that police report.

Number three, I talked about this on the show a couple weeks ago. Immediately place a fraud alert or credit freeze. And I told you on that show a few weeks ago, I encourage you to go back and check it out.

It's probably a good idea to keep your credit frozen until you need it anyway. But what I did in my case is I contacted Equifax. I did that first.

And they assured me, they said, ralph, listen, don't worry, we're going to notify the other credit bureaus. And here's what I learned in that process, and that is that a credit freeze is even better than a fraud alert.

So when I put that freeze on what that basically meant is if anybody went out to apply for credit with my name, my Social Security number, my date of birth, my address, the credit reports had a big stop sign there. I liken it to putting a deadbolt on your credit file. And I put a link to that in his show notes.

But I did a great show a couple of weeks ago about doing a credit freeze even if you aren't the victim of identity theft or having your information on the dark web. So that's number three. Place a fraud alert or credit freeze. Next thing you want to do is notify the IRS. That's number four here on my list.

Here's the phone number you want to call and I'll put this in the show notes. Also call 1-800-908-4490.

They have a whole division at the IRS that works with identity theft and are going to have you fill out a form called form number 14039. Let me tell you, that step proved crucial just days later, like I said when I got that letter from the IRS that said, hey, guess what?

Somebody's using your Social Security number and they're trying to get a refund based on some bogus documents under your name and Social Security number. So let me go with those four things again. Number one thing, report the identity theft. Go to that Federal Trade Commission.

Yeah, Ralph, it's a government website. Just do it. They have a wealth of information there to help you. Second thing, don't overlook this. File that police report.

Now if you're in a jurisdiction where they say to you, well, you know, I don't know what to tell you. That's, that sounds like a problem. Get a police report filed, even if you have to do it over the phone over their website, whatever that is.

Don't call the emergency 911 number. That's not the place to do this. It's not that kind of emergency.

But go to the police station or call their non emergency number and get that report file. Number three, put that fraud alert on and maybe you've already got that credit free so you, maybe you can prevent it from the start.

And number four, notify the IRS. Those are all very important steps. And in the end, it became what I'm going to call my ongoing protection strategy.

So once I went through this, I said, ralph, it's time to get serious about this. And I talk about these things on this show. I started doing a monthly credit report monitoring. I look at my credit report, see what's going on.

I started using Norton360 and it gave me immediate alerts anytime anybody applies for credit in my name. They also have a dark web feature. I'm not trying to promote them. That's just who I use personally. I don't have a financial connection to them.

Another thing I did, I went out and added financial account alerts to all of my accounts. And anytime a dollar is spent now, it's gotten a little burdensome lately, so I might start to back it down a little bit.

But basically I have a transactional alert for anything over a dollar. It sends me an email and says, hey, this was just spent.

Another thing I did, I started using unique passwords for each and every account because I honestly don't know to this day how my Social Security number ended on the dark web. I have no idea. It could have been, to be honest with you, it could have been a data breach anywhere.

And at the same time, keep records of when you're going through this process.

Keep those detailed record keeping, keep it in order because you're going to get questions like, I can never forget, I think cellular account that was opened in our name was done through AT&T or something. And I remember calling them because they kept sending me bills. They kept sending me what we call dunning notices.

You know, those, you better pay this or we're going to file a garnishment against you.

And I said, listen up, guys, I've called you a dozen times and here's the dates I spoke to these people, here's the people I spoke to, here was their phone number. And at some point I finally got a supervisor and he said to me, rob, they said, we are sorry, this shouldn't have been like this.

And that's why I'm encouraging you to enroll in those Identity Theft Protection Services and also go out to the IRS and get an E file PIN number. And I'm going to do a show about that in the next couple weeks as we get more closer to actually tax filing season.

But you can go out there to the IRS website and I'll put a link in the show notes and actually get a PIN number so that no one can file a tax return on your behalf without this PIN number. So you might be asking, Ralph, what did you learn? What was your key takeaway from this? My key takeaway from this is pretty simple.

And that is preventive action and quick response. Prevented financial losses in my case because I was proactive in that.

Because that credit card sent me an alert that my information was on the dark web and I started to do the things I probably should have been doing from the start. But I was so overwhelmed with everything, with the new office. I had two young boys at home. As a matter of fact, it was a tough time emotionally. My wife was going through breast cancer treatment. And I'm not blaming any of those things.

And that's why you've got to have that proactive plan in place to do those things. I talked about monitoring your credit, have those identity theft protection services.

But that preventive action prevented financial losses, and it provided valuable security lessons for me. And in the end, the criminal who stole my Social Security number never succeeded in their attempts.

I didn't have to pay any of those things because I caught it so early. But like I said, it taught me an invaluable lesson about financial security. And I'm actually looking back at it now.

A lot of people say, ralph, you've lost your mind. I'm grateful about that because it was when I was first starting my own practice, and I've learned so many lessons by that.

Another thing it's done is it allowed me to help others just like you, Calista. I want to help you protect yourselves before it's too late.

So if you've discovered that your Social Security number may have been exposed or you simply want a prevention plan, now listen, I'm going to say this, too.

Be very careful in those emails you get, because there are actually scammers out there now sending emails telling you your information is on the dark web so that you click on that to click bait, and then they go steal your information because you put it in. So be very careful. But I want to help you. So I'm going to share some specific steps you should take in just a few moments.

But first, let me ask you to do me a favor today. Let me ask you this bold question. Has this Ask Ralph show transform your money mindset?

If it has, I want to ask you to share the show with somebody else. It just takes 30 seconds. I call it sharing with a purpose, and you can do a few things.

For me, it might be simple as texting the website askralph.com to friends seeking financial guides. Maybe you had lunch with somebody or you were out with a friend, a boyfriend, girlfriend, whatever that was.

You were talking about financial stuff, and you say, hey, you know what? I just thought about it. Let me send that. That person.

Let me send Sally or Joe a text and just say, hey, you know, this guy ralph@askralph.com has great financial ideas, all balanced with faith. Maybe you Share this show with your faith community.

There's a lot of churches that have group chats and you can say, hey, listen, I found this guy that, that speaks our language literally from a Christian perspective, but also brings in biblical principles, but helps us on our finances. Maybe you can post your success story on one of your social channels.

You say something like this, I found financial clarity through faith@askralph.com maybe tell your family you could say something like this helped me. Like today Calista. You could say this helped me secure my Social Security number. Maybe you're looking to expand your impact.

You know, discuss the show with your financial advisor or your pastor. Encourage your pastor to tell other people in the congregation about it. Maybe you can bring it up at your next Bible study.

Share your favorite episodes with loved ones. That's one of the things that I do in my own practice.

If a client calls with a question or sends me an email, I go look in the catalog of our shows and say, hey, you know, I did a show on this and here's why it matters. Here's why I'm asking you to do this, because one share could be someone's first step towards financial freedom and stronger faith.

So if you're ready to make a difference, I'm going to encourage you to share askralph.com I thank you so much for that. Well, now I'm going to get back to the question at hand, Calista, and what are those immediate steps you need to take? So here's my checklist.

Number one, as I talked about earlier, report the identity theft.

Contact the Federal Trade commission immediately at identitytheft.gov and I'll put that in the show notes or you can call them, that's 1, 8, 7, 7, ID theft. And they'll help you create that personalized recovery plan just for you. Number two, and don't forget about this. File a police report.

Once you do that identity theft report on the FTC, take that report, your government issued id, your driver's license, proof of address, take it all to your local police department and get that file or get that information filed with them. They'll give you a ticket number or they'll give you a report number, and that makes it official.

And you're going to need that when you're dealing with creditors, if somebody opens stuff in your name, you can send a copy of that police report directly to them and it gives you some credibility. So that's number two. File that police report.

Number three, and I've talked about this a few times already, Place that fraud alert or credit freeze on your account. Contact any one of the three major credit bureaus. I actually encourage you to have accounts with all three.

Go on to Equifax, go on to Experian, go on a TransUnion. And when you place that alert with them, then they're required to notify others.

So it's like this mesh of security that starts and just fans out from there. But do consider putting that credit freeze on. So that's number three, Place that fraud alert or credit freeze.

Number four, notify the IRS just like I did. Call them. Go fill out that identity theft affidavit if you've already had your identity theft.

And this prevents criminals from filing false tax returns in your name. So that's number four. Notify the IRS again, their number, 800-908-4490. And again, I'll put that in the show notes.

And number five, request that IP PIN number with the IRS. Go get that identity, the protection PIN number. I see many more clients having those.

Although I'll tell you, it's only usually the clients that have already gone through identity theft because it is a bit of a hassle. You got to go get a number every year. You got to give that to your tax person.

But it really does provide a layer of protection because no one can file a tax return with your information without that PIN number. So it adds that extra security when filing taxes.

And last but not least, let me give you an ongoing protection plan, because as I said a little while ago, it's all about being proactive. So what do you do? Here's what you do, Calista. Monitor your credit report regularly through annualcreditreport.com is the best place to do it.

Or you can sign up for one of those services like I have. Review all your bank statements and your financial documents monthly. Don't just pretend like they're not out there. Look over them.

I don't know how many people don't read their bank statements. They don't read their credit card statements. They might glance at it and see how much is in their account.

Or they might look and say, oh, how much did I spend on my credit card this month? Look at every single transaction.

Another thing I'm going to encourage you to do, highly encourage you to do, is go to the Social Security website and create a My Social Security account to monitor your Social Security earnings. It's a great time to do this. They'll also give you some great ideas for protecting your identity.

And then you might want to Consider those identity theft protection services like there's Norton's or there's a bunch of different one out there that you can use that can give you alerts that can let you know when your information is found on the dark web. Another thing, and this is kind of a non digital thing, is keep your Social Security number in a secure location.

I did a show about this as well a few weeks ago. You don't have to share your Social Security number with everybody. A lot of people think that when they ask you for it, you have to give it to them.

Stop doing that. If they don't have a need for your Social Security number, don't give it to them.

It just annoys me when I go into a doctor's office or I go for some medical test and they're like, well let me have your Social Security number. And they want me to write it on a piece of paper. And when you're done, set the clipboard on the step, stand up here and everybody can look at it.

Stop doing that. If they need your information, tell them you want it in a secure environment.

And like I said, be extremely cautious about sharing your Social Security number. And here's my key takeaway. Remember this, just like I learned, quick action is crucial when your Social Security number is compromised.

Don't wait to implement these protective measures now. Join me tomorrow when we'll discuss.

Now this is going to be a real in the weeds topic, but I get the feeling we're getting ready to get into another inflation time and there's a security out there called a Treasury inflation protected security called tips. And I had a listener question and I honestly didn't know what they were.

I'd heard about them before, but I'm going to talk tomorrow on this show of why they might be a smart addition to your investment portfolio. So as I close today, remember this. My passion is to help you achieve financial success.

I want to see you live out your dreams and I want to see you grow in your faith. And I know together we can master your finances from a Christian perspective.

So as I always end this show, stay financially savvy out there and God bless you.

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00:22:33

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