Because stealing the car might not be enough...

December 4, 2008 12:09 PM

In a moment of astounding stupidity, I left a piece of paperwork in my car that has my driver's license number and SSN on it. I went out this morning to find that the car had been stolen. What do I do now to (potentially) protect myself against identity theft?

So someone stole my 12-year-old Honda last night. The police and insurance company have been notified, but after tearing the house apart, I've come to the conclusion that I left some critical paperwork in the car. It's buried in a folder of other stuff, so I suppose that there could be a chance that the jerks who stole the car might not see it, but really, I'm not counting on that.

My driver's license number and SSN are now in the hands of unscrupulous strangers. Is there anything I can do to make sure that no one steals my identity?

posted by corey flood to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

I'd put fraud flags on your bank accounts. Beyond that, I'm not sure there's a lot else to be done. Make sure you keep an eye on your credit report. Generally though, I've found that petty thieves =/= identity thieves. I've been burgled a number of times, and while they've taken shiny electronic things, they've never taken credit cards or checkbooks.
posted by craven_morhead at 12:22 PM on December 4, 2008

Credit freeze
posted by desjardins at 12:35 PM on December 4, 2008

Credit freeze PDF specific to California
posted by desjardins at 12:37 PM on December 4, 2008

The most important part of desjardins link:

Anyone can ask the three major credit reporting agencies to place a fraud alert on their credit reports. Fraud alerts are supposed to alert you when someone applies for credit in your name, and they signal creditors to contact you for permission to issue credit in your name.

You should probably do this asap.
posted by gnutron at 12:37 PM on December 4, 2008

I would also go to the DMV and get them to cancel the current license and issue a new one to you.
posted by deezil at 2:01 PM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

AND make sure that new driver's license has a new number if at all possible - that's the only thing (and the SSN) that they have? It's probably overkill for the credit freezes, but it's peace of mind - best of luck at getting your car back - those Hondas know how to save gas :)
posted by chrisinseoul at 8:53 AM on December 5, 2008

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I was incredibly fortunate to recover my car the same night with no damage and nothing missing except the bracket for the satellite radio. (The thieves conveniently left it four blocks from my house.) Since the folder with the paperwork was tossed into the back seat, I'm pretty sure that they didn't even realize what was in there, but I will definitely take everyone's advice into account.

Thanks again for your help.
posted by corey flood at 12:02 AM on December 6, 2008